Complex relationships with celebrity are nearly always more interesting than tales of perpetually ascendant superstars. That’s certainly the case with Jason Lee, the former professional skateboarder and star of Mallrats and My Name is Earl who, more recently, operated a small camera shop in Los Angeles. “This story was always going to be about a man willing to walk away from things,” Nate Rogers writes in his profile of Lee. But that requires working with Lee to retrace his steps—an effort that turns challenging, and nearly prevents Rogers from telling the tale at all.
The paradox of Jason Lee—to me, The Enemy, at least—is that he is a celebrity who openly invites fans to come hang out with him on a regular basis, but who also has historically remained a notably private person. Who essentially dropped out of acting for a full decade and moved to Texas, just because he felt like it. Who would eventually tell me with sincere frustration that he would have said no to our interview if he knew the extent of what I was planning to ask. Who agreed to a profile and then successfully had it killed by the magazine in which this article was originally meant to run.
More picks about celebrity and complication
One Four Two Five Old Sunset Trail
“On the last days of Gene Hackman.”
Hush-Hush Affair
“How the NDA became the defining legal document of our time.”
Voice and Hammer
“Harry Belafonte’s unfinished fight.”
What Was Brangelina?
“They were known for their image-making savvy. As their divorce reenters the press cycle, who’s better at it.”
The Lost Diary of Anthony Bourdain
“When his celebrity was at its height and he couldn’t walk a street on this planet without getting recognized, jiujitsu gave Bourdain a new, anonymous world to traverse, one where he was just one of us.”
Sinead O’Connor Remembers Things Differently
“The mainstream narrative is that a pop star ripped up a photo of the pope on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and derailed her life. What if the opposite were true?”
