21 Celebrities Who Had It All, But They Chose To Walk Away From Fame

Trending badgeTrendingPosted 54 minutes agoSubscribe to BuzzFeed Daily NewsletterCaret Down21 Celebrities Who Had It All, But They Chose To Walk Away From FameJonathan Taylor Thomas said, "I never took the fame too seriously. It was a great period in my life, but it doesn't define me."by Kristen HarrisBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLink Some celebrities achieve fame after many years of striving, whereas others find themselves the talk of the town overnight. Regardless of how they get to the top, many realize it's not for everyone. Here are 21 celebrities who had it all, but they chose to walk away from fame: 1. In the '90s, Bridget Fonda starred in movies like Single White Female, Lake Placid, and Jackie Brown. However, according to the Independent, she retired from acting in 2002. She had actually signed on to a recurring role on The Practice in 2003, but after "miraculously" surviving a car accident a few weeks before the series went into production, she was replaced. (C)Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection In 2023, she reportedly told a paparazzo at an airport that she wouldn't return to acting because "it's too nice being a civilian." MEGA / GC Images / Via Getty 2. Ferris Bueller's Day Off actor Mia Sara was an '80s teen star and had success through the '00s, but she felt uncomfortable in the spotlight. She slowed down in the 2010s and retired after 2013's Pretty Pretty. CBS Photo Archive / CBS via Getty Images She didn't plan to act again, but then director Mike Flanagan persuaded her to join the cast of 2024's The Life of Chuck. In 2025, she told Yahoo Life, "I love Mike Flanagan, like really adore him just as a person, and we are friends, and I'm just a huge fan. When we met [and had dinner], Mike said, 'Why don't you work anymore?' And I said, 'Oh, it's really complicated,' and he said, 'Would you ever work again? What if I offered you something?' ...[The Life of Chuck] was a really healing experience. Mike creates an incredibly cohesive and really terrific feeling on set. It felt like really nice closure. It did me a world of good." (C) Neon / Courtesy Everett Collection 3. Jaye Davidson earned an Oscar nomination for his acting debut as Dil in 1992's The Crying Game. However, after his second most notable role, Ra in Stargate, he largely vanished from the public eye. His last acting role was The Borghilde Project in 2009. (C)Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection In 2019, director Neil Jordan told Yahoo Entertainment, "Very wisely actually, Jaye made one other movie for which he made a ton of money. He then said, 'Look, this is not for me.' You know? He went back to his life. He's a very happy man now. He's bulked up now. ... Different person now. But very healthy and very good." Tim P. Whitby / Getty Images Jaye reportedly lives in Paris and works as a fashion stylist. Tim P. Whitby / Getty Images 4. Leelee Sobieski was a teen star in the '90s and '00s known for her roles in movies like Never Been Kissed and The Glass House. However, she largely retired from acting in 2012, telling Vogue, "Ninety percent of acting roles involve so much sexual stuff with other people, and I don't want to do that. It's such a strange fire to play with, and [my] relationship is surely strong enough to handle it, but if you're going to walk through fire, there has to be something incredible on the other side." (C)Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Then, in 2018, she told AnOther, "A lot of the time when you work, it's a money project basically. I started paying the rent on our house when I was 15, so I had a lot of pressure and things got complicated for me... So when I could, I stopped. It's kind of a gross industry - well, they all are, when you examine them - but in acting, you're selling your appearance so much. I would cry every time I had to kiss somebody; I couldn't stomach it. I would think, 'I like this person, so I don't think they should pay me to kiss them,' or 'I don't like this person, so I don't want to kiss them. Why is my kiss for sale?' It made me feel really cheap." Rob Kim / Getty Images for NYFW: The Shows "It didn't matter whether people thought it was an admirable thing to do - in my soul I thought, 'My kiss is not for sale' - it might have been acting, but it was real for me as it was my first or third kiss, so it was confusing for me. I don't know why it's legal for a child to act unless they can sell oranges or whatever legally too. It's a crazy double standard, and that's super weird for me. Now that the #MeToo movement has come forward, people understand more that it's pretty gross and uncomfortable," she said. Michael Stewart / FilmMagic / Via Getty In 2018, she reemerged as an artist under the name Leelee Kimmel. She told Artnet, "I kept working fervently in secret. Painting was always my goal; I just kept getting distracted with work things and paying bills...

Actors end up going from one role to another with all this energy behind them, and you just become emptier and emptier and