Comedian Celeste Barber shares surprising photo confession

Comedian Celeste Barber may have found accidental fame by parodying celebrities on social media but in a revealing interview, she confesses she actually hates having her photo taken.

It’s not easy being Jennifer Aniston. Just ask Celeste Barber, who is sitting cross-legged on the floor, draped in a white shirt, posing up a storm as she attempts to recreate Aniston’s 2005 Vanity Fair cover, an iconic image – tousled hair, beaming smile, and that inimitable sun-kissed glow – that accompanied her first interview following her seismic split from Brad Pitt.

“It’s actually hard to do,” Barber tells Stellar. “She just looks so effortlessly hot, sitting there, laughing, with her boobs out.”

“It is nice when someone wants a nice photo of me rather than me being a fool.” (Picture: Steven Chee)

Jennifer Aniston for the September 2005 cover of Vanity Fair. (Picture: Mario Testino)

Of course, meeting that brief has hardly stopped Barber before. For years, the 38-year-old actor and comedian’s vanity-free twists on ridiculously curated selfies and “candid” at-home shots from celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Emily Ratajkowski have been amusing a social-media following that has reached more than 10 million, with many of those followers themselves the very celebrities she’s lampooning.

But ask Barber – a mum of sons Lou, 9, and Buddy, 7, and stepdaughters Kyah, 21, and Sahra, 19 – and she will insist that the goal of this project was never to become a social-media superstar.

She simply wanted to leverage a bit of potential online success into more jobs in film and television. (Barber, who had a role on All Saints in the late 2000s, has more recently featured on comedy series The Letdown.)

And if, in the meantime, she can also lend her mug to a good cause and raise some money while she is at it – most notably, the $51.3 million she raised for bushfire relief last year – she is happy to do so. In her latest charitable gambit, Barber has signed on to be the face of Witchery’s White Shirt Campaign, which sees all proceeds from the retailer’s sales of specially produced white shirts go towards ovarian-cancer research.

To mark the appointment, Stellar asked Barber to recreate some famous pop-culture moments that featured a white shirt: from Aniston’s cover image to Tom Cruise’s pants-free dance in Risky Business, Peter Lindbergh’s iconic 1988 photo featuring six then-emerging “supermodels” including Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington, and – in a concept that Sex And The City fan Barber herself suggested – Carrie Bradshaw’s Hermès belt-cinched look from season three.

“I hate being called an influencer. Because I’m not.” (Picture: Steven Chee)

Tom Cruise’s pants-free dance in Risky Business, 1983. (Picture: Risky Business)

As someone who has built part of your career recreating images, do you simply wish that for this photo shoot, we just took a nice, standard portrait of you?

I liked this idea because of how it tied into the White Shirt Campaign. I thought that was fun to spin on it. To be honest with you, and I know this sounds ridiculous, but... I hate having my photo taken. I hate it! Having my photo taken in general makes me uncomfortable. That being said, it is nice when someone wants a nice photo of me rather than me being a fool.

Why are you involved in this campaign?

I didn’t know the statistics about ovarian cancer until they approached me and I looked into it. I can’t believe that one woman in Australia dies every eight hours from ovarian cancer. And there is no early detection test.

And when the symptoms are bloating and cramping, which is what a lot of women get a lot of the time, it’s hard. I was actually really shocked that there isn’t an early detection test, and so 100 per cent of the gross proceeds of this campaign go towards the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation. When I found that out, I wanted to be on board. I thought if I put my stupid face on it, hopefully it will get the word out.

A large part of your career has been poking fun at influencers which, ironically, has given you influence.

I hate being called an influencer. Because I’m not. I’m an actor, a comedian and a writer, and I happen to be a bit famous now for doing stuff that resonates with people who don’t always feel great about themselves. That’s how I look at it. I mean, I don’t call them followers. I call them my audience.

Every time I do a post, I look at it like doing a show: they are my audience and I believe they trust me. I’ve turned down so much work in the media world and so much f*cking money because I don’t want to be in that world of just money and fame. I can’t operate like that.

So I really take my time in working out what I do because I don’t want to be known as an influencer. I want to be known for making people laugh and giving a sh*t about what I put out in an already very noisy world.

“My motto in life is: a little less conversation, a little more action. Talking only adds more noise to a very noisy, overcrowded space.” (Picture: Steven Chee)

That being said, you have pulling power. You raised close to $51.3 million dollars for bushfire relief via social media. And when you signed on as an MCoBeauty ambassador, sales at Woolworths were up by 518 per cent in a single day.

How does that sit with you?

I find it very overwhelming. I don’t understand what the big deal is with me. I like it. It’s very nice. But if I sit too much in that world I get overwhelmed. I think that might be part of the appeal, that I don’t drink my own Kool-Aid. I just keep working. I just keep doing what I want to do, what makes me happy and what makes the people who I love and care about most happy.

That’s always how I’ve done it and that seems to resonate. I really don’t understand it, but I bloody hope we sell out Witchery.

Peter Lindbergh’s iconic 1988 photo featuring six then-emerging “supermodels” including Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington. (Picture: Peter Lindbergh)

You’ve picked a tough industry to be a part of, let alone make waves in. Have you had any moments when you could really savour your success, to feel like, “You know what? I’ve made it.”

I have those moments a lot. But one is working with Tom Ford. It’s the biggest moment in my career to date. I mean, never in a million years did I think I would be making out with him. I always worked towards the goal to work more and support my family in doing what I love.

I knew that it would happen – just not to this extent. It’s just the fame stuff which makes it feel like it’s something else, which I’m not mad for. But you know, hanging out with Lady Gaga in Beverly Hills wasn’t sh*t.

So do you think it’s better to just work hard and see where life takes you rather than have grand, lofty goals?

Yeah. I think so. I’m really bad at advice, because I have this theory that just because you’re big online or have a recognisable face, it doesn’t mean you’re an expert on anything. But I do tell my kids, “Never ever give up. If you want to do it, don’t ever stop. No matter what. You then realise if you do or don’t want to do it.”

My one son wants to be a kung fu master and I’m like, “Well… you better start kicking, and know it takes work.” Most people who get it handed to them aren’t very good at it.

How close have you come to giving up?

I’ve totally given up a hundred times. Which goes to show it’s what I wanted to do because it hasn’t lasted. I remember when, years ago, I couldn’t get an acting job, I went, “Well, that’s it. I love magazines, I’m going to go work at a newsagent.” And then I got an audition for All Saints and got the job.

How would you have handled this kind of fame if it had come to you 20 years ago?

Not very well. Because I believe we get better as we get older, especially women – even though we aren’t allowed to think that. We are made to think that once you hit 28, you have to freeze yourself so nothing changes, but we get so much better as we get older.

I’m grateful this has come when it has. And I’ve had to work for it, earn it, stay focused and know what’s needed to be the best I can at what I do.

(Picture: Steven Chee)

Carrie Bradshaw’s Hermès belt-cinched look from season three. (Picture: Sex And The City)

Where do you see your future?

In film and TV. That’s always been the goal: to have my own shows. The goal of working is to work more. I’m very happy in comedy. I find it exciting, easy and enjoyable to do, and then watch.

You can get a point across a lot better, I believe, without the audience feeling like they’re being lectured to. I think people like seeing themselves and like having a laugh, which is essentially what I do. I think people like to see something different and like to see a woman – i.e. me – whose main currency isn’t how I look, but still takes photos of herself in a bikini.

What does that do to your brain? That’s what I’m interested in. The idea of women using how they look to be their main currency is exhausting.

You’ve seemed to back off posting on Instagram quite so much. Is that deliberate?

Yeah. But that’s not a conscious choice. It’s like, “Sh*t, I haven’t posted in a week, better get on to that.” I’m really sporadic. Again, not an influencer – they post like clockwork. I’m like, “Quick, got to take my clothes off, someone take a photo!”

But I don’t get paid to post on Instagram; those influencers do. It’s not my job. So when actual work comes through I have to dedicate time to that.

How do you feel about the state of the world after last year?

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from 2020, with the fires and everything, it’s that people have the power, and how important it is to give a sh*t about each other.

Is there a part of you that gets annoyed that your bushfire fundraising efforts were criticised?

I will say this: the only criticism I got was from the media who were bored. But my motto in life is: a little less conversation, a little more action. Talking only adds more noise to a very noisy, overcrowded space. That’s what I was saying about power to the people and people actually doing things in the world that makes the world turn.

Celeste Barber stars on the cover of this Sunday’s Stellar.

Is someone saying “you made me laugh” the nicest thing that a person could say to you?

It’s a very nice thing to hear. Maybe not the nicest thing. That would be, “Here is a billion dollars!” But I’m very grateful that people are nice to me and it’s never lost on me. Although I dropped one of my boys at school today and I said something funny and he laughed, and I almost broke into tears.

I was so stoked. Him thinking I’m funny means the most. Because being away from [family] is tough and them being cool about it makes me happy. I’m stoked that they are into it. There will come a time when they are like, “screw you”. But until then, I’ll just keep going.

Celeste Barber is an ambassador for the 2021 Witchery White Shirt Campaign. For every Toni Maticevski-designed shirt sold from tomorrow, Witchery will donate 100 per cent of the gross proceeds to the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation. For more details, visit witchery.com.au.

Originally published as Comedian Celeste Barber shares surprising photo confession