Top 10 Celebrities Who Opened Up About Fan Culture

As a former member of One Direction, and more recently a solo artist, Niall Horan has experienced his fair share of fan interactions, both good and bad. In the past, he’s admitted to avoiding going out due to the hordes of fans waiting outside the band’s hotels. In 2016, Horan posted a series of tweets calling out “so-called fans” who were flooding his phone with hateful messages. The abusive comments weren’t just directed at him but also his loved ones, even his young nephew. Horan told followers that while he considers himself the “most carefree, laid back person around,” he wanted to bring awareness to the issue for other people dealing with it.

After her breakout role in “Winter’s Bone,” Jennifer Lawrence quickly became a household name and quickly gained a following of adoring fans. But in Variety’s Actors on Actors interview, Lawrence told actor-comedian Adam Sandler how she deals with fan encounters. If there’s one thing we know about the actress, it’s that she’s brutally honest, and many people, especially her fans, find her personality refreshing. However, admitting that she uses rudeness as a defense tactic garnered criticism and some questioned how she treated her admirers. In another interview, she discussed how fans may think they know her. But from her POV, it can be scary being approached by strangers which is understandable. Still, people think Lawrence could be more polite to her supporters.

There are plenty of receipts showing how much Billie Eilish loves and appreciates her massive fanbase. As a self-proclaimed fangirl, she totally understands being obsessed with artists and their work. However, she often has to remind her fans that there is a line that they shouldn’t cross, like following her to a hotel or sending gifts to her home address. Eilish told Variety, fans’ passion is “so beautiful, but it’s also really scary.’’ She’s had to get restraining orders against trespassers at her family’s home, some of whom have even broken inside. Despite these traumatizing experiences and ridiculous criticism, Eilish still makes an effort to be accessible to her true fans.

Justin Bieber is no stranger to dealing with rabid fans and constant paparazzi. Attention only increased when he dated Selena Gomez on-and-off throughout the 2010s. But in 2018, Bieber married Hailey Baldwin. Since then the couple have been harassed by Jelena fans who still think they should be together despite both Gomez and Bieber moving on. While all three celebs try not to stoke the drama fire, sometimes they feel the need to speak out. In 2020, Bieber blasted one fan for encouraging fellow Jelena shippers to attack Hailey in the comments during an Instagram Live. The model has also addressed the years of relentless hate from Gomez fans and told her own fans to stop the toxicity “on her behalf.”

The “Twilight” films made Robert Pattinson an overnight heartthrob in the late 2000s and since then he’s accumulated a large fanbase. Like any celebrity, the world has been all up in his business, particularly his love life. Pattinson began dating fellow Brit FKA Twigs in 2014, with the couple calling it quits in 2017 after a brief engagement. During this time, the talented singer-songwriter, who is of Jamaican and Spanish descent, was relentlessly bombarded online with racist comments and messages. In past interviews, Pattinson seemingly found fan culture amusing and strange. However, the horrific racism and harassment his partner faced left him rightfully angry and disgusted. In an interview on “The Howard Stern Show,” he likened the commenters to “professional trolls.”

Despite Prime’s“The Boys” being a huge hit, the cast and creators of the dark superhero series have dealt with harsh criticism from fans. In 2020, Season 2 was review-bombed by disgruntled “fans” because they didn’t like its new weekly episode rollout schedule. Showrunner Eric Kripke addressed the baffling reaction, telling “The Wrap” that it was a “creative choice” and that he didn’t understand why a fan would “harm something you love because you’re disappointed.” Two years later, Kripke denounced the online trolls claiming to be fans after Starlight actress Erin Moriarty opened up about the hurtful hypercriticism of her appearance. In March 2023, Karl Urban, who stars as Billy Butcher, tweeted an expletive-laced message to a “toxic fan,” though the reason was unspecified.

Like other celebrities on this list, Cole Sprouse, along with twin brother Dylan, experienced fame at a young age. Around 2018, when the ex-Disney Channel star began dating his “Riverdale” co-star Lili Reinhart, he gained another subset of fans, or shippers, who obsessed over their relationship in the show and in real-life. The rumors and speculation about his private life never stopped and while he sees the absurdity of it all, he understandably grows tired of the “insanity and fanaticism.” After Sprouse and Reinhart split, he apparently received death threats and what he described as “really nasty, honestly criminal stuff.”

Actor-writer and professional nerd Simon Pegg knows a thing or two about fandoms. During an interview with SiriusXM, he revealed he found the most toxic fandom to be “Star Wars.” He also acknowledged and apologized for his past behavior as a fan. When Kelly Marie Tran starred in 2017’s “The Last Jedi,” she ended up leaving social media due to the barrage of sexist and racist messages. And she isn’t the only actor to be harassed by the dark corners of the “Star Wars” fandom. In 2022, actress Moses Ingram joined the cast of “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and her co-star Ewan McGregor called out the “fans” flooding her DMs with hateful messages. Disney showed their support as well, and even had some words for the trolls.

Since being catapulted into the spotlight as Betty Cooper on “Riverdale,” actress Lili Reinhart has called out several instances of toxic fans and their entitled behavior. She’s had savage responses to “fans” body-shaming her, speculating on her personal life, invading her privacy, and criticizing her boundaries. Reinhart took to Twitter to defend her castmate when Bughead shippers harrassed Ethel Muggs actress Shannon Purser for her character crushing on Cole Sprouse’s Jughead Jones in Season 3. She reminded everyone that “Riverdale” relationships are fictional and the actors who portray them are just doing their job. In 2019, Reinhart condemned the “Game of Thrones” fandom demanding a rewrite of the infamously divisive series finale, saying, “TV shows are not fan service.” Well, she’s not wrong.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Finn Wolfhard
The Then-Teenager Was Already Getting Disrespect for Having Boundaries…& from Adults, No Less

Pete Davidson
The “SNL” Alum Faced Criticism from Ariana Grande’s Fanbase, Prompting Post About the Seriousness of Mental Health Issues

Demi Lovato
The Singer Called Out Her Lovatics for Sending Death Threats to Comedian Kathy Griffin

Paul Mescal
The Irish Actor Spoke Out About Being Inappropriately Touched by a “Creepy” Fan

Doja Cat
This Controversial Treatment of Her Own Dedicated Fans Lost Her Thousands of Followers

Since debuting around 2017, indie singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers has seen massive success both as a solo artist and with the band Boygenius. And as we know, with success comes an overwhelming amount of attention. In a 2023 interview, Bridgers and bandmates Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus condemned the type of fans who invade personal space, saying their behavior feels dehumanizing. Bridgers recounted when she was approached/chased at the airport after her father died. She also touched on the problem with modern stan culture, citing capitalism as a possible influence. And for the people who say that these oft-disrespectful interactions are just “part of the job,” Bridgers simply says, “It doesn’t have to be.” And we’d have to agree.