Power to the people

Performer CELESTE BARBER has never pulled punches, but today she is more passionate than ever about speaking the truth. Here, the cheerleader for bushfire crisis fundraising explains herself

- RACHEL SHARP

Let it be officially known that Celeste Barber—actor, comedian, Instagram icon, concert host, and now legendary fundraising wizard—is not here for the naysayers. Quite frankly, in her own words, she gives “zero fucks” about them. (Caveat: if you’re one of her almost 7 million Instagram followers, you’ll know Barber’s rather partial to using expletives for emphasis.)

Nor—contrary to popular belief and ignorant comments from anonymous tabloid news site trolls—does she have any desire to be the poster girl for disaster relief fundraising. Not because she cares about copping flack—and cop-it she has, be it for her high-energy approach to hosting February’s Fire Fight Australia concert, or for exactly where and how the fortune she raised on Facebook for the bushfire crisis in January could and would be divvied up. Rather, it’s because she doesn’t feel qualified. “I am acutely aware of my strengths and my weaknesses,” says a straight-faced Barber, who also has 2.1 million followers on Facebook. “I am not the face of bushfires, nor am I the face of climate change. Because. I. Don’t. Know. What. I’m. Talking. About. I love that people are listening to me now and...I still say whatever I want, but only when I know what I’m talking about. I’ve been asked to do so many of these [climate awareness] things, and I’ve gone, ‘No. I don’t want to be Greta Thunberg.’ I want to be [American comedy actor] Melissa McCarthy and just do my thing.”