Leo Gillick
Audra McDonald, star of the Broadway show Gypsy, has spoken out about her experience with a fan who chose to follow her home.
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Some people think that because stars are often in the spotlight, they are there for entertainment, always. Of course, this isn’t the case, and no matter how famous a person is, they owe nobody anything. Audra McDonald has addressed the common breach of privacy and personal space recently, speaking about a fan who followed her home after a Broadway show.
The Broadway star had chosen not to leave the theatre via the stage door. She had had a long week of performances and wanted to conserve her energy. Often, people will wait around a stage door to grab photos and autographs. But that night, McDonald wasn’t feeling up to it and made her way out through an alternate exit.
However, one fan wasn’t having it, and rather than respect her privacy, they tracked her down. “Someone … snuck around and found me the way I had exited from the theater … and followed me all the way to where I was staying, came into the building – and was uncomfortably close,” Broadway star Audra McDonald said on a social media post.
Entitled Fanatical Fan Follows Audra McDonald
The fan following her home made Audra McDonald feel incredibly unsafe and uncomfortable. Eventually, she resorted to speaking to the security in her building to have the stalker removed. “When I finally got some security to help me, [the autograph seeker’s] response was, “Well, hey, I’ve come all the way” – and they named some town, some city that they’ve come all the way from … and tell me that they deserve an autograph,” she explained.
For some reason, the fan felt like they were entitled to something from the Broadway star and had stalked them to get it. They had violated her privacy and disregarded her wishes to have a quiet time after work.
Famous people don’t owe their fans anything. But, due to media exposure, people think it is okay to overstep boundaries they would never with anyone else.
