Jennifer Aniston has hit the headlines after making comments about social media Influencers being “famous for basically doing nothing.” Aniston appeared with actor and Marvel alum Sebastian Stan in a new episode of Variety’s Actors on Actors series. Having had a long career in the TV and movies, Aniston believes that way people come to fame is something that has been completely reshaped by the arrival of the internet and social media, and she believes that the rise in social media stars is “diluting” her job as an actress.
Aniston commented on the way “fame” has become something that happens overnight for people thanks to the way social media “celebrities” are created via sites like TikTok. While discussing the Pamela Anderson sex tape that Stan’s latest series Pam & Tommy centers around, Aniston shared her thoughts on the way fame now comes to people from nowhere. She said:
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“It was right at the time when the internet really shaped a new culture about people becoming famous. This thing of people becoming famous for basically doing nothing but yet having these incredible careers. And then women’s reputation … I mean — Paris Hilton, Monica Lewinsky, all those. I feel so lucky that we got a little taste of the industry before it became what it is today. More streaming services, you’re famous from TikTok, you’re famous from YouTube, you’re famous from Instagram. It’s almost, like, it’s diluting the actor’s job.”
Following the release of the Variety video, Aniston’s comments were picked up on by none other than people on social media, and it didn’t take long for a divide line in opinions to appear. While some argued that social media has just opened up new opportunities for people to be “discovered” and make it into the industry, others supported Aniston’s comments and stated that there is a definite line between TikTok star and movie star.
Over the last few years, TikTok has seen the rise in people like Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae, who rose to fame for mostly performing 15 second hand-orientated dance routines on the video sharing app. Since then, D’Amelio and her family have landed podcast deals, animated show voice-overs and their own Hulu series The D’Amelio Show, and Charli is now set to star in supernatural thriller Home School. Similarly, Addison Rae landed herself a multi-movie deal with Netflix that saw her make her acting debut in He’s All That, which was panned by critics who called the star’s debut lifeless, charmless and lacking any chemistry with her co-stars.
As Aniston noted, the rise of media stars began back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when TV reality shows about The Osbournes and The Kardashians became bigger hits than big budget fantasy and drama productions. Since then, with billions of users being exposed to social media every day, it has become an instant pool of fame for many who in some cases may not appear to do much, but have managed to capture the attention of the right people at the right time.
