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Who's to say what motivates an actor? Why do they chose one role over another? For money? Fame? Awards? While there's never a way to know if that movie will turn out the way you thought it would -if that were possible Burt Reynolds would be Han Solo and John Travolta would be Forrest Gump - imagine what kind of world that would be. When you look at the choices over the course of an actor's career, there's usually a detectable motive at various stages. Why does a Vin Diesel star in movies like Knockaround Guys, xXx, A Man Apart and The Chronicles of Riddick - remember those films? Me either- then follow them up with The Pacifier, clearly there's been a change in his thinking. Instead of thinking world's biggest action star, now he's thinking career revival.

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?

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