Having been in Hollywood as a shadow, as someone who is almost invisible, I can see fame for what it is.
Being famous has its benefits, but fame isn't one of them.
You see Justin Bieber and Robert Pattinson, what they go through, and dude, that's not as exciting as it looks.
It's hard to absorb and to allow all that attention and accolades for 'Rent' because the rest of the country doesn't know who we are. Once I walk out of the door of 'Rent,' and I'm on the subway, it doesn't matter. It's an exaggerated sense of fame.
I quite enjoy fame, especially when you go to conventions in America where they treat you like a god with stretch limos and the whole fame thing, but then when you come back to Britain, you end up changing in a toilet in a theatre off West End and that's really good, because that is what it's about.
It's one thing to look at someone like Beyonce and Rihanna and to see how beloved and talented they are, and it's another thing to live inside it.
I think the promise of fame and what it holds to you as a child and dreaming of it is not what it is. What it is, I'm not complaining about, but it's just different than the reality you dreamed.
First of all, plain and simple, you have no real idea of what it means to be famous until you become famous. It's a double-edged sword. Obviously there are a lot of amazing things about fame, but there are also a lot of challenging things about it.
People think that money and fame fixes and changes so much. Money does give you assistance and resources in this life. But you think that life will become easier, and that's not necessarily true.
I find it really frustrating when people go, "I want to be famous and glamorous like you." It's hard for me not to have a bad thought when someone says that to me, since if there's anything this business is not, is glamorous. It's only glamorous for maybe five minutes every now and then.
Fame is not just about being able to get out of a limo in Leicester Square, it's about trying to get into your house when there are eight photographers outside. When you think about being famous, you don't think about all that stuff. You think about the glamour.
I've written enough books with real celebrities, such as Walter Payton and Hank Aaron and Billy Graham, to know that fame looks good only to people who don't have it.
It's a tougher gig than what people think it is. The proper, real, genuine, worldwide movie stars don't get a lot of downtime from the world outside. That's a tougher price, I think, than what people's fantasy of fame account for.
My favorite thing about being famous... it's not really as big of a deal as everybody says it is. Being on the road is tough, doing interviews, and all the stuff. It's still pretty tough.
When I did 'Percy Jackson,' people told me, 'Oh, you're going to be so famous... you're not going to be able to walk down the street... it's going to be huge,' and it wasn't - although it was big for my career.
