Few entertainers talk candidly about the way fame and fortune can require, at times, uncomfortable compromises.
Actually, scratch that. We get tell-all memoirs all the time from actors, actresses and musicians whose fame crested 10 or 20 or 40 years ago—tomes that chronicle rampant debauchery behind the scenes or the things they felt forced to do to maintain their fame.
No, what I’m talking about is an entertainer of the moment daring to tell the truth in the moment.
Last week, Glee actress Dianna Agron did exactly that, discussing her participation in a controversial photo shoot for the GQ magazine’s November issue.
Glee, as you probably know, is one of the hottest shows on network television. Fox’s campy, racy dramedy chronicles the song-and-dance exploits of a band of talented misfits at William McKinley High School.
The photo shoot featured two women from the show, Dianna Agron and Lea Michele, as well as actor Cory Monteith. Cory got to keep his clothes on, while Dianna and Lea were featured posing provocatively in various states of semi-undress.
The photo shoot came under fire from the Parents Television Council, which took the magazine to task for eroticizing three Glee characters who, on the show, are all teenagers. “It is disturbing that GQ, which is explicitly written for adult men, is sexualizing the actresses who play high school-aged characters on Glee in this way. It borders on pedophilia,” said PTC president Tim Winter.
GQ editor in chief Jim Nelson defended the shoot on the basis of the actors’ ages. “As often happens in Hollywood, these ‘kids’ are in their twenties,” he said. “Cory Monteith is almost 30! I think they’re old enough to do what they want.”
All of that is pretty predictable stuff. But here’s where things deviate from the standard script. Writing in her personal blog, “Dianna Agron, But You Can Call Me Charlie,” Agron apologized (albeit with several disclaimers) to those who might have been offended, and hinted that the photo shoot wasn’t something she was eager to do:
In the land of Madonna, Britney, Miley, Gossip Girl, other public figures and shows that have pushed the envelope and challenged the levels of comfort in their viewers and fans…we are not the first. Now, in perpetuating the type of images that evoke these kind of emotions, I am sorry. If you are hurt or these photos make you uncomfortable, it was never our intention. And if your eight-year-old has a copy of our GQ cover in hand, again I am sorry. But I would have to ask, how on earth did it get there?
Agron went on to say,
Nobody is perfect, and these photos do not represent who I am. … For GQ, they asked us to play very heightened versions of our school characters. A 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' version. At the time, it wasn't my favorite idea, but I did not walk away. I must say, I am trying to live my life with a sharpie marker approach. You can't erase the strokes you've made, but each step is much bolder and more deliberate. I'm moving forward from this one, and after today, putting it to rest. I am only myself, I can only be me. These aren't photos I am going to frame and put on my desk, but hey, nor are any of the photos I take for magazines. Those are all characters we've played for this crazy job, one that I love and am so fortunate to have, each and every day.
Did you catch what she’s saying here? Reading between the lines, it seems the 24-year-old actress was pretty uncomfortable with the racy premise of the GQ photo shoot (“These photos do not represent who I am. … It wasn’t my favorite idea.”). She hints that it might have been a mistake that she’d erase if she could (“I’m trying to live my life with sharpie marker approach. You can’t erase the strokes you’ve made.”)
In the end, though, she capitulated: “But I did not walk away.” It was all for the sake of keeping her “crazy job, one that I love and am so fortunate to have.”
I applaud Agron’s honesty here—it’s a gutsy move in an industry that rarely even hints that something might be inappropriate or out of bounds—even as it saddens me to think that she felt compelled, on some level, to participate GQ’s amped-up sexualization of her Glee character.
More than that, though, I think Agron’s story offers a telling illustration of what (I suspect) clinging to life in the spotlight may be like for many entertainers: You do what you have to do. Because if you don’t, there’s always someone else who’s more than ready to make that compromise for the sake of stardom.
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