Celebrity in Safety Net

We hear about the lives of celebrities every day, whether we want to or not. Often times, we hear of their passing and think, “Oh how sad,” and move on with our day. Once in a great while, we hear of the death of a famous person and it leaves us completely shaken.

Robin Williams was one of those for me. I’m sure part of it was the timing. It happened during the month when I was sitting/sleeping/existing at my brother’s bedside while he was dying. He also happened to be my favorite actor ever. The man was incredibly talented, absolutely hilarious, and an amazing human being. He is still praised for his generosity and for the work he did trying to help remove the stigma around mental illness.

Today I had another of these shocks about two minutes before I was supposed to clock in for work. I’m not talking about David Bowie. I know who he is, but I’ve never been a fan. Yes I know what he’s contributed to the arts, but I’m still not a big fan. I’m talking about Alan Rickman. I don’t even have a bunch of reasons for liking him other than him being extremely talented. He was extremely talented. I never saw him play a character and not have me 100% convinced. Any character, from Severus Snape to Marvin in “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” to Colonel Brandon in the BBC’s adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility.” He was so versatile.

Why do we get so attached to people we don’t even know? How could I possibly feel this way about someone I never knew? I never met him.

It doesn’t matter. As long as we’ve been willing to watch and listen, he was willing to tell us the story.

I think part of it is because we become attached to the characters they portray. Even an actor that is able to play rolls as diverse as Shakespeare and robots ends up getting cast in similar rolls I think. Take “Sense and Sensibility.” Colonel Brandon joins the navy after his love is forced to marry someone else. He comes back and finds her pregnant and dying and she asks him to take care of her unborn child. In Harry Potter, Snape falls in love with Lily, but Lily marries James and Harry is born. After Lily and James die, Snape helps protect Harry because he still loves Lily. Even in “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy ” he plays a depressed robot. Even when he wasn’t cast as a villian, he was still cast as a sort of dark, mysterious, depressed/depressing character. How can I not relate to a depressed character that is always giving up their hopes and dreams to take care of others?

Last updated January 14, 2016