The 2010s seem to have produced fewer certifiable movie stars than any previous decade. Chris Pratt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Adam Driver and Jennifer Lawrence have had substantial careers out of superhero spandex
“Today, actors and actresses float across and around stardom,” wrote the film historian Janine Basinger in The Star Machine, her 2007 history of the star system. She identified the rise of something she called “the neo-star”: the actor who threads the needle between typecasting and character acting. The description fits Driver, Lawrence and Cumberbatch, all of whom have moved between big branded franchises and Oscar-bound film projects.
The old-school, Klieg-lit movie star may soon die, but behold, by the light of a million smartphones the neo-star is born
Driver, like BC, has done some big franchise movies and also artistic films. That's what they were talking about.
And TBF of those three, I think only Lawrence is/was a star in the old sense of the word but she didn't last too long as such probably because the market indeed changed.
I guess the point of the article is that they do some massive films in which they maybe aren't traditional stars in the old sense of the word (an actor as an heroic personality*) but they are fitting the old role of the star of the movie and then next day, they are character actors, too.
*And I'm thinking on a phrase from a song by an old Mexican rock band: "El muchacho chicho de la película gacha". Something like "the pretty boy from the awful flick" Lol
The article mentions that there was a time when people cared about the star more than the movie, so they would go see “new Schwarzenegger movie”. Really? People said that? The more I read in the article, the more clear it became that they were mainly referring to men - men in the movies and men in the audience. I stopped being interested in the “new Tom Cruise movie” when he started doing these stupid action movies. And that’s when men started watching his movies and made him a huge movie star.
She was wonderful in her breakthrough role, Winter's Bone and I think the polemical Mother! is a masterwork. She took a huge risk with that and I think that's admirable.
Ha! I know I’ve talked about this before, so I don’t want to bore anyone. But since you asked . . .
I absolutely hated when we saw her at the Oscars and other events being all clumsy and tripping over her feet. I suspect it was all fake, which makes it even worse. But real or fake, the “Isn’t it cute and adorable that I’m so ditzy?” act makes me want to scream! I know it made her even more popular, and I cringed whenever I saw her do it.
Since many of her fans were young girls, it made me angry to see her set such a bad example for them in her personal life. I realize that she has no responsibility to be a role model for anyone, but she was one nonetheless. The whole thing about sending nude photos to her boyfriend was ridiculous! Not because she did it (and she and her boyfriend had already broken up by then), but because she made a huge deal about blaming anyone who had dared to look at them. Yes, blame others for the stupid decisions you made!
And finally, there was a premiere or something where she was photographed outdoors with her male co-stars. It was a cold day, and the men wore suits while she wore a strapless gown. There were tons of comments about that photo, saying that someone should have offered her a coat, and it was typical for women to have to suffer for fashion, while the men were nice in warm in their suits. She freaked out over those comments, saying something like “How DARE you assume I don’t make my own decisions! Nobody tells me what to do!” She sounded like a nut, screaming at her fans.
The appropriate response to her fans in those situations should have been: “It was a dumb thing to do, to send my boyfriend nude photos, and now they’re out there for the world to see. I’ve learned my lesson, though, so don’t do it, girls!” And also “It’s so sweet of everyone to be concerned about me being cold that day! I was offered a coat, but I hated covering up the beautiful designer dress that had been made for me!”