Chiwetel Ejiofor Quotes

People on television have trouble with fame because audiences think they're their mates.

When you're so out there in the public eye, people are constantly criticizing every aspect about you.

I'm just grateful I didn't have to spend my early 20s in front of paparazzi cameras.

Have we become so celebrity-obsessed that there is no longer a difference between a character and an actor? I hope not.

In the studios days, the public's perception of movie stars was much different, because the stars were so much less exposed. This made them seem more special, more unearthly. Today they're no longer perceived as different - they've become human, so to speak.

When you become a celebrity, the world owns you and your image.

The public already knows about me more than I ever wanted it to know.

You come to America, and, if you do a big TV show, then you can be overexposed, or old, before you're new.

I think it's so strange that certain people think they know you because you've been in a film. It's very flattering, but it's also very scary.

I find that when you see somebody in the tabloids all the time, you have no desire to see them in movies.

When I used to go to Elvis's house was always a nightmare trying to get into the house because of so many fans outside the gate and he really couldn't go anywhere without sneaking in or doing something because people just wanted to be around him and to be with him.

What happens is this sort of bleed-over from the tabloids across your movie work. You go to a movie, you only go once. But the tabloids and Internet are everywhere. You can really subsume the public image of somebody.

Today, there's an expectation that you get to know public people. In the past, it was much more what you did and how you presented yourself.

I don't think it's good for anyone to be in the public light - for negative reasons.

Once you're put out there in the public eye, people feel a certain ownership over you.

I don't like being a celebrity, really... Some people get greater praise than they deserve because they have had exposure in the media. I don't think I agree with that at all.

So much has changed since the '70s and '80s when it comes to acting and being in the public eye. We'd go out to a restaurant, and there would be five or six people. Now there's a lot more, plus social media, and this desire to bring other people down.

When people stare at you, and you read about yourself in papers - at 13, it just got very confusing. I thought that if this is what it's like to be famous, I don't like it one bit.

Nobody cares about your autograph. There are cameras everywhere, and there are media outlets for them to 'file their story'.

There's a difference between being a star and an actor. If you feed off from being in the public eye, this is the unfortunate flipside to it.

Once you've been in the public eye, you are always going to be criticised.

Now with all this movie business, everybody's coming around wanting to know everything that's happened since I was four. It's like going to an analyst.

One thing about being a celebrity that I learned a long time ago was that I pretty much gave up the right to fair treatment.

I have to protect myself because people think that because you come into 25 million homes every week, they know you. I walk the line between being gracious and being rude.

These days, with 'American Idol' and all the other reality shows, young people become famous overnight, and that can be very difficult to handle, the way photographers follow you around and study your every move.