Selling Out
By Tom Macy
July 10, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
This is nothing new. You do the movies that will ultimately make you the most money, the most famous and the most awards. That's just good business. What's that? Acting is an art not a business? Well maybe for some, but those people aren't getting paid. It's a nice idea that these top tier stars have a love of craft, just like it's a nice idea that athletes are devoted to their fans, and to a point maybe they are. But it has been proved time and time again that no matter how much you love something, everyone has a price tag.
Two of the latest confirmations of this trend appeared together last week in Michael Mann's digital marathon Public Enemies. Batman and Jack Sparrow or, if you like, John Connor and Willy Wonka. A decade ago they were poster boys for the anti-poster boy. While possessing leading man looks and overflowing with talent, both refused to be typecast by Hollywod, typically opting for challenging, range-widening roles over a paycheck.
Who knows, maybe what these guys wanted all along was to play superheroes. But for my money, it seems that their alternative movie star ways in the '90s has become their confirmative movie star ways in the '00s. To which I say...
Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.
I take you back to the turn of the millennium. It's the year 2000. Everyone is still in denial about The Phantom Menace, Tom Cruise and Jim Carrey are popular and M. Night Shyamalan is the next Steven Spielberg. It was a confusing time. But two things were for sure. Johnny Depp and Christian Bale were the real deal.
In addition to The Grinch, American Psycho was released that year. Bale's now legendary performance was such a hidden gem you practically needed a secret password to rent it at your local Blockbuster. Made for only $7 million and grossing about twice that amount, Bale's Patrick Bateman made him a perennial "he does it for the art" guy. How else could you explain someone so talented and so magnetic not being a bigger star?
That same year, Mr. Depp made us all swoon as an angel-faced gypsy in Chololat and cringe in a dual performance in Before Night Falls that cannot be described, just seen. So good, so versatile, so indie.
But forget about success. What about awards? What does Bale have to say about not getting serious Oscar attention for American Psycho? Does it bother Depp that his films garnered six nominations between them and none for him? No way, we thought, it's all about the craft.
Both of these guys had made their careers out of resisting fame, which had earned them serious cult followings - Entertainment Weekly named Bale as one of the past decade's Top Eight Most Powerful Cult Figures. Depp's colorful collaborations with Tim Burton (Depp has claimed that "If he wants me to have sex with an aardvark in one of his next movies, then I will do that" - be careful what you wish for, Johnny) and Bale's turns in films like Velvet Goldmine, Swing Kids and his astonishing debut Empire of the Sun made them actors that audiences felt an intimate connection with. Each new performance was a gift. You could never tell what they would do next. The dedication to their craft inspired fans to believe that this was truly their passion and no amount of money would make them compromise it.
There was another film that came out in 2000. A little flick called X-Men. A good movie that I will always watch for at least ten minutes if I come across it on HBO, X-Men is the film that started it all. Spider-Man, Superman, The Hulk, Iron Man, Punisher, Hellboy, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Sin City, Watchmen, and...Batman. If the '70s were about the new Hollywood, the '80s were about bad action and the '90s were about indie films, the Aughts were about superhero movies.
All of a sudden, actors had the chance to literally live out the boyhood fantasies that led them to their current profession. And, for better or for worse, live them out they did. With the superhero film alive and well after being suffocated by Joel Schumacher in the late '90s, leading men were lining up around the block for a chance to put on a rubber suit, sans nipples.
But it didn't take long before studios realized that the box office draw was not the man in the costume but the costume itself. And that having a good actor such as Tobey Maguire behind the mask was more important than just any celebrity (ahem, Ben Affleck!) to get people to the theatre. So the search was on for legit thespians. Sadly, the producers of Ghost Rider didn't get the memo.
This whole good actors/big movies thing spread like wildfire. The senior section of the British actor registry was ransacked from Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter alone. The trend even spread to directors, with the men behind Evil Dead, The Usual Suspects and Memento helming Spider-Man, Superman and Batman respectively.
One of the most famous instances of this actor-accustomed-to-smaller-fare-brought-on-to-a-bigger-film fad is, of course, Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow. And it was great. Great great great. Depp, the indie darling, was finally also a big star! But it didn't last long - the indie darling thing, I mean. He's been in two Pirates sequels, Finding Neverland, Willy Wonka and Sweeney Todd. From Pirates up until Public Enemies, all he's been is weird clowns in weird hats (Sweeny Todd's wig counts) - a trend he'll pick right back up again as the Mad Hatter (have you seen that photo?) – and speaking of Public Enemies, in that he was just a boring clown wearing a boring hat.
I'm not saying that these are bad performances. I'm saying that they're obvious ones. What happened to the actor who made me say, wow that guy has no boundaries. He can - and will - do anything. Whenever I hear of his next project I just say of course he's the Mad Hatter.
So while Johnny Depp became predictable, what happened to Mr. Bale? This trajectory is not that dissimilar. He's chosen to play Batman. Unlike most franchise casting choices, this was met with approval from the majority of fans. Like with Depp and Pirates, Batman Begins is great. Even better, unlike Pirates, the sequel's great too. Christian Bale is Batman, I have no problem with this. What I have a problem with is the fallout. This summer, he's turned in two of the most lackluster performances from someone I once revered that I can remember. I clearly recall reading a quote from Bale before Begins came out saying it would be the biggest film he'd ever do. So explain Terminator Salvation. When I found out Christian Bale was playing John Connor I lost it. That's blatant hypocrisy right there. There's no way - with that script and that director - that Terminator Salvation would be anything other than the summer CGI mania that it was. What could cause this change in tune? Only Bale can answer why but what I can show you is how. Here are a series of quotes that provide a chronicle of Bale's transition from the art-house to the multiplex. These are in sequential order:
"Why did I start acting in the first place? I didn't do it to be mediocre or to please everybody all the time."
"I'd love to remain a secret and still work, but I also want people to see the movies I'm in and get a higher profile because of that. I like to think that as long as you continue choosing diverse roles, you can avoid becoming predictable."
"I needed money because I had just bought a house, but I just kept saying, "I really can't do another movie that I know is not going to turn out the way I want it to, and that I have to make a lot of concessions in my head for".
"I think there's a kind of pretentiousness to the idea that serious work is only found in low-budget independent movies - I can't stand that snobbery."
"It wouldn't have happened if we hadn't been playing that scene, for Christ's sake, between John Connor and his wife, which is probably the most intense one in the movie...I'd definitely say that that guy who was yelling was at least half John Connor, and the rest was Christian Bale."
(I'd love to know what scene he's talking about)
Now let me take a step back before I start spinning in circles. I don't have a problem with this. I don't blame them. They're making money and having fun. Most people, myself included, would do the exact same thing. Who doesn't want to be John Connor or a swashbuckling pirate? These guys can go play cops and robbers all they want. But don't they want anything else? I thought one of the upsides to doing commercial films was that you have the money to do whatever project regardless of money you choose. I find it hard to believe that John Connor and Willy Wonka are as creatively stimulating as Patrick Bateman or Ed Wood. Even in a much more intelligent film like Public Enemies, where there should be abundant opportunities to show off their chops, the performances are lifeless. Not bad, mind you, just tired. I really believe that ten years ago these guys would have turned in something much more gripping than what was basically a bunch of posturing and squinting.
Maybe it's the feeling that they belong to everyone and not just me anymore, like when the X-Files became popular. Maybe they're not as passionate about acting as they once were - a reasonable assumption. Even I moved on from my Ghostbusters bedsheets phase. Whatever the reason, the days of me seeing a movie solely based on their participation are over. Though I will see their collaboration in the next Batman film (I'll put down money that Depp will be in it. He'll be wearing a hat).
I name Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ryan Gosling as my new talented, commercial resistant guys. Of course Ryan Gosling was rumored to be in the running for The Green Lantern and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is in GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, so maybe this is just the way of the world. Or maybe everybody got scared off after seeing what happened to Josh Hartnett when he turned down Superman.