Introduction to Film Acting

2. American Star System

Stars are created by the public, they influence fashion, values, and public behavior

They're paid by the millions per movie, and some stars careers span over 5 decades

Stars allows the audience to live out their deepest fantasies and obsessions. they're almost god-like

Prior to 1910, actors' names were virtually unknown and were often referred to by their on-screen personas

Samuel Goldwyn stated that "God makes the stars, it's up to the producers to find them"

Stars often followed the rags to riches motif

The humble origins of many stars encouraged the public to believe that anyone- even ordinary people- could be "discovered" and make it into Hollywood, where all their dreams would come true.

Most of the stars during the 1930s and 1940s were under exclusive contract to the five major production companies: MGM, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Twentieth Century-Fox, and RKO.... the Big five/majors

produced about 90% of the fiction films in America

Reference Films

Jerry Maguire (U.S.A., 1996)

Most Tom Cruise movies follow a similar generic pattern: He begins as a brash, confident upstart, cocky and full of himself. A lady's man. But he isn't as smart as he thinks he is, and is humbled by conspicuous error in judgment. With the help if a supportive young woman who loves him, however, he sees the error of his ways and goes on to even greater success.

Magnolia (U.S.A., 1999)

He also tries to take risk by playing against type, such as staring is Magnolia. He is a woman-hating "self empowerment" man, and puffs himself up with his own irresistibility what when his pomposity is punctured, he collapses hard. It’s his most impressive performance.

Taxi Driver (U.S.A., 1976)

A movie to refer to Robert De Niro. He is famous for his rigorous preparations prior to production, researching his roles exhaustively. He buries himself in a role and rarely exploits his personal charisma and is noticeable during interviews, which he rarely grants.

During the golden age of the star system, “the majors produced approximately 90 percent of the fiction films in America,” which also dominated 80 percent of theaters world-wide

Majors began looking at live theater actors for new stars including: James Cagney, Bette Davis, Edward G. Robinson, Cary Grant, Mae West, Katherine Hepburn.

The reason they became popular was that they had “personality voices”

For the first years under a studio contract, these stars were exposed, constantly trying different roles until one became a hit – a star would usually then be locked into the same type of role - often unwillingly. [i.e. Clark Gable, who was in 14 films in his first year at MGM, in each one he played a different role to see which would fit.]

Studios used stars as a guarantee to box-office success – “bankable”

Studios also invested in stars, or stars-to-be, spending time, money and energy into teaching promising stars how to talk, walk, dress, and were even given new names.

Though star actors were often exploited, their power would also increase, having top billing and say in the script, the directors, producers, costars, cameramen and stylists

As enormous as their salaries were, stars made even more money for the studios

Generally, movies without stars would fail commercially

The more serious stars used their power to advance their art, not just their pay checks such as Bette Davis

Stars used fan letters and fan clubs as barometer of their popularity, major stars receiving about 3,000 letters per week and Clark Gable who had 70 clubs

The mythology and glamour of movie stars seem to lift them above the ordinary

“Somehow their wealth, fame, and beauty, their apparently unlimited field of worldly pleasure – these conditions tinge them with the supernatural, render them immune to the bitterness of ordinary frustrations” (Parker Tyler, critic)

Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jean Baker) has become the icon of the fallen star, having a tumultuous personal life, and her career being mismanaged by the studios despite that fact that she was a major star to the public and “desperately needed to be one”

Films Referenced

Blood & Wine (USA, 1997)

Referenced as one film in which Jennifer Lopez plays a dangerous femmes fatale to break away from her sweet, good-natured image

To Die For (USA 1995)

Starring Nicole Kidman, showing that “a face that opens up to the camera” and allows the camera to capture “the most intimate nuances of emotion and thought” is necessary for a star, not just talent, beauty or presence.

Philadelphia (USA 1993)

Stars Tom Hanks as a gay lawyer dying of AIDS and is fired by his homophobic law firm. An example of how some stars are so loveable and charming, that they can play any role and still be favored.

Reality behind mythologies of stars is not romantic

For every actor that succeeds, hundreds of thousands fail.

Marilyn Monroe was a very popular and successful actress and icon, yet her private life was in shambles. Constantly doped-up or drunk, she died in 1962 due to an overdose of barbiturates and alcohol.

Maureen Stapleton was quoted as saying that "Actors spend years and years being treated like dirt. They're constantly in a state of debasement, making the rounds of casting directors and having to look happy and great."

The private lives of film stars are constantly written about in tabloids and the stars themselves are hounded out of their privacy. Yet the positive aspects and good deeds of stars are rarely publicized, for they do not appeal to the public's envy and malice. Many stars are charitable, have successful political careers, and are activists for various causes.

Stars have to get used to being treated like commodities with a price.

All stars are reduced to types: virgins, vamps, swashbucklers.

All stars are unique even if they all fall under the same category.

cheap blonde -- Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, Jean Harlow -- yet all distinctive

Sidney Poitier helped set the precedent for other African-American stars after him.

Performances from different individuals stand out as defining points of those actors.

Types of Actors

Major distinction between a Personality star and an Actor star.

Personality star-

manage to tailor each role to fit their personality

refuse parts that go against their type and conflict with their image Tom Hanks commonly plays sympathetic characters

remain in same mold, playing variations on the same character type

Personality Stars: acted “natural”, therefore limiting their role choices of character that epitomized them. However they were able to be the role rather than act the role.

personal charm is larger than life

Abandoning this type of role can result in box office disastor

There are those that play the variations of the same roles with a few tweaks here and there, still allowing them to expand there acting range but limited by the typecast. Some do become archetypal: “the Clint Eastwood type”

John Wayne was always a man of action and violence, not words, an had a distinct iconography- steeped in a distrust of sophistication and intellectuality. His name is synonymous with maculinity though his persona suggests more of a warrior than a lover: a man's man. Wayne is a testament to how a star has an enormous influence in transmitting values. He embodied right wing ideology and was a hero for conservate Americans.

Actor star/ Character Actor --

Versatile actors: can play a wide range of roles rather than a specific genre; may give up starring roles to play a wide range of characters i.e. Johnny Depp, Reese Witherspoon.

Personality never seemed to intrude on playwright's character.

An invisible art, where impersonations are so totally believable that the viewer is like to forget it's an impersonation.

They are the usung heros of the profession because what they lack in glamour they make up for in longevitiy and versatility.

Character actors usually look like regular people, not movie stars

Since they don't have slick looks, they can continue working until old age

Reference Films

The Silence of the Lambs (USA, 1991)

Sir Anthony Hopkins is versatile, like most British-trained actors, and was able to give a wonderful, stylistic portrayal of the twisted genius Hannibal Lecter. Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter.

Heist (U.S.A. 2001)

this movie stars Gene Hackman, he is powerfully built and is very believable. He listens and always reacts to specific details from his co-actors and doesn't just deliver a generic performance.

Shakespeare in Love (Britain, 1998)

Judi Dench won best supporting actress. She portrays her character perfectly and is very believable

Jackie Brown (U.S.A., 1997)

Starring Samuel Jackson, he is usually at his best with offbeat roles/characters. He is edgy, aggressive and funny and always delivers.

About Schmidt (U.S.A., 2002)

Kathy Bates is a powerful, dramatic actress. She can be funny, aggressive or controlling and obsessive. She is never boring or unpredictable. Her presence in a movie is a virtual guarantee of a good time

Popularity is what makes a star different from a professional actor, whether they are loved for exemplifying American ideals and virtues, for being the mysterious loner, or their dashingly good looks.

Iconography: the use of a well-known cultural symbol in an artistic representation.

A sensitive analysis of a film must take into accout the star's iconographical significance.

This star's film can convey an ideology, implying ideal ways of behaving.

A star can can have tremendous impact in transmitting values. Their iconography can support or challeng pre-established conventions of a genre.

Hitchcock: “Whenever the hero isn’t portrayed by a star the whole picture suffers, audiences are far less concerned with the predicament of a character who’s played by someone they don’t know.”Hitchcock he liked to push a start to their dark side in a way that often subverted the star's established iconography. Ex. James Stewart in Veritgo (1958)-

James Stewart was loved as an American Idealist in his role in It's a Wonderful Life, yet in Vertigo we see Stewart as a obessed with a romantic idealization of a mysterious woman.

Part of a stars iconography is always developing and borrows from their real life and previous roles. Jane Fonda's career can be divided into 6 phases:

The Father: Entry into the profession was facilitated by her father: Henry Fonda. She physically resembled him and she her politics were liberal as well. Her roles during this period were rambunctious and sexy. This phase culminated in Cat Ballou (1965)

Sex: This phase is dominated by her french film director Roger Vadim, who explored her good looks and sensational figure in a series of erotic films like Barabrella. Even though divorced she claimed he helped liberate her from her hangups and innocence.

Acting: She studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actor's Studio in New York. Her depth and range expanded and she was nominated for an Academy Award for They Shoot Horses, Don't They (1969) She won an oscar for he performance as an actor in Klute (1971)

Politics: Fonda was radicalized by Vietnam and the women's movement. She spoke out frequently against the war, racisim and sexism. She also politicized her work by starring in movies that were frankly ideological: A Doll's House (1973) Julia (1977) . Her left wing politics affected her box-office success.

Independence: She began her own production company and enjoyed success as a producer and became an author.

Middle Age, Retirement and Private Life: After she married Ted Turner the actor, she retired from acting in 1992.

Icon in Popular Mythology

Ultimate goal: BECOME A LEGEND in American Pop Culture.

The values an actor symbolizes on-screen in a sense are the same values the audience celebrates in themselves.

The great actors are Cultural Archetypes: their box office popularity is an index of their success in synthesizing the aspirations of an era.

Reference Films

Barber Shop (USA 2002)

Shows how Ice Cube is an entrepreneur. His success in Music, production, and adequate acting skills caused MGM to contact him to produce and work on the script for Barber Shop.

Die Hard with a Vengeance (USA, 1995)

One of the talented action-stars of his time, Willis is an accomplished player, capable of considerable emotional power. But audiences overwhelmingly prefer Willis as the wisecracking smartass.