Just what is Young Hollywood supposed to do when silver screen stardom beckons? Go straight for the brass ring in potential blockbuster fare? Try for Spirit Awards credibility with a micro-budget indie project that offers lower stakes in exchange for a significant creative and artistic challenge? Exactly how does a rising young ingénue or cocky new stud balance both options? Robert Pattinson could share a few recent, painful war stories. And Zac Efron is another actor, successful in one genre, who is clearly struggling to keep mainstream fans happy while growing as a performer and artist (it will be a good lesson in Hollywood star-making to see how he used his newfound box office clout now that “Neighbors” is a certified hit).
Shailene Woodley starred for five seasons in “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” which enabled her to bank some cash and polish her skills, which landed her a splashy supporting role as George Clooney‘s daughter in “The Descendants.” She proceeded to anchor several challenging indie films before doing a 180 to headline “Divergent,” the first in an action-adventure film franchise packed with special effects and machine-tooled to earn some of that “Twilight” and “Hunger Games” cash. Like Jennifer Lawrence, Woodley is deftly balancing both populist and arthouse fare.
But Woodley’s clearly got the chops and the compulsion, like Lawrence, to tackle a diverse mix of acting roles. Can you blame a hunk like Kellan Lutz for leveraging his “Twilight” fame, to say nothing of a carefully sculpted, plucked, buffed and spray-tanned beefcake physique, into his very own sword-and-sandals epic? Sure, “The Legend of Hercules” was yet another riff on “Gladiator” and “300,” but how many chances do you think he’ll get to topline a potential blockbuster? The danger is that Lutz hasn’t yet demonstrated an interest towards more serious-minded, thoughtful roles; he’s clearly focused on popcorn pictures. If “Divergent” had tanked, Woodley could go back to the arthouse circuit (she has “The Fault in Our Stars” out shortly). But Big Hollywood only hands out so many E-tickets and you’re expected to deliver on your promise. Lutz has “The Expendables 3” in the pipeline and if that doesn’t rake in the bucks, either domestically or internationally, he’s got a problem on his hands (see also: Lautner, Taylor).
Woodley’s “Divergent” love interest, rising star Theo James, faces a similar career dilemma. His own stab at American television stardom—last year’s “Golden Boy“—was canceled quickly. But the handsome thespian has already been frequently seen on television in his native England (including a memorable early episode of “Downton Abbey“) and where actors are generally given more leeway to experiment. Another “Divergent” player is Ansel Elgort, another rising young star, who landed the plum role as Woodley’s love interest in “The Fault in Our Stars.” He may face less pressure right now because he is a supporting player in “Divergent” and hasn’t tried to anchor his own action franchise or big-budget genre film (at least, not yet…)
James’ fellow Brit Gugu Mbatha-Raw has taken a couple of stabs at Hollywood television stardom: none other than J.J. Abrams cast her in “Undercovers” in 2010, and one year later, she was chosen to star opposite Kiefer Sutherland in “Touch.” Both shows were quickly canceled but it’s obvious she has A-list fans in Tinseltown; no less a luminary than Tom Hanks gave her a part in “Larry Crowne,” which he directed. Like many British actors, she’s had the chance to practice her craft onstage and in small television roles. Now comes “Belle,” for which she has earned sterling reviews and awards buzz in the title role as a upper-crust ingénue whose biracial heritage shocks 18th-Century English high society.
She could parlay this career momentum a couple of different ways and Brave New Hollywood hopes she and her advisors avoid the usual track of casting her as The Girl opposite Tom Cruise or his ilk in a machine-tooled would-be blockbuster and instead go for trickier, more challenging material that might not otherwise have a shot in hell of locating financing or the right producers. Hollywood cranks out popcorn flicks with regularity and Mbatha-Raw has plenty of time to crank them out. Instead, we hope she uses this heat to cook up something that challenges the status quo.
In fact, any indie film stalwart or a young television star looking to expand their horizons should follow that advice. Indie-minded performers like Woodley and Lawrence can now use their leading-lady blockbuster capital to push smaller films to the forefront. They’d likely have less success if they were just The Girl in a mega-budgeted action flick. Both of them got to this place by taking a chance on challenging material that could land them awards attention and critical praise and then let Hollywood come knocking. They are among the few in Young Hollywood who are getting it right, but there are plenty who still need a Brave New Hollywood intervention.