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Stars Who Retired But Didn't Really Mean It
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00:00famous after a plagiarism scandal. Who gave up acting for rap, only for it all to be revealed
00:06as a joke? Keep watching for those weird stories and more.
00:10In 2000, Barbra Streisand announced a farewell tour, and tickets sold like hotcakes.
00:15According to ABC News, she told the audience at her sold-out final Madison Square Garden show,
00:21"...it feels like time to say goodbye to this part of my life."
00:24Instead, Streisand planned on building a barn house,
00:27spending more time with her husband, James Brolin, and focusing, quote,
00:31"...on acting, directing, and recording albums."
00:34But as it later turned out, the singer was not yet done with live entertainment.
00:38When Streisand went back on tour in 2006, Daily News columnists Rush and Malloy reported that
00:45angry fans who paid top dollar for Babs' 2000 shows were considering, quote,
00:50"...a class-action suit against the legend for tricking them into thinking they were seeing
00:54her for the final time." It's unclear if any such lawsuit arose, but since then,
01:00Streisand hasn't advertised any of her concerts as her swan songs, and the legendary icon continued
01:06selling out her concerts in a heartbeat. After all, her fans can't be sure which one of her tours will
01:12truly be the last before she retires for good. Considering the fact that her compilation,
01:17release Me Too hit shelves and streaming services in 2021, it's safe to say Streisand isn't actually
01:24retiring anytime soon.
01:26Early on Christmas Day in 2013, Beliebers around the world lost their holiday spirit when they read
01:32Justin Bieber's tweet,
01:34"...my beloved Beliebers, I'm officially retiring."
01:37According to E!, the baby singer hinted at quitting the music industry a few weeks before as well.
01:42It could be that his sudden decision to retire at the young age of 19 had something to do with the
01:48rough patch he was going through in his private life. His on-and-off relationship with Selena Gomez,
01:54which was speculated to be an elaborate publicity stunt too, was especially turbulent around the time
01:59he made his shocking holiday announcement. Just a few short weeks later, he also got a DUI in Miami.
02:06Of course, it soon became clear that the Biebs never intended to actually retire on that fateful
02:11Christmas morning. And as years went by, the Let Me Love You singer started using a much more
02:17thoughtful voice on social media. JB's lifestyle doesn't lend itself to publicity stunts. Instead,
02:24he cleaned up his bad boy act and appears focused on music. He released two albums,
02:30Changes and Justice, and the EP Freedom in the span of 13 months and planned a 2022 world tour for the latter.
02:38In 2002, Stephen King told the Los Angeles Times that he was done writing books as soon as he
02:43finished his then-in-progress projects — five books and an ABC miniseries. You can either continue to
02:50go on, or say I left when I was still on top of my game. Since he's one of the most prolific authors of
02:56our time, he also pointed out the danger of ending up repeating himself and recycling his old material.
03:02The sudden decision to retire came three years after King's nearly fatal accident when he was
03:07hit by a van while taking a walk. He once recollected the experience on Twitter,
03:12"...as I lay unconscious in the hospital, the docs debated amputating my right leg
03:17and decided it could stay, on a trial basis. I got better."
03:20Fans of the legendary scribe know that he continued churning out literature for decades.
03:25"...I can't figure it out. I mean, it's kind of masochistic, but hey, it pays the bills,
03:30you know what I'm saying?"
03:31And his entire outlook on when he'll put away the pen for goods seems to have changed.
03:36He told Stephen Colbert in The Late Show in 2019,
03:40"...God'll tell me when to retire."
03:41He added,
03:42"...but until then, I mean, this is the best job in the world,
03:45because nobody can make you retire at a mandatory age."
03:48In 2008, Joaquin Phoenix and other A-listers attended a charity event in San Francisco,
03:55where he told an extra reporter he was retiring from acting to pursue a career in rap music. He said,
04:01"...I want to take this opportunity, also to give you the exclusive and just talk a little
04:05bit about the fact that this will be my last performance as an actor."
04:09Little did the world know that he was actually in character for a role in I'm Still Here,
04:14a mockumentary directed by his celebrity friend, Casey Affleck.
04:18Not only was it a genius publicity stunt that ultimately served to promote the mockumentary,
04:24it was also an elaborate, Borat-like prank that didn't stop there.
04:28In 2009, he visited The Late Show with David Letterman, wearing sunglasses and mumbling
04:33incomprehensibly. And while Phoenix is no stranger to making controversial TV appearances,
04:39even Letterman bought the act.
04:40"...You're not gonna act anymore?"
04:41"...No."
04:43"...Huh. Why is that?"
04:47"...I don't know."
04:50In 2010, Affleck cleared the air when he explained to The New York Times that he, quote,
04:55"...never intended to trick anybody," and that his former brother-in-law gave the performance
05:00of his career.
05:02Miley Cyrus rose to fame as a child star, most notably on Hannah Montana,
05:06portraying a teenage superstar. But as the show crept to its end,
05:10the Wrecking Ball singer started transforming her public image.
05:14After releasing two studio albums with her own music, Breakout in 2008 and Can't Be Tamed in 2010,
05:20the multi-hyphenate boldly told E that she was done after the latter, adding,
05:25"...I just want to work in movies. That's what I like and that's what I want to be doing."
05:30Cyrus took the Hollywood plunge with a leading role in The Last Song. Although the film was a critical
05:35flop, Cyrus did meet her ex-husband Liam Hemsworth on the set. She starred in Two More Bombs,
05:41LOL and So Undercover, before deciding to go back to singing and performing.
05:46"...I'll never be who I was yesterday in a way. Every night before I go to sleep,
05:52I say goodbye to myself in a way."
05:54She said in Miley the Movement, a documentary about her return to the music industry,
05:59"...I thought after my show I was going to act. I went and I did one movie and I came back and said,
06:04I'm never doing that again. I'm going to do music for the rest of my life."
06:08Never say never, Miley! Her second retirement claim turned out to be premature, too.
06:13In 2019, The Malibu Singer starred in a Black Mirror episode titled Rachel Jack and Ashley Too.
06:20When asked about his decision to retire in 2013, director Steven Soderbergh told Vulture,
06:26"...I won't be directing cinema, for lack of a better word, but I still plan to direct,
06:31theater stuff, and I'd do a TV series if something great were to come along."
06:35As noted by the Los Angeles Times, the Oscar winner casually mentioned calling cut on his
06:40film directing career in 2008. But rumors about his retirement really picked up steam in 2010,
06:46when Matt Damon said the director was, at the time, kind of exhausted with everything
06:51that interested him in terms of form. Damon's foreshadowing came true when Soderbergh
06:56retired from directing movies after 2013's Behind the Candelabra. He told EW that after his retirement,
07:03he focused on painting. He also picked up a TV project, The Nick, a period drama that ran for
07:09two seasons. But four years later, the director made a spectacular return to the big screen
07:15with Logan Lucky, another heist movie.
07:18Country music star Garth Brooks decided to retire at the height of his career.
07:23In 2000, he announced he was hanging up his guitar until his three daughters graduated high school,
07:28a timeframe of approximately 14 years. The retirement announcement also took attention
07:33away from the fact that he was divorcing his first wife, Sandy Moll. In 2014, when his youngest
07:39child decided to go to college in Nashville, he got the band back together and started touring again.
07:45But it wasn't his first time back on stage. Not only did Brooks continue playing charity shows
07:50throughout his near-retirement, but he also recorded a project for Walmart in 2005, The Tennessean reported.
07:57He also performed 187 shows as part of his residency at Wynn Las Vegas from 2009 to 2014.
08:05The ever-so-shady Shia LaBeouf's fake retirement came following accusations of plagiarism in late 2013.
08:13I just feel judged and like I'm like an outsider.
08:16According to The Guardian, it all started when he was accused of plagiarism by comic artist
08:21Daniel Klaus. In 2012, LaBeouf directed and starred in his very own short movie,
08:27called HowardCantor.com, but it turned out to be awfully similar to Klaus' comic Justin M. Damiano.
08:34Rather than making peace with the author, LaBeouf escalated the conflict by tweeting a series of
08:39apologies that were originally written by other celebrities. The whole thing seemingly culminated
08:45with his January 10, 2014 tweet,
08:48In light of the recent attacks against my artistic integrity, I am retiring from all public life.
08:53Days later, LaBeouf returned to public life to attack Jim Carrey for his joke about the plagiarism
08:59scandal at that year's Golden Globes. EW reported that series of tweets and apologies ended with
09:06another odd tweet,
09:07I am not famous anymore. Of course, LaBeouf was also gearing up to promote the scandalous indie
09:13flick, nymphomaniac, at the time.
09:15Nicki Minaj wrote in a since-deleted tweet in 2019,
09:19I've decided to retire and have my family. I know you guys are happy now.
09:23Fans and haters alike instantly started wondering whether she meant what she wrote or if it was a
09:28publicity stunt. The Chun-Li rapper wasn't at her most popular at the time, and was on the heels of
09:34postponing the North American dates of her 2018 tour. Critics claimed Minaj delayed the tour due to low
09:41ticket sales, but Minaj explained on Twitter that with the delay of the album, so came the delay
09:46of the tour to perform it. Whether the explanation about her 2018 tour was true or not, Minaj headed
09:53back to Twitter the next day with an apology, saying,
09:56I'm still right here. She called the retirement tweet, quote, abrupt and insensitive, and promised
10:01a bigger explanation at some point. That explanation came a month later in a chat with The Shade Room,
10:07when she admitted she was only musing about whether or not she would record a fifth album.
10:11While the star has yet to release said album, tentatively titled NM5, the family part of her
10:17retirement tweet was true. She got married to husband Kenneth Petty in October 2019. Minaj gave
10:23birth to their baby boy in September 2020. Jay-Z released his first studio album, Reasonable Doubt,
10:30in 1996, and kept releasing one record per year until 2003. But then, with eight studio albums
10:37under his belt, Jay-Z announced he was retiring from making hip-hop studio albums. Asked by The New
10:43York Times if it was all a marketing ploy, the rapper got defensive, saying,
10:47Give me a little more credit than that. I could think of other ways to get attention.
10:51And so, he went out with a bang, putting together an outstanding farewell show at Madison Square Garden.
10:57Throughout the night, fellow superstars including Missy Elliott and Beyoncé joined him on stage.
11:02Still, Jay-Z remained busy after his alleged retirement from making albums. He became the
11:08CEO of Def Jam Recordings and partial owner of the New Jersey, now Brooklyn Nets.
11:13But a few years later, he got the bug again and headed back into the studio.
11:18In 2006, he released his comeback album, Kingdom Come,
11:22and, in hindsight, is well aware of how ridiculous his initial decision to retire looked.
11:27He told Entertainment Weekly,
11:29It was the worst retirement in history.
11:32Emma Watson has been a movie star since she was 11 years old,
11:35so it's no wonder that she claimed she was ready to leave acting behind by the time 2009 rolled by.
11:41She told Teen Vogue,
11:42"'Until something comes along that I feel as strongly about as I did Hermione,
11:46like, I felt that it was life or death. I don't want to act again.'"
11:49It turned out that it didn't take long for the Harry Potter star to be called to her craft again.
11:55In 2012, she starred in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. While she never completely abandoned
12:00her acting career, she did put it on the back burner. Instead, she focused on humanitarian activism.
12:06In 2014, she was named a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. Following Watson's own retirement stunt,
12:12the media seems to have picked up the ball for her, with speculation of her exiting the industry
12:17repeatedly circulating, even as she headlined huge projects, including Beauty and the Beast in 2017
12:24and the award-winning Little Women in 2019. In May 2021, Watson tweeted,
12:29"'Dear fans, rumors about whether I'm engaged or not or whether my career is dormant or not
12:34are ways to create clicks each time they are revealed to be true or untrue.'"
12:39In a follow-up tweet, she reassured her followers that no news doesn't automatically mean that she's retiring.
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