Christian Bale by Harrison Cheung Page A

star? High reward, low effort.”
    â€”Mel Gibson, SNL monologue
    PETER MÜLLER: “You’re turning into a fucking Nazi!”
    THOMAS BERGER: “Oh, so what if I am?”
    â€”Swing Kids
    I f you want to be a movie star in Hollywood, you have to be “box office.”
    It’s that simple. That’s not cold and that’s not cruel, it’s just the bottom line. Hollywood is in the business of making money, so stars are the actors who sell movie tickets, drum up movie rentals or downloads, and move DVDs—that’s how they are “box office.”
    If you ask an agent or a producer, who’s the best actor in Hollywood, they’re going to go by the actor’s box office appeal. In anartistic and creative world like moviemaking, you might measure an actor’s skill by his awards or reviews, but the bean counters go by grosses.
    This is the age-old argument about quantity versus quality, movie star versus actor . Ask yourself, what’s the best food in the world? Judging by quantity, one could argue that the Big Mac must be the best food in the world. A professional chef in Paris will, of course, gag in his sauce pan, but by sheer quantity, McDonald’s has that worldwide “box office” clout that no other restaurant has.
    Now ask yourself, who’s the best living actor in the world? If you go by grosses, it’s arguably Harrison Ford, a movie star who has yet to win an Oscar. His name alone could guarantee that a movie opens at number one at the box office. Will Smith’s name could also guarantee a number-one opening, though he, too, has yet to win an Oscar.
    So for an up-and-coming actor, the goals are the same. You need to do good work that attracts an audience. And you need to demonstrate to the studios and producers that your name in the credits makes them money. If you can attract a large worldwide audience, all the better. No surprise, then, that action movies are the studio’s favorites because they translate well worldwide.
    When the Transformer movies became huge box office hits, you could see the jockeying between the major parties for credit. Was a Transformer movie a hit because of director Michael Bay? Because of up-and-coming Shia LaBeouf? Or because of new hottie on the block Megan Fox? As Bay reminded a reporter: “Shia LaBeouf wasn’t a big movie star before he did Transformers . Nobody in the world knew about Megan Fox until I found her and put her in Transformers.”
    Acting awards are nice trophies for the actor but the studios really don’t care about an award unless it helps grosses. Obviously not having an Oscar didn’t hurt Transformers ! But you canbet that career-minded actors will keep alternating their action franchises with films that showcase their acting for an Oscar win. Christian won his Oscar for The Fighter , not Batman !
    Both David and Christian’s agent believed in the old Hollywood advice that any actor yearning for a career of longevity and substance had to follow the rule: “Do one for the studio, then one for yourself.” Essentially, do a studio film to make the studio money, so you have the freedom to do an indie film of your choice to show off your acting skills.
    Initially in 1991, Christian’s career was looking pretty good. He had a three-picture deal with Disney, so that took care of his big studio obligations. After shooting Newsies , Christian found a small project he wanted to do, Prince of Jutland . Most British actors consider Shakespeare’s Hamlet a true test of acting mettle, and here was an oddball indie film that was going back to the source legends that served as Shakespeare’s basis for Hamlet.
    Prince of Jutland was an independent film. By comparison, studio films—financed and produced by a major studio—have their own distribution network. A simplified definition of an “independent film” is a film without studio funding and