Brigitte Bardot, the 84-year-old French actress who has dedicated her life to helping animals since 1973, said in a new interview the celebrity lifestyle "suffocated" her — and continues to do so.
Bardot spoke with The Guardian ahead of her April book release and admitted she knows "what it feels like to be hunted."
Bardot stepped away from her acting career in 1973 and began her second career as an animal rights activist. Her decision to do that was based on her love for animals but also her desire to no longer be caught up in the intense celebrity life.
"The majority of great actresses met tragic ends. When I said goodbye to this job, to this life of opulence and glitter, images and adoration, the quest to be desired, I was saving my life," she told The Guardian.
"This worship of celebrity … suffocated me."
Bardot's book is called "Tears of Battle: An Animal Rights Memoir" and will hit store shelves in April.
She told The Guardian that she is a shy person by nature, so the celebrity life that involved people hounding her for photos or to just say hello would fill her with "dread."
"The sheer dread … that fills me when I am face-to-face with most humans … made me suffer atrociously during my life as an actress," she said.
"I don't know what it means to sit quietly in a bistro, on a terrace, or in the theatre without being approached by someone."
Over the years, Bardot has waded into politics by criticizing former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and social movements such as #MeToo.
France has even fined her on multiple occasions for speaking ill against Muslims and their migration into Europe.
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