Just when you thought that there was no such thing as being “discovered” anymore, along comes Kelleth Cuthbert a.k.a. Fiji Water Girl a.k.a. the first meme of 2019. And yes, it’s true, there is no greater fame level at this point than being made into a meme. Cuthbert, thusly, must be feeling almost as out of breath with delight as Lana Turner purportedly did when she was “found” at Schwab’s Drugstore by Mervyn LeRoy–even if she was actually at an entirely different soda counter called Top Hat Cafe filling her gullet with milkshake or whatever, when William Wilkerson, publisher of The Hollywood Reporter, got a look at her. She was sixteen. Fiji Water Girl is somewhere in her thirties–a reveal, once again this year at the Golden Globes, of just how much progress H’Wood has made with regard to its usual brand of ageism.
Under the employ of Wilhelmina Models (hence her high-profile gig serving bottled water), Cuthbert is from Toronto and currently living in L.A. to live the dream like everyone else (though she’s clearly doing it a lot better). And because Hollywood loves a good backstory, it also turns out that Cuthbert used to be a social worker specializing in addictions and mental health counseling. And, speaking of addictions, it would seem that Cuthbert has always had a certain dependency on photobombing as a shtick, commenting of her overnight fame, “This is something I would go viral for. I feel like I’ve been photobombing people since I was a kid.”
Reports that Cuthbert was angling for the cameras as a means to get noticed were kiboshed by the acting hopeful as she explained, “Sometimes you’re caught between a lot of cameras, so there’s a lot of photographers at different angles. You’re just kind of trapped sometimes. See that’s the thing: I feel like I was looking away, but sometimes I was looking so I could move out of the way.” Sure, Fiji Water Girl, sure. We all know Black Swan cutthroatness (cutthroat, Cuthbert) exists within us all when the opportunity for fame is dangled. And now that everyone has taken the bait, it begs an altogether different question about whether transcending into a meme is a viable way to sustain recognition. For even though Cuthbert has stated she’s ready for the attention, she skeptically added, “I think all of this stuff is very fleeting. I enjoy the craft of acting, but all the other stuff around it is just noise. It’s light and fun, and I think it’s meant to be taken that way. Not too seriously.” Then again, just look at Danielle “Cash Me Outside” Bregoli, who recently appeared on Clean Bandit’s latest album as a result of her own meme’s longevity.
So yes, even though the medium of how one is “unearthed” has changed, everyone still loves an unusual tale of how an actor rises to fame. Hence, it has to be asked: from glorified waitress to internet sensation, is a starring role in a movie far behind? Or at least a starring role in a commercial for Fiji water. Anything is possible in these bizarre and crazy times of twenty-first century discovery stories, notoriety being solely determined by the strange and faceless meme makers of the internet who likely would not have deemed Lana Turner worthy of their time.
