What happens when the dream life in Hollywood starts to feel more like a trap than a triumph? For some stars, the answer is simple: pack up, head out, and trade the red carpet for real life. In recent years, a wave of high-profile names have quietly left Los Angeles behind, seeking slower mornings, deeper connections, and a sense of normalcy they couldn’t find under the glare of paparazzi flashbulbs.
These changes aren’t about quitting it’s about acquiring something more. Whether that’s going back to their beginnings, taking refuge on a farm, or moving to a distant city where no one is judging them based on their IMDb profile, these stars are redefining what success means. And their stories show that sometimes, walking away from the limelight is the greatest move of all.
1. Glen Powell’s Texas Homecoming
In 2024, Glen Powell returned to his home state of Texas from Los Angeles, motivated by a need to be near family and complete the college degree he had deferred for more than 15 years. Talking to GQ, he called it winning “the right to return to my family.” His choice was motivated in part by Matthew McConaughey’s counsel that Hollywood is “the Matrix” and Austin is where you unplug. For Powell, the relocation wasn’t about backing away from his career it was about reclaiming his personal life and getting rooted in familiar soil.
2. Amanda Seyfried’s Catskills Sanctuary
Amanda Seyfried discovered her center of gravity on a farm in the Catskills of New York, where she resides with her husband, Thomas Sadoski, and their two children, as well as a menagerie that comprises goats, horses, chickens, and Gus the donkey. She has been open about how a poisonous early encounter on a film set compelled her to find a home away from Hollywood. “It’s crazy how much I can feel so successful and accomplished here without having to be in a successful film,” she said to the New York Times. For Seyfried, the farm is not simply a retreat it’s where she feels safe, renewed, and squarely in charge of her life.
3. Lily Collins’ Copenhagen Calm
Lily Collins and her husband Charlie McDowell, in 2023, traded LA for Copenhagen, which they had fallen for on their 2021 honeymoon. The pair jointly own media and real estate company Case Study Copenhagen, so the transition was professional as well as personal. Dual British and U.S. citizen Collins said of the city to Vogue Scandinavia, “Everyone here is so cool, so chic,” enjoying Copenhagen’s subtle style and relaxed pace. To her, Copenhagen provides a balance of creative potential and daily peace.
4. Jason Segel’s Ojai Reset
Jason Segel wrapped How I Met Your Mother and moved out of LA for a small stone cottage in an orange grove in Ojai, California. He originally moved to get ready for a role, but discovered something more profound peace. “After six weeks… I’m finally at peace,” he said in an interview with the LA Times, adding that outside of Hollywood, talk shifts from development projects to plain old daily life. Segel is now at ease with high school football games, Christmas productions, and walking his 21 acres in overalls, becoming part of a community where locals “have no idea” who he is.
5. Eric Stonestreet’s Kansas City Reality Check
Since Modern Family went off the air, Eric Stonestreet has stayed in Kansas City, enjoying real-life interactions away from Hollywood’s pretension. In an interview with In Depth with Graham Bensinger, he said that residing there “spotlights everything wonderful about our industry” but also shows its “douchebaggery.” Visits back to LA are “more enjoyable” now because they are fleeting. In Kansas City, Stonestreet’s existence is built around real moments such as conversing with neighbors at the grocery store free from the everyday performing of industry existence.
6. James Van Der Beek’s Ranch Revival
James Van Der Beek and his wife Kimberly relocated their six children to Texas in 2020 following a year of personal tragedy and medical scares. Life on their ranch has been one of cultivating food, carpentry tests, and, as Van Der Beek revealed to Good Morning America, discovering “a lot more of who I am and what’s important.” Hollywood offers to return to the city have not lured him away from the tranquility they have established any future work will be family-friendly, keeping the kids in tow.
7. Lindsay Lohan’s Dubai Escape
For Lindsay Lohan, leaving Dubai in 2014 was not just a change of setting it was safety. Paparazzi photography is illegal in the UAE, something that could not be said of America in her twenties. “I don’t ever want my family to experience being chased by the paparazzi the way I was,” she said to The Times. Married now with a son, she leads a “normal life” without surveillance, where privacy and quiet are possible in a city that allows her to concentrate on work and being a mother without fear.
8. Josh Hartnett’s Hampshire Hideaway
Josh Hartnett and wife Tamsin Egerton moved to Hampshire, England after lockdown, and in their village, “nobody cares” about his acting career, a welcome respite from LA and NYC. Because of his marriage visa, Hartnett is limited to working 180 days per year one movie a year, really which is fine by him. The slower pace allows for more time with his children and a break from the toxic attention he used to receive, including stalking episodes in the early days of his career.
These transitions aren’t about abandoning success they’re about reimagining it. For Glen Powell, Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Jason Segel, Eric Stonestreet, James Van Der Beek, Lindsay Lohan, and Josh Hartnett, exiting LA was about finding the room to breathe, reconnect, and live on their own terms. In a world that too often reduces value to visibility, their decisions serve as a reminder that the most authentic type of fame could be the type that nobody sees.
