If you have a business, you need customers coming into your shop or store buying your products and through doing a very thorough job, word of mouth gets out and your store increases in business and one starts to see that the struggles and sacrifices they made to get to make their dreams come through, have paid off. That’s just business logic.
Now as a former security guard, you learn that you work with a team. If one team member is corrupt or unethical, it puts a bad light on the rest of a team. I guess it’s not so in the world of acting and if it is so, those that have reached a certain pinnacle and are past their prime, like to make sure that those younger, have no chance to make it on their own. This seems to be the trend of actors today.
Sean Penn, George Clooney and Robert De Niro have all been very vocal about their political views and yet none of these actors seem to have any experience in governing anything nor do they speak with supported facts but with blanket statements that come off more like the ramblings of madmen. Of course you’re allowed to have opinions and we have Freedom of Speech in this country but is it really a strategic move to make such stupid statements that can possibly hurt the opinions of people you need to keep you relevant? It’s no secret that the age of an actor is pretty much their expiration date. You can deny it all you want, but it’s true and to ignore it just makes you look bad and desperate. It’s in all industries to a lesser extent, but it’s a fact of life and now you add political opinions that help none of your customer base. That is just insane.
Aside from being political, one can just be unhinged or have an overinflated ego. Talent like Rachel Zegler and Cynthia Erivo tend to think they are more important than they really are. We all know about the Zegler meltdown and now Erivo is starting to throw around attitude. It doesn’t bother me because I don’t care what she does or who she does it with. Bottom line, she’s just a singer that acts or an actress that can sing. None of these talents build anything. They don’t build homes or building or towns. They create no solutions or ideas to better the human race. They are distractions. They are a playground for the mind before the body has to get back to the daily grind of hard work. Why do they think their opinions matter so much? They don’t.
So actors, your job is to do the material to the best of your ability and to just shut up. Investors don’t care what you think. The audience seeking entertainment doesn’t care what you think. They don’t need you! No one needs you! We watch you because we like you but if wish us not to like you, we won’t watch you! There are tens of thousands of actors that could take your place and only a couple hundred of productions that need actors. The odds are not great. Don’t make them insurmountable. When silence is no better than words, one should remain silent.
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The truth is, art is and always has been political. Entertainment is not mindless, because storytelling reflects the times we live in, and the people who bring those stories to life are not just actors; they’re brands, collaborators, and gateways to financing and distribution.
A-list and B-list talent aren’t just randomly chosen names on a poster. They’re often the key reason a project gets made. Their opinions, personal brands, and the weight of their audiences absolutely matter, not just to audiences, but to investors, studios, and international buyers. That attachment is what “greenlights” a film or series. But more than that, many of these actors care deeply about the material they say “yes” to, and that passion is often rooted in their lived experiences, values, and yes, sometimes political beliefs.
No actor, no matter how famous, lives in a vacuum. In the age of social media and 24/7 access, privacy is no longer a given, and it’s unrealistic to expect public figures to be apolitical just to avoid upsetting potential viewers. Whether or not someone agrees with the personal stances of actors like Clooney, De Niro, Erivo, or Zegler, they’ve all earned a place in this business through years of work and dedication. That deserves a baseline of professional respect.
Stage 32 is a place where diverse opinions about the industry’s landscape are welcome, but we also hold a standard of professionalism in how we speak about real people in the industry. This is a relationship-driven business, and you never know who here might know someone, or be someone, whose opinion could shape a future opportunity.
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Philip David Lee you speak with a lot of passion on this topic. You've clearly thought about it deeply and i remember you have posted on this topic before. I wonder if there is something specific that has happened that has prompted you to write this now? I'm curious also if you have had a personal experience that resonates with this? Knowing more about your own specific experiences (if you wish to share of course) might help your message land more and for me to understand where you are coming. from. I appreciate your opinion whilst disagreeing that actors are just a playground for the mind.
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Ashley Renee Smith Alexandra Stevens I personally can't fault either of your comments as false or untrue because they are based on fact established from the past. However as Ashley pointed, we are in a new era of information gathering and when a star screwed up in the past or maybe had a voracious sexual appetite that society would deem unhealthy, studios had a team of cleaners to deescalate as much negative press as possible. That being said, if you have a "political opinion" you better make sure you have a strong argument to back it up or you better be wanting to start a career in politics because that's all on you. As an actor, many may never find fame outside of their local theater company in any Small Town, America. A-list and B-list actors are just like sets on a movie. Most of them are false fronts created by terms that mean nothing. Yeah, Robert Downey Jr was great as Tony Stark, but Robert didn't create the character or write the screenplay. At most he added some adlibs into the dialog, but he mostly played himself. Personally, I preferred Norton's Banner over Ruffalo's but I wanted to see Hulk smash and when they changed him for Infinity Wars and Endgame, it seemed more to appease the ego of the actor than to stay true to the character he was HIRED to play. Does Tom Cruise hurt himself from his dealing with Scientology? Perhaps. Did Rachel Zegler hurt everything she has been in in the last 4 years? She can't help but put her foot in her mouth and even though she didn't really say anything bad or she maybe wasn't informed about, the public turned on her. Come to find out, she does need their business.
The fact of the matter is that the whole system is flawed. An actor in one action role isn't going to have the same impact as that same actor in a drama role. Go to The Numbers and look at Market Shares according to Genre. Data doesn't lie and to cram it into a mathematical equation so SAG can get more money for one of their union members really kind of borders on fraud and SAG is not responsible if one of their actors turns society against them and makes it so no one wants to see any movie they're in.
So you tell me. The story I'm working on now while it's a study of the death of common sense and logic, the ideas tend to lean to a more conservative way of thinking. People on the "Left" might not like it. I will try and find more conservative leaning actors to be in it or find actors that choose not to show their political side. I'll handle any attacks. I wrote it. I can defend it. You're either a logical human being who can adjust opinions with new data presented or you're a brick wall that will never understand anything but your own perceptions. What I don't need is an actor that already got paid, has nothing to do with post unless there's ADR or reshoots needed and literally did the work 14 to 6 months ago, pissing off the general public 2 months before the thing is to be released.
That's my main point. You want to run for office, go ahead. You'll either make sense of make noise. You want to still be considered an A-lister then don't become a poison pill. I'm not here to die on your hill. I'm trying to live up to promise I made to investors.
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This is kind of an ironic post. I mean, it is rambling and unfocused, its political, and (although you frame it as a question) its just your opinion you're putting to other people without anyone asking for it. You're kind of doing the thing you are talking about. It seems like you just hate actors or something. Like they just really grind your gears for some reason. I would point out that you really don't need to know anything about celebrity's private lives or personalities. You can just watch movies or tv shows and not worry about the personalities of the actors. You must be choosing to follow celebrity news and stuff.
Regardless, if your point is that celebrities won't benefit from talking politics or acting crazy, I would point out that the President is a celebrity game show host who tweets every 10 minutes. This is a time where getting attention to yourself is an asset. That's just the world we're in.
Otherwise, I'm not sure what all that typing has to do with actors hating their profession, but I'm not an actor, but I would point out that pretty much everyone hates their profession. So if they do, that's not unusual
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Zackary Goncz You seem to wear a lot of hats Zackary, but you don't seem to understand how everything interconnects. That's fine. You can put warning signs on the beach but if you don't know what they mean, it's no skin off my nose. I don't ride on the rescue vessels. Before Trump was a game show host, he was a business developer. Studios approached him with the the show's idea. It judged business acumen where Trump was the host for the first 14 seasons which is not a bad run and after he left the show, he became President a year later. Your education seems to have some holes in it as well.
But hey, you seems to be the resident expert on all things. Try writing a business plan to investors asking them for millions of dollars and promising them 120% ROI on their initial investment plus 50% of net profits. Tell them that distribution will spend half the film's budget on marketing techniques that have no proven track record of how many people their efforts actually get into spending money on your project and then tell them you hired a star (most likely overpaid) that says "If you don't agree with me, unfollow me. I don't need your business." See how works out for you because what do I know? I'm just some rambling, unfocused person that's, what, sharing false knowledge to help out what is basically my competition? And yet you can't see how all this is connected? Some people have to touch the fire so they know what the sensation of being burned is, but you don't have to stand in front of a bullet train going 300 mph to know it's probably not a good idea.
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Zackary Goncz thanks for sharing your viewpoint which I appreciate. Especially since you are not an actor but i imagine you've had lots of experience with them given your profile?