While being grilled as part of Vanity Fair’s infamous lie detector test series, Ariana Grande admitted that, sometimes, she doesn’t always like her fans.
The pop star appeared on the magazine’s lie detector segment with Cynthia Erivo, who is starring opposite her in the upcoming movie adaptation of Wicked. Among other interrogative questions, designed to make stars squirm in discomfort (much to our collective joy), Grande was asked whether she loved her fans.
“I love them always, but I think sometimes they can hurt my feelings,” Grande said. While it’s not known what specific fan interaction she’s referring to, the “Problem” singer has been on the receiving end of some pretty intense scrutiny from her audience over the years, from her notorious donut-licking debacle to, more recently, her supposed affair with Wicked co-star and Spongebob himself, Ethan Slater.
“Sometimes I don’t like [my fans], but I love them always,” Grande added, before describing her relationship to her fans as “weirdly parasocial” but “very real to me.” The singer concluded her thoughts by confirming that while “sometimes it’s hard” to navigate her relationship with her fans, she ultimately “love[s] them very much.”
It’s an understandable stance for a female musician who has been subject to a very harsh spotlight since her days on Nickelodeon, and one echoed recently by the likes of Chappell Roan.
Elsewhere in the interview, Grande reflected on the “back-and-forth” in terms of the public’s perception of her throughout her career. One minute everyone loves you and the next, you’re public enemy number one because reports claim Spongebob left his wife for you, or because you expressed interest in dressing up as Jeffrey Dahmer for Halloween (Ari, girl, cannibalism doesn’t suit you!)
“I was this approachable, funny redhead on Nickelodeon and everyone liked me,” Grande recalled, “then I had one too many hit records, and everyone decided that I was an evil diva.”
That’s a familiar story for many women in the entertainment industry (Katherine Heigl, Blake Lively, Megan Fox, and Britney Spears, to name a few), so Grande is unfortunately part of an unenviable group that has been chewed up and spat out by the tabloid media.
Going beyond just her relationship with her fans, Grande was also asked her thoughts about the collective name of her fandom, Arianators, and admitted that she’s less than impressed with that name. “I don’t like it,” Grande said. “I’ve accepted it, but would I pick that? Of course not. That’s insane.”
She definitely has a point, since Arianator sounds like some sort of contraption used in a sci-fi movie, or the scientific name for a bacteria that causes food poisoning.
In any case, fans can continue their parasocial relationship with Grande this November, when she appears as Glinda the Good Witch opposite Erivo’s Elphaba in Wicked. Who knows, maybe by then the public will love her again, but for what it’s worth, this writer has been a stan ever since Grande’s Victorious days.
Published: Oct 1, 2024 02:59 am