21 Ways to Hack Stardom

For a while, it was conventional wisdom: Hollywood had lost the ability to make new movie stars. The cultural machinery that once turned actors into icons was broken and seemingly unfixable. Studios had given up on the medium-budget character-driven films that produced the A-listers of previous generations. Instead, they bet the farm on sequels, superheroes, and other franchise IP, which were easier to market but stifling to the humans wearing the unitards. Marvel movies grossed billions at the box office but couldn’t make audiences care about Chris Hemsworth or Tom Holland when they weren’t playing Avengers. Performers like Saoirse Ronan and Lucas Hedges impressed in smaller films but kept the public at arm’s length. Meanwhile, the entire concept of stardom was being cheapened by nobodies from TikTok and reality TV.