Cliché as it sounds, celebrities are people, too. And people, as you may have heard, have their fair share of fears. This, of course, extends to the world of comedy, where the fear of bombing looms large in the back of everyone’s mind. But that seems pretty rational compared to what some famous comedy stars have dealt with over the years.
Let’s take a look at a few who somehow developed strange aversions to things many of us would consider fairly normal.
1. BILLY BOB THORNTON
In 2012, Bad Santa star Billy Bob Thornton opened up about his fear of antique furniture during an interview with The New York Times. “I don’t mind a chair. I can go as far back as you want with Asia or Mexico. It’s that French/English/Scottish old mildewy stuff. Old dusty heavy drapes and big tables with lions’ heads carved in it,” Thornton explained. “That’s the stuff I can’t be around. It was too big to be functional. It creeps me out.”
While working on Love, Actually with Thornton in 2002, Hugh Grant reportedly got a kick out of pointing out antiques to Thornton as a gag, much to his dismay.
2. HOWIE MANDEL
Deal or No Deal host Howie Mandel has a crippling fear of germs and was known for carrying gloves during his early stand-up days. He famously refuses to shake hands and instructs people to give him fist bumps instead. Mandel even called his 2009 memoir Here’s the Deal: Don’t Touch Me.
For a 2015 episode of America’s Got Talent, Mandel was hypnotized into shaking hands with his fellow panelists, and ended up having to see a therapist as a result.
3. PETER SELLERS
Pink Panther star Peter Sellers was no stranger to acting weird. Two of his biggest phobias were green and purple, which he believed to be the colors of death. The bathroom in the Paris hotel room he stayed in apparently had to be bricked up after he discovered the tiles were green. Sellers was also said to have fired publicity people for wearing purple and to have demanded reshoots of a movie because of the color of the pool table in one scene.
As if that wasn’t enough, Sellers actually abandoned a castle that he once owned due to all the green grass that surrounded the place.
The post 3 Famous Stars With Weird Phobias, Including One Who Was Afraid of the Color Green appeared first on VICE.
