Lecture 10: Actors and Stars

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Lecture 10 Actors and Stars

• Professor Aaron Baker

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Previous Lecture

• Different media capabilities, assumptions.
• Representation of place.
• King of the Hill

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Todays Lecture

• Movie and Stage Actors
• Stars and their Images
• George Clooney

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Acting on stage

• Generally receives less recognition than movie
  acting.
• Emphasizes roles that arent confused with the
  actors real life.
• Can be evaluated by ones ability to succeed in
  well known roles (e.g. Hamlet, Willy Lohman, Lady
  Macbeth).

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One and Done

• Film roles are usually done just once. Movie
  actors perform a part and go on to others.
• There is no repertory in the movies as in theater
  to evaluate acting.
• Roles reprised in sequels, James Bond and Batman
  are minor exceptions.

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Acting Vs Performing

• Some stars are known for doing many different
  roles.
• Others for repeatedly playing similar
  charactersplaying themselves.

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Stage Performance

• Is done in one space and time, before a live
  audience
• It requires sustained focus for the 2-3 hours of
  a play.

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Movie Actors

• Generally perform for just a few minutes at a
  time, spread out over the weeks or months in
  which a film is shot.

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Film Actors

• Often have less control over their performance.
• The director, editor, producer may decide how
  the actor will appear.

Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, director Steven
Spielberg and actor Diego Luna on the set of The
Terminal 2004.
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Some Actors

• will learn more about other aspects of
  filmmaking to increase their control over the
  construction of their performances.
• (Lehman and Luhr, p. 149)

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Marlene Dietrich

• Learned about lighting and
• cinematography to have more involvement in how
  she was shown.

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Interview

• With Jeff Kurland, the costume designer from
  Oceans Eleven, he describes Brad Pitts interest
  in the costumes his character would wear.

Click on picture to watch interview.
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Stars

• Often earn the biggest salaries in a
• films budget.

• George Clooneys Paydays
• Intolerable Cruelty (2003)15,000,000
• Ocean's Eleven (2001)20,000,000
• The Perfect Storm (2000)8,000,000
• O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)1,000,000
• Three Kings (1999)5,000,000
• Out of Sight (1998)10,000,000
• Batman Robin (1997)10,000,000

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Why?

• Because of the film industry assumption that
  audiences will pay to see them.
• A stars Q Score measures his/her
• familiarity and appeal with audiences.

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What defines a movie star?

• A Featured performer in a film but also, an
  image that generates interest beyond individual
  films.

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Star Image

• Personality
• Work Habits
• Style
• Private Public Life
• Love Life

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck at a Red Sox game
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Hows a movie star image created?

• Film Roles
• Profiles
• Interviews
• Gossip Columns
• TV talk and Tabloid Shows

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Typecast

• Sometimes a star image becomes so fixed that
  even when he or she tries to break it by doing
  roles directly opposed to that image, the public
  ignores such deviations and continues to support
  the original image.
• (Lehman and Luhr, p.150)

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Sylvester Stallone

• Tried to move beyond his action hero image with
  comedies like Oscar (1991).
• The box office failure of these films forced him
  back into action roles.

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The Contender

• In 2005 he returned indirectly to the role that
  defined his image more than any other, Rocky, by
  producing and starring in the TV show about
  boxing
• The Contender.

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The Star System

• For the first 15 years of commerical cinema
  (1895-1910) there were no stars.
• Early producers worried if actors were
  publicized, they would ask for big salaries.
• Other producers introduced the concept of movie
  stars because they believed audiences would pay
  to see them.

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Classic Hollywood 1930-1950

• Saw the creation of stars by studios.
• Stars were under exclusive contract,
• Studios built their images by selecting film
  roles and publicity campaigns.

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Independent Producers

• As the studio system declined in the 1950s and
  60s, major stars became independent producers.
• This is still the a common practice today.

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Stars and Race

• Before the 1960s very few Hollywood stars were
  African American.
• Sidney Pottier broke this barrier in the late
  1950s and 1960s.

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Linear Analysis

• As with directors and genres, star images can be
  analyzed in terms of how they develop and change.

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George Clooney

• Got his first big role in a TV series, ER
  1994-99.
• His character, Dr. Doug Ross was attractive,
  charming, talentedbut a rebel.

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Charming Outsider

• Clooney has maintained this attractive rebel
  image in numerous roles.
• He has played thieves in six films.

Click on Image to Watch Clip
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Expanded Range
He has also modeled his leading man image with
self-deprecating comic roles in O Brother, Where
Art Thou (2000), Welcome to Collinwood
(2002), Intolerable Cruelty (2003).

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Example

• As you watch the following clip from
  Intolerable Cruelty, compare Clooneys character
  with those in Oceans Eleven or Out of Sight.

Click on Image to Watch Clip
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Offscreen

• Clooneys image has been that of a
• fun loving bachelor
• Sexist Man Alive in People Magazine
• Bet Michele Pfeiffer and Nicole Kidman 10,000 he
  wouldnt be father before forty.
• Bought a villa on Italys Lake Como

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Politics

• Produced the HBO series on Washington lobbyists,
  K Street.
• In 2004 Clooney supported his fathers, Nick,
  candidacy for a congressional seat in Kentucky.

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Like many stars

• Clooney downplays the idea of stardom as mainly
  a commercial phenomenon
• Its not about the opening weekend, Its
  about career, building a set of films youre
  proud of. Period.

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eBoard Questions

• After you watch Three Kings, answer the
  following question
• How does Clooneys role in this film fit or vary
  from his star image?

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End of Lecture 10
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