It would have been better if we had started out the history of films by never using the same actor more than once.
For a lot of films it’s more about watching Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Jennifer Anniston etc. play a new character with the focus on them instead of seeing a fresh unknown face and the focus on that character’s personality.
I wouldn’t mind a world where once you were in one movie you were never cast again. It would make movies more unique and mysterious. Personally, I like Indie films with unknown actors more than many Hollywood mainstream movies with recycled actors.
I will concede that an amateur actor would probably not have crushed the role of Daniel Plainview in “There Will Be Blood” like Daniel Day Lewis did. But that is an exception where the actor disappeared into the role and I never thought I was watching an A list actor. The majority of actors don’t disappear into the role.
Also, a bonus to never using the same actor is that more people would be able to be in a film at least once.
Hard disagree. Acting is a skill that takes time to hone. Very rarely do you get a great performance from a first time movie actor. I know it happens (The Holdovers is a good recent example of this) but it’s rare. We wouldn’t have iconic characters like Vito Corleone, Indiana Jones or even Gollum because you wouldn’t get first timers with the skill or charisma to pull these off.
Also, known faces draw crowds, the industry couldn’t sustain on indies alone.
Yeah, I get the issue of “we keep seeing the same ones”, but I think a better argument would be something from the guild like “You get 2 movies a year” or something to encourage smaller actors to have more chances.
I love some smaller actors who are just squashed out by others who are more popular but less “right” for the role. “Oh this actress would be perfect, but look we could get ScarJo!”. Like I love me a good ScarJo film, but casting should be more about “This person would be best for this role”, and having a limit of 2 films a year could make it more for the actor “Is this what I want my name to be attached to?”
Of course this won’t happen, but it’s nice to dream.
Also this is not serious, I literally just thought of this, please don’t flame me for “What a terrible idea”, this is not a deeply held belief, this was a random thought
The thing is, most actors do only average about 2 movies a year. On a particularly busy year they might have 3. Marvel have thrown off the equation a bit because the same character will show up for small roles in multiple movies but it’s pretty rare otherwise to see an actor consistently do more than 2 movies every year.
I like the idea of more diverse casting but we (the moviegoing public) broadly won’t go and see the movie unless it’s someone we know.
There’s a solution ya’ll ain’t seeing: just force actors to have plastic surgery before each new role. That way you get the best of both worlds.
(Sure, they might end up disfigured after a few roles, but that’s what horror flicks are for, and it’d help prevent unrealistic beauty standards to boot!)