Hollywoodland — very much a film about the warped intersection of celebrity, ambition and regular life — and Adrien Brody had some interesting things to say about an actor’s connection with his audience, and the (false) sense of familiarity that breeds.

Asked about the rise of tabloid culture, he responded, in part, “It’s not just an obsession with someone’s private
life. If you accomplish what you’re setting out to do, you’re expressing
intimate moments and a vulnerability you wouldn’t share with a stranger. But
you’re called upon to do it, and you have to do it with sincerity, or else why
should I expect you to believe that moment? It’s often very revealing about the
individual. And even if it is a character, there’s a sense that you know the
person who you saw expressing those emotions. And then when you encounter them
in real life you feel that you know them intimately.”