Whatever happened to stars who were also great actors? (1 Viewer)

[Adam_S]

Does anyone else notice the unspoken racism inherent in this topic? Almost stars mentioned have been caucasion or tailored to look caucasion (Keanu Reeves); excepting Denzel Washington, and Sam Jackson nobody seriously considers noncaucasions as superstars, yet most people hold Jackson and Denzel in high regard, I have to wonder, would a modern box office superstar vehicle really preform that differently if it had Denzel Washington in the lead instead of Tom Hanks? If all other things were equal the studio marketed it exactly the same as if they had Tom Cruise in there, they pushed it and shoved it down peoples throats, brainwashing them to see the movie (as the studios do with all the 'box office smashs' today), would the take be noticable different? Do the studios really think that white people are afraid to see a film with a black lead? Would they rather cast a caucasion actor lead every time, if given the option? Has anybody really tried to make a superstar on the league of Cruise/Hanks/Roberts from a minority? (after all superstar status is mostly marketing and papparazzi)
I heard Orson Scott Card (he wrote the best two scifi books of the last thirty years, Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead) at Endercon about this topic, he's been in meetings with studio executives THIS YEAR about getting the film made, one of the clauses he tried to have in the original contract was to have the Battle school be a fair representation of the worlds population (as it is in the book with more nonamericans then americans), he was flat out told no. They told him that other than the token minority supporting characters that are Ender's friends, all the remaining background characters would be white and nominally american, as they so kindly explained, if there are too many minority characters on screen white audience attendence would drop. Even if those are background children characters apparently. THIS WAS NOT WARNER BROS THAT SAID THIS! this was the standard reply he got from basically EVERY SINGLE major hollywood studio he took the script to. What was different was that Wolfgang Peterson read and fell in love with the book this year and basically forced WB to put it up. Sadly the project has been shelved in favor of Troy for the time being (and partially as a chance to let the inflammatory and inaccurate report on Aintitcool that flat out accused warners of racism cool down).

 

[Josh Lowe]

seriously considers noncaucasions as superstars

Chow Yun Fat is one of the best actors around and he is a superstar.

Jackie Chan isn't much of an actor but he's a tremendous movie star.

Hmm, thinking of Soderbergh and PT Anderson stuff now -

Bernie Mac is one of the funniest comedic actors around. He owned any scene he was in in Ocean's Eleven.

Don Cheadle and Luiz Guzman are two of the best character/supporting actors you'll find, and they're both certainly good enough for leading roles.

 

[LennyP]

Geoffrey Rush and Gary Oldman for me. Two of my favorite actors of all time. They may not be considered to be "great" stars but I'll watch anything with them in it!(Even House on Haunted Hill)

Yes! I'll second that. Best Oldman performances are in Luc Besson movies like Leon and 5th Element, and Rush is great in Tailor of Panama and yes, House on Haunted Hill is still the best "modern" horror movie

 

[Robert Crawford]

Are you kidding me? How in the world does the topic of this thread which is "Whatever happened to stars who were also great actors" an inherent racist subject matter? Your post gives me an impression of your desire to shift the direction of this discussion towards this more controversial topic of discussion. Is there still racism in Hollywood? You bet there is, but this thread was established to talk about superstars being great actors and not the social ill that has plague Hollywood from it's beginning.



Crawdaddy

 

[John Spencer]

I will see anything with Morgan Freeman in it. Even if the movie is a stinker, he always gives an awesome performance.
The same goes for Cameron Diaz. Give her a few years and she'll finally find roles that complement her natural charisma and talent. Then the awards will catch up with her. Or a nude scene; that would help too.

 

[Jim-G]

Hollywood movies are getting worse every year

soon our movies will all be vin deisel pepsi commertials and become as sucky as POP music.

without quality movies, we produce no quality talent either.

Hollywood is going down the tubes. It's quite sad actually.

 

[Michael Reuben]

I'm going to repeat a name I mentioned on the first page of the thread, but no one seems to have noticed:
Eddie Murphy
Yes, he's had some clunkers (as has everyone), but he's a genuine movie star with a string of hits to his credit. He also happens to be an extraordinary actor. His talent is often overlooked, because he does comedy, but much of the humor in a good Eddie Murphy film comes from his ability to create a fully realized character like Sherman Klump in The Nutty Professor films or Jif in Bowfinger.
M.

 

[John Spencer]

Jim, thanks for that unexpected left turn into "WhatTheFucks?Burgh".
I personally don't think Hollywood is any worse now than it ever was. It's all a question of growth and perspective. It looks like Hollywood is worse now because there is a larger quantity of tripe out there. And to most Americans, quantity equals quality. Just look at how most people view Southerners. I can't tell you the number of times I tell someone where I'm from and get asked how come I'm wearing shoes.
But there are an exponentially larger number of people to entertain also. And these peoples' tastes are way more diverse than they were even 20 to 30 years ago.
To say that Hollywood is going down the tubes is to piss in the pudding of those people who created movies such as Schindler's List, Shawshank Redemption, or Magnolia. And then there's the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. All of these are products of Hollywood. Of course, you might think it's all crap. And if that is the case, I am truly sorry.

 

[Jim-G]

Shindlers list and Shawshank redemption are great movies, but they are a decade old.

I am concerned about the declining ratio of quality movies to "tripe"

surely, you must see this too?

and without quality movies, you don't get DeNiro calliber actors