'Paranoia' stars talk about loss of privacy in today's tech-savvy world

LOS ANGELES – One of the aspects of the new “Paranoia” film (opening Friday) delves into how today’s technological innovations not only provide people with amazing access to information, but also have opened a Pandora’s box — frequently negating many aspects of personal privacy.

Clearly three of the film’s stars — Liam Hemsworth, Amber Heard and Harrison Ford — have experienced that first hand, as Hemsworth’s engagement to Miley Cyrus, Heard’s dating of Johnny Depp and even Ford’s life with wife Calista Flockhart , have made them targets of supermarket tabloids and the paparazzi.

While chatting about the film recently, all three stars responded to the same question about loss of privacy.

Q: While contemporary technology allows for the invasion of privacy for everyone — it’s obviously even more intrusive for people like you, who are in the public eye — and are targets of all the celebrity magazines, websites and paparazzi. Is that hard to live with?

LIAM HEMSWORTH: This movie gives huge insight into the day and age we are living in today, and how much technology has advanced and we haven’t really caught up with it. It’s made me realize we don’t really have the proper protection programs and things in place for computers, email and even our home phones.

Anything we do is stored in cyberspace and it can be taken by anyone — or hacked into. I think the illusion of our lives being as private as we want them to be and staying private is just that — an illusion. … At the end of the day, I make movies and love making movies and get to work with amazing actors and directors. So the loss of my privacy is a small price to pay. Though at times it can be really irritating.

AMBER HEARD: Of course, but you get used to living your life a bit like the title of this film! “Paranoia”! There is a sort of paranoia about a lot of people and things, if you are in my line of work. Privacy is something you have to fight for. People who aren’t actors — aren’t in this line of work — maybe take it for granted the access or ease with which information is acquired and stored. When it’s information about you, it’s very different — and can be a very uncomfortable situation. People in general today give up privacy in exchange for the comfort of being able to connect rapidly with a community of people — and often don’t even think about the consequences.

HARRISON FORD: I’m scared by other things than loss of privacy. I’m scared by collapsing natural systems. I’m scared by what’s happening with the weather. I’m scared with what is happening with our political landscape. I don’t much care about the privacy thing.