Despite being an extremely popular franchise, working on ‘Star Wars’ may be a career ending move.
According to a recent report by The Hollywood Reporter, many actors become typecast after working with ‘The Force’.
Call it a double-edged lightsaber. Every actor in Hollywood chases Star Wars, hoping the gig will provide instant A-list entree. But theStar Wars track record is filled with underachievers and stalled careers. Six movies in, the franchise has spawned just one megastar: Harrison Ford. “The problem is, when you are in such a massive franchise — and there’s no bigger franchise than Star Wars — a lot of moviegoers look at an actor and only can see the character they played in it,” says Phil Contrino, analyst at Boxoffice.com.
Do you think it’s a joke? Natalie Portman’s career nearly ended after appearing in Episodes I-III. Portman revealed in an interview that she assumed she would get more roles after working on the franchise. “Everyone thought I was a horrible actress,” she said in December. “I was in the biggest-grossing movie of the decade, and no director wanted to work with me.”
Liam Neeson’s career was in a basic stand-still after working on Star Wars and it was not until he starred in the low-budget thriller, ‘Taken’ did his career take off.
At the end of the day, if you never had a chance to audition for a role on ‘Star Wars’, it may be a good thing. Actors can’t land new opportunities and the pay is not that much.
“When you sign up for this, you’re signing your life away, and you’re keeping yourself from any other franchises out there,” says an agent whose client is one of the stars of Episode VII. “They will not let you be in another franchise. They’re going to be cranking out a new movie every year. These actors never get to read the script before signing on. They don’t even know which [subsequent] one they are in. And then they become known for that role, and it’s hard to see them in a Fault in Our Stars kind of movie.” Also, the pay is meager. Sources say the newcomers can only command $65,000 to $125,000 for Episode VII, with sequel options exponentially greater. Still, agents will keep pursuing. Paradigm’s Sarah Fargo, whose client, Domhnall Gleeson, was cast in Episode VII, sees only upside: “It secures all involved a place in film history and guarantees a huge global audience, enhancing an actor’s marketability.”
Would you still audition for a role on ‘Star Wars’?
Discuss this story with fellow Project Casting fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @projectcasting.
