Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, and the fine margins between being an actor and a movie star
Even though they fall under the exact same category, there’s a clear distinction between an actor and a movie star, with the modern era running increasingly thin on names who genuinely qualify as both.
At the end of the day, the profession requires a performer to stand on set in front of a camera and recite their lines, so everybody is technically doing the same thing. And yet, it’s nowhere near as simple or straightforward as that, and there’s a scarcity of thespians who can both win acclaim for their powerhouse performances and also open a movie at the box office based on their involvement alone.
For an example of polar opposites, Dwayne Johnson and Daniel Day-Lewis both do the exact same job, but they couldn’t be more different. One is among the greatest actors of all time, but plastering his name all over the marketing isn’t going to yield a sure-fire smash hit. Conversely, the other essentially plays himself and anchors an established persona expressly to sell the maximum amount of tickets, giving audiences exactly what they want to see while hardly challenging themselves on a technical level.
Brad Pitt has made career choices that indicate he’s not interested in being a movie star, but he’s been an A-lister for three decades. Similarly, Leonardo DiCaprio averages one feature film appearance every couple of years, but he’s been so good at what he does for so long that he’s become a bankable name by default, albeit one that’s never been interested in movie stardom, having avoided blockbuster fare entirely with the exception of Christopher Nolan’s Inception.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was one of the biggest and highest-paid stars in the business, but acting in the truest sense was the weakest part of his arsenal. The same can be said of Keanu Reeves, Vin Diesel, Jason Statham, and Mark Wahlberg to varying degrees, but each of them have carved out massively successful careers playing to their strengths.
Christian Bale is a phenomenal actor who isn’t interested in being a movie star, whereas somebody like Chris Pratt is a movie star who has yet to prove themselves as an actor. There’s a sweet spot to be found, but hitting it and then staying there is something that can’t be achieved deliberately, although there are a couple of high-profile household names to have made it look easy.
Tom Cruise, meanwhile, was wonderful at it before he abandoned working on smaller projects almost entirely in favour of becoming a persona, while Will Smith’s Academy Award win for ‘Best Actor’ came after years of commercial disappointments that saw his wattage begin to wane. To offer a counterpoint, Harrison Ford has always been a movie star and Meryl Streep has always been an actor, but they’ve both been equally famous for roughly the same amount of time.
Tom Hanks did it almost by accident after being anointed as ‘America’s Dad’, but his name is enticing enough to draw viewers into whatever he’s in, simply because of who he is and what his involvement promises. For the standout and near-definitive combination of a person who’s an actor and movie star in equal measure, look no further than Denzel Washington.
He’s won two Oscars from ten nominations and is inarguably one of the most talented thespians to have ever graced the silver screen, but he’s also a certifiable draw. His regular forays into action thrillers almost always top the box office, but his formidable turns in hard-hitting dramas are regularly every bit as successful. Washington, the actor, is a respected and acclaimed thespian, while Washington, the action hero, is something paying customers can’t seem to turn down.
Nobody encapsulated the variations between the two better than Michael Caine, who’s been around long enough to work with his fair share of both. “The difference between a movie star and a movie actor is this,” he explained. “A movie star will say, ‘How can I change the script to suit me?’ and a movie actor will say. ‘How can I change me to suit the script?'” That’s the distinction in microcosm, summed up by a legend of the game.
