Add Maya Rudolph to the list of celebrities voicing their support for pop star Chappell Roan and her outspoken take on the perils of fandom. Roan has been vocal about upholding boundaries with fans, and just this week revealed that she has been dealing with an active stalker.
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Like Roan, Rudolph said she has encountered her share of people in every day life who feel entitled to interrupt her at inopportune times and harass her because of her recognizability. When Variety sat down with Rudolph in late August for a cover story interview ( read it here ), it was just days after Roan had made a series of TikTok posts sharing her feelings on the expectations that fans have of her — and the artificial sense of familiarity that comes with being famous in this digital age.
“She said a lot of things that felt very relatable,” said Rudolph — a fan of Roan who had been listening to her music all summer. “I was grateful that someone of her status spoke that honestly and openly. I think it was the moment when she spoke about people touching her that I thought, ‘ooh, I’ve never heard anyone really talk about that!’ Because no one’s really thinking about it when they’re grabbing you, but it actually isn’t pleasurable for me, and I don’t do well with it. I wish that I handled it better, but I really don’t.”
Rudolph noted that it had even happened that morning when she was taking her son to the doctor’s office.
“I think that I had to learn a long time ago that when people are yelling out at me, they are probably trying to be funny,” she said. “But it just comes off as a very aggressive energy. And when you’re at the market, or when you’re walking with your kids, or doing something with your family, it’s not always the right time.”
It’s an issue that many people in the public eye have had to contend with, more than ever, in the time of social media. “I think that the accessibility that we have to people and who we think they are has created something where people think that you’re theirs,” Rudolph added.
It’s also a bit of a generational thing, she noted, as the younger generations are more in tune with their boundaries and protecting their mental health.
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“‘Boundaries’ is not a word that we Gen Xers were taught,” she noted. “It’s such an important thing to develop in your own life. But every human being walking around with a camera in their pocket, that has not helped boundaries. I believe in energy, and I don’t carry myself in a way that’s like, ‘please, no pictures.’ I go about my day in the world, and I hope that people treat me with the same respect that I treat them.”
In her posts, Roan noted that “I don’t care that abuse and harassment, stalking, whatever, is a normal thing to do to people who are famous or a little famous… that does not make it OK, that doesn’t make it normal.”
Later, she added, “I’ve been in too many nonconsensual physical and social interactions and I just need to lay it out and remind you, women don’t owe you shit. I chose this career path because I love music and art and honoring my inner child, I do not accept harassment of any kind because I chose this path, nor do I deserve it.
“When I’m on stage, when I’m performing, when I’m in drag, when I’m at a work event, when I’m doing press…I am at work,” she also wrote. “Any other circumstance, I am not in work mode. I am clocked out. I don’t agree with the notion that I owe a mutual exchange of energy, time, or attention to people I do not know, do not trust, or who creep me out— just because they’re expressing admiration.”
More recently, an interview published this week by Rolling Stone , Roan also details being kissed without her consent, having her father’s personal number leaked and being harassed by a man at an airport over an autograph. “I got home and dropped to my knees,” she said. “I have a hard time crying now because of my meds, but I sobbed and was screaming.”
Roan also shared a list of other pop stars who have expressed support in the wake of her comments, including Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, Hayley Williams, Troye Sivan, Katy Perry, Lorde, Mitski, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers.
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