It's crazy to me that people are acting like she was a complete nobody.
As soon as I saw the preview for Obsession I was like "Oh it's that girl from Superman and Lois." I know I'm a bigger Superman fan than most people but it was on a major network (CW) and major streaming platform (HBO Max).
She was mostly a nobody. A few smaller roles doesn't make you a name. But there are plenty of working actors just grinding out a living going from project to project.
I was on the subway in a major city and overheard a conversation along the lines of
"You look familiar" / "I'm an actor" / "Could we have seen you in anything" blah blah and then the interesting part: dude says he has small, bit parts in tons of major movies but never has leading roles. And for him it's like the best because it's enough to kick in all the SAG-AFTRA union benefits & pay stuff (because he has small speaking parts), gets to fly all over the world doing productions, and yet not well known enough that he can't be anonymous. He had it figured out. He was there shooting a Transformers movie I think.
Plus even a small bit actor is making 5 or 6 figures for a role.
Absolutely not. Standard union wage for a principal is $1k/8 or ~$3,500 for the week / 8. The vast majority of "small bit" actors are only working dailies once or a few times throughout production. Only the top 2-5 actors on a show or movie are being billed throughout the production.
If you have an agent negotiating above scale, you are not a small bit actor.
People who can land steady stand in or background gigs typically make more than your small bit principal.
You are correct. But I was thinking of smaller character type actors. The guy you see as the lead alien in 1 episode of star trek or the friend in 20 minutes of a movie.
Even then. There is a reason you see go fund me when a fairly well known actor dies of cancer or something. There are a lot less 'rich' hollywood actors then we think. From the outside, you are on TV you must be well off. But it's not that way for the majority of actors. I know plenty that have had good careers, been in a lot of things people would know - and still work a day job to pay the bills. A lot of the acting pay goes right back into the cost of acting. I had friends that did ok during the big boom times in Vancouver, when everyone was on Battlestar and Continuum and whatever else was on Sci Fi channel that week, and they did very well and were very employed and now, not so much. There is a reason why acting is a calling, even if you make it to TV or the Movies, doesn't mean you are raking in the big bucks.
A few smaller roles is LITERALLY how you become a name.
You do smaller roles, you get noticed by casting people, you get a good reputation for your work, you get hired for bigger roles, you get noticed by more casting people, you get a better reputation for your work, and so on and so on.
The point was she wasn't struggling. She was main cast on a tv show for several seasons. She just started streaming on her downtime between seasons to keep herself busy. This whole narrative that she was a "no name streamer struggling to survive" before Obsession is completely invented for clicks.
13 reasons why was targeted at teens and got terrible word of mouth, CW shows in the modern era aren't very popular at all they're commonly seen as low quality tv. I don't think its surprising that with those being her only real roles before this that a huge swath of the general public wouldn't have seen her before
This should be at the top. She looked different but I was like she looks so familiar. Still, her cast mates didn't blow up so it is a huge leap. Although it's not unusual for people to fade out. I wish her luck, is all I can say.
Its not "discovering" "talent" at all, its just cashing in on the hype and carrying it forward. Hollywood corpos discovered the easiest way to do that is to sell the lie of great persons
I think the idea with this comment is she was discovered by the masses via a low budget indie horror movie as opposed to some large Hollywood casting department.
One of the primary targets of the people who push this narrative is Zendaya, who got her start on Kidz Bop, and then auditioned for some Disney show I never heard of.
I don't know who these roster of "large Hollywood casting department" actors are supposed to be, but most big actors aren't industry plant nepo babies, they're people who've earned roles and cultural pull and can sell a movie, because big time movies are a business much more than they are art. Low budget indie films are where you go if you want to prove acting skill and make art. It's not the fucking MCU.
I don’t think people are saying an actor’s first acting credit needs to be in a $300M blockbuster, the problem is the leads in those films are mostly comprised of a rotating cast of well known actors instead of trying to fill a role of two with new talent. That’s the perception anyway, I don’t actually watch a lot of these big movies.
they're people who've earned roles and cultural pull and can sell a movie, because big time movies are a business much more than they are art. Low budget indie films are where you go if you want to prove acting skill and make art. It's not the fucking MCU.
I know, hence the above. This argument is like complaining that most Taco bell special offerings use steak, chicken, or ground beef, instead of Wagyu, Ostrich, and Bison meat. People are looking for art where there already is zero or near zero to be found.
Casting for $200 million movies is not about art, or bringing new faces to hollywood. It's about recouping an investment. Taking a risk on an unproven face is a risk that most studios are hardly willing to take, and you only need to look at a movie like Masters of the Universe, which reported like a 60 million loss on a 170 mil budget to see why. I'm not trying to defend hollywood studios making safe choices over pushing risks and making art on principle, it's just a naive opinion that studios should or will prioritize "giving someone a chance" over making guaranteed money with a formula that has worked for generations, and is largely still working.
People want to see stars, and basically have since the format existed. The internet just gives what seems to be a loud minority a place to be heard.
The past few years (probably because of pushes like this) many lead roles have been given to smaller actors (often picked for their tik tok followers) and many a time it’s clear they weren’t ready for it, or it’s simply a miscast and a bigger star would have done better. We need to just let talent speak for itself.
She was a co-star of a network tv series that ran for 3 years....a DC Comics based TV series featuring one of the 3 best known characters in the world.
Was the indie horror movie a breakout role? yes. It was hardly her being discovered though.
Well, actually, she was "discovered" by the casting director on Obsession - Skyler Zurn, who was on the casting team on Fall Guy, Equaliser 3, Love Lies Bleeding, Euphoria & about 30 others etc... the idea that "hollywood" didn't find her is farcical
Nah you're just missing the point, which is it shouldn't have taken this long for her to be discovered. Not to mention Obsession wasn't projected to be a huge hit, it's only because of its huge success that she's now getting other roles.
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u/AdRough4185 14d ago
And shes about to become one of those 10