Actor Josh Duhamel made the headlines last week when he revealed that he and his family left Los Angeles to live off-the-grid, deep in the forest of Minnesota. Although it looks like a continuation of his 2004 film Win a date with Tad HamiltonThe resident of North Dakota said that the move to the midwest – “removed from everything” – gives him a sense of stability.
“You really get the chance to return to basics,” he said Parade. “You are not digested by all these other distractions. When you are there, it’s really about having fun, ensuring that everyone is warm, everyone has food and water.”
The goal of Duhamel is that the house stays in the family – and that is children appreciate the change of pace.
“My son is going to have memories of this place forever,” he said. “He is not on his iPad when he is there. He is there in the boat with me, or he plays football on the beach, or he is there in the forest and does what I do. And then I have a little baby who will experience the same thing. One day I hope to pass this on to them [so] They can share it with their children. It is really important to me that they have this. It’s not just about having all the facilities and all the luxury we got used to. It’s really about family. It’s about legacy. “
Josh Duhamel and his wife Audra Mari. (Valery Hache/AFP via Getty images)
The story addicted Yahoo readers, with many commentators who expressed support and share their own stories about “remote” life.
“I think it’s great; focus on your family! He’s in a new project, and almost always. So he keeps the balance of career and priority to his wife and children. That’s a real man,” wrote a person.
“Good for them! He has a good head on his shoulders to make this decision. Children need nature and to get away from technology,” added another. “At least they are [spending] Time together ‘as a family’. There is no bigger gift that he/she could give them! ‘
Duhamel is not the only famous name to choose somewhere else than Hollywood to call home. Mark Wahlberg moved his family to Nevada. Glen Powell moved back to Texas. James van der Beek took his family in 2020 for the Lone Star State. The list goes on.
Every time a star La leaves, it becomes a national head, and for the most part applauded overwhelming. There are several reasons why we cannot resist these stories.
Wait … so stars are really just like us?
Erin Meyers, a communication professor at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., Says Yahoo Entertainment that where a life of celebrities can affect the perception of people about authenticity. Especially when this star goes back home.
‘People see it moving from Hollywood and returning home [shows] That you are still who you were always inside, even if you have reached this big fame and fortune, “says Meyers,” and that is a story that we have loved since the start of the celebrity of celebrities. “
“It is this idea of fame as something that is feasible and that you could have, but it will not change this inner core of the good type of person you are,” she continues and says that a star seems like a “down-home type of person”.
Joel Penney, associate professor at the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University, in New Jersey, points out how the “elitist” reputation Hollywood can also play a role in the perception.
“Hollywood is … seen as fake, while the countryside relates to this idea of authenticity and relativity,” he tells Yahoo.
Of course, half of the country will potentially every celebrity that California leave as a political explanation. Although it is sometimes possible, Penney emphasizes how these kinds of stories strengthen the “culture wars” online.
“I think the political perspective is part of the story,” he says. “Many people more on the right have really defined themselves as a kind of anti-Hollywood, [which] Tires with the feeling of different cultural identities in the United States … The Heartland locations are seen as … that embody those other American identity. “
Penney, author of the book Pop culture, politics and the newsSays that the famous culture is a way “people express wider ideas about the world.”
“Celebrities become these symbols for something bigger,” he says. Penney believes that the fact that the national lifestyles are usually ‘under -represented in the media and certainly in the media of celebrities’ also arouses interest.
“There are a lot of values associated with these kinds of social institutions. I think there is a real desire to see stories about this kind of more land or national type of American life,” he continues. “When a celebrity moves with Hollywood moves … who fulfills a certain desire for people to see themselves reflected in a certain way.”
Meyers, however, adds that these stories come home “regardless of which part of the political spectrum you fall on.” She believes that the story coincides with “other trends that we now see in culture” “such as Tradwives and things like that on social media.”
“Tradewives” is a term describing a woman who sticks to “traditional” values of the house of housing, while her husband acts as the family winner.
“This is a kind of famous version of it,” she says.
Presenting their traditional or rural lifestyle outside of Hollywood helps stars helps to seem more recognizable. In the case of Van der Beek, for example, Meyers says that people have probably been attracted to his story because he and his wife have moved their six children from a busy city for greener (and larger) meadows.
“People are interested in this – a large family that goes on the land,” she says, in which she explains how that “fits exactly” with the authenticity of a star.
In the case of Wahlberg, the Boston actor did not grow up in the countryside, but his move to Nevada fit into the family-friendly persona that he has grown in recent years.
“Maybe you didn’t grow up in Backwoods Minnesota, but you can relate,” says Meyers, “and it’s so great there because that is where real people are instead of” the paaks of Hollywood. “
Mark Wahlberg moved his family from California to Nevada. (Carmen Mandato/Getty images)
In the end, money doesn’t matter
Meyers believes that stars do not fully have to live an “off-the-grid” lifestyle to resonate their story with people.
As a Yahoo reader appropriately wrote: “I like it [Josh Duhamel] And the sentiment, but I am pretty sure that there is also a ‘I have a few million in the tank’ kind of trust behind it. “”
That’s true. And Duhamel really built his Midwest -Hut with his own bald hands? Probably not, but for the most part, people can’t give it.
“I’m sure he had a lot of money to spend on the kind of things he was building, materials and [labor]. I’m sure he didn’t build that whole house, “says Meyers.” It is not entirely the off-the-grid experience that we could imagine for ordinary people. But it is certainly something that matches that authenticity … It is not the completely white and modern house of Kim Kardashian. “
Are we going to see all celebrities doing this? No.
“But those who are, make it a bit of their image, and I think I am trying to use more on that certain authentic, ordinary self,” Meyers adds.
