Options
Why don't TV actors make good film stars?
jackier
Posts: 546 Forum Member
✭✭
This is a question that has been bugging me whilst watching boxed sets of two of my favourite shows (Charmed and Stargate Atlantis). Some of the actors in these shows were (in my opinion) very good and I wonder why they never crossed over to feature films.
When I thought a bit more I realised that I couldn't think of many actors who had made the transitition successfully from TV star to film star and wondered why - is it a different set of skills needed for film versus tv?
The main exception, I suppose, would have to be George Clooney, who was massive on ER before making the move to films. Others, and I am sure there are many more others include William Shatner, Alyson Hannigan (though after American Pie she is back in a TV series), Jennifer Aniston (sort of)...
Is there some unwritten rule that if you are a TV star you cannot go onto films? I'm just surprised that we haven't seem more main TV stars (eg Amanda Tapping, Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett, Alyssa Milano) cross over to films.
When I thought a bit more I realised that I couldn't think of many actors who had made the transitition successfully from TV star to film star and wondered why - is it a different set of skills needed for film versus tv?
The main exception, I suppose, would have to be George Clooney, who was massive on ER before making the move to films. Others, and I am sure there are many more others include William Shatner, Alyson Hannigan (though after American Pie she is back in a TV series), Jennifer Aniston (sort of)...
Is there some unwritten rule that if you are a TV star you cannot go onto films? I'm just surprised that we haven't seem more main TV stars (eg Amanda Tapping, Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett, Alyssa Milano) cross over to films.
0
Comments
....Michael "I'm everyone I am" Sheen also started (after loads of theatre work of course
So no, given the multiple examples we can both give, and your admission that there are many more, there is no such rule.
I guess one of the problems is that if you are signed up to produce 22 episodes of a US show you might not be able to fit in the schedule of a film's leading role. Unlike for example Martin Freeman doing 3 episodes of Sherlock where they can hold every thing up to fit The Hobbit in!
Of the actors you list, they have all appeared in minor film roles (for example David Hewlett was in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Amanda Tapping was in "Life or Something LIke it" with Angelina Jolie).
tv shows are more ensemble acting, with main characters all equally important.
Clint Eastwood
Daniel Craig
Take the cast of 'The Great Escape', for example :-
Steve McQueen, James Garner, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn - all acted in TV for years before going on to film stardom.
Excellent example(s).
Look at Prison Breaks Robert Knepper - His character T-Bag brought him great film offers but he couldn't do them alongside Prison Break - Leading to minor roles in films when he wasn't filming. Once Prison Break had finished - The film offers dried up.
It's also the actors choice - Some just prefer to do TV rather than film.
Yes they are different skills and require different techniques.
Think of theatre - you are a long way from the performer - so it requires a lot of physical movement.
TV - you are being invited into someone's front room, like one of the family - but not so distant so a more personal performance is required - also a TV series gives you much more time to develop a character.
Film - the audience do not have as much time to get to know the character - so you have to give a lot away quickly - then of course the smallest movement is now on a huge screen - so the performance is going to be more subtle.
Although the three have different requirements - movement between all three is not unknown - indeed Topol was a star of both stage and screen.
eg Jeremy Irons
I think this feeling is a good example of how TV can be a bigger deal to many people than a film. Is there a film like The Simpsons or The Sopranos?
Arguably a lot of the stars of the best TV shows never find another role as great on film. But apart from the lead actors, they tend to find work in other stuff, like the Deadwood cast.
Maybe a reason is old-fashioned perception of there being a huge difference between TV actors and film actors. Bryan Cranston stars in a lot of films, so this trend would appear to be dying off. Also, a lot of film actors are turning to TV because that's where the best stories are being told. TV is in this golden age where it can finally be what it was envisioned as -- film with less constraints and in a more intimate setting.
I think Helen Mirren worked primarily in film before television and TV work was just a sideline.
But I think generally speaking many actors start off on television and then work their way up to work in films.
I think the lines are becomming far more blurred since the dawn of HBO-standard TV drama, you now have the likes of Shaun Bean coming back to TV, while still enjoying a succesfull career in cinema.
Good points.
Kiefer Sutherland is another who seems to have gone the other way; being in big films, then going back to TV & becoming even bigger.
He returns to big films next year when he stars in
24 - the motion picture!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598754/
Thanks for that.
I'm definitely looking forward to that.
If the film maintains the quality set by the TV series, it will be something to savour.