“You have all these actors who have become famous for playing these characters, but they’re not movie stars. Captain America is the star, Thor is the star.”
Those were the comments made by Quentin Tarantino in 2022, which added fuel to a debate that had been ongoing for several years. Long before these remarks were made — and continuing to this day — countless think pieces and podcast discussions have been centered around questioning whether movie stars still exist. In a time when IP has become the most valuable commodity in Hollywood, there is a widely held belief that it is the well-known characters, not the stars portraying them, that get fans to show up to the theater.
This lack of impactful A-listers is seen as an issue because the fact is Hollywood has always, and will always, need movie stars. Not just famous people, but talented performers who uplift the art form and draw audiences to the cinema. Thankfully, despite the number of times the proclamation has been made, we’ve recently seen an exciting new crop of film-passionate young actors emerge who are helping disprove the notion that movie stars are dead. While it has been debated who the leading figures of this group are and which will go on to have the best careers, Timothée Chalamet’s eventful past year — which included starring in the 6th highest-grossing movie of 2024, going on an all-time great press tour, and receiving a Best Actor nomination — cemented him as the definitive movie star of his generation.
Despite garnering immense critical praise throughout his young career, Chalamet hasn’t won much of anything at the many awards shows he’s been nominated at, perhaps due to the voting bodies for these awards tending to have a wariness about crowning a fresh-faced actor too soon. Though he’s appeared in seven Best Picture-nominated films, he had yet to win a major televised award before last night, when he took home Best Actor at the SAG awards. After finally hearing his name called, Chalamet gave a speech that elicited mixed reactions on social media. In it, he opted against delivering typical acceptance speech false modesty and instead confessed how much winning actually meant to him.
“I want to be one of the greats,” the young actor said. This should not have come as a surprise to anyone who has closely followed Chalamet’s career. The sentiments he shared regarding his commitment to the pursuit of greatness have been apparent in the choices he’s made as an actor, and have directly led to much of his success.
Since he broke through in the industry, it’s been abundantly clear that Chalamet is a performer who cares deeply about his budding legacy. He has applied a lot of forethought to mapping out his career, modeling it on those who came before him. Moreover, he’s been selective and deliberate in choosing roles and surrounding himself with people who will ultimately help him achieve his goals as an actor. Simply put, you don’t work with the likes of Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig, Luca Guadagnino, Denis Villeneuve, Wes Anderson, Adam McKay, James Mangold, and Josh Safdie all before the age of 30 by accident.
An actor with great taste, Chalamet has seemingly sought out projects that will last and be remembered, rather than ones that will make a quick splash at the box office. Though he’s clearly not interested in being a reclusive arthouse star, and does care about his movies being seen by as many people as possible, the kid who was once gifted the famous “no hard drugs and no superhero movies” advice from Leonardo DiCaprio has managed to avoid being fully sucked into the IP machine. When he has entered that world, he’s chosen slightly more high-brow franchises like Villeneuve’s Dune, as well as films like Wonka, which are intrinsically tied to classic Hollywood.
Of course, the recipe for becoming the biggest movie star in the world is not as simple as “just pick good movies and work with the best directors.” By no means am I saying that Chalamet’s journey is easily replicable. Any aspiring actor would obviously kill to be cast by the filmmaking legends that he has been fortunate enough to work with. It would be silly to ignore the role that luck plays in all of this. I’m only focusing on Chalamet in the context of what separates him from his peers, i.e., the other young, burgeoning megastars in Hollywood. Separation that has occurred as a result of the very thing Chalamet copped to in his SAG acceptance speech: his desire to be great and to carve out his own lasting chapter in the history of film, as well as his willingness to do what it takes.
Assuredly, many actors have the same dream of greatness that Chalamet does. Perhaps the difference is the Call Me By Your Name star has a better understanding of what that greatness requires, and is unabashedly committed to putting in the work. There’s a level of shamelessness needed to be as great as Chalamet wants to be, you have to want the spotlight to a certain degree. Not in a way where you try to pop up on TMZ as often as possible, but in a way that shows you are aware of the idea that true movie stardom is only 50% a product of the performance given on set, the other half is about your relationship to the public. Building that relationship is part of the job, it demands time and effort. But, at the end of the day, this type of stardom is not a meritocracy. Regardless of how hard one works at it, a successful audience relationship inherently hinges on the amount of natural charisma or charm possessed by the performer. That’s what makes the presence of a genuine movie star so rare. They have to want to put in the effort, but they also have to be blessed with a particular, indescribable appeal. Considering the wildly memorable A Complete Unknown press run that just concluded, it is safe to say that Chalamet is one of the few who is both able and willing to reach the top of Movie Star Mountain.
Some casual movie fans who only find themselves inside a theater a couple of times a year may not understand the importance of movie stars, seeing them as nothing more than figures for our celebrity-obsessed culture to place on a pedestal and worship. While we certainly don’t need to be heaping more praise on these entertainers who have already been the beneficiaries of overwhelming amounts of fame and wealth, they do unquestionably play a vital role in the Hollywood landscape. Performers at the forefront of the industry who genuinely care about movies, actually have the ability to get people to show up to the theater, and who use their power and influence to get more great art made are a necessity.
The reason comments like the ones Tarantino made regarding the lack of movie stars in the MCU sparked so much debate is because many film fans share a strange, apprehensive feeling about the ways Hollywood has changed. Something feels inherently wrong about the prospect of the people leading the biggest movies in the world being performers that audiences don’t actually care about. Moreover, if fans really are only interested in showing up to see these actors play these specific parts, that hypothetically limits the potential for other kinds of films to be made. In other words, movie stars matter because if studios know viewers will show up to watch a given actor, they are more likely to greenlight innovative, risky, and ambitious non-IP material, so long as that actor is attached.
Sure, the days of the ‘90s, when studios could virtually guarantee themselves a profitable opening weekend by just slapping Julia Roberts’, Tom Hanks’, or Denzel Washington’s face on a movie poster, may be gone — but the presence of talented and dedicated stars who actually care about the health of the industry that made them famous is still massively important. Film fans should be grateful that an actor like Chalamet, whose pursuit of greatness is actively bringing more eyeballs to interesting projects, not only exists but is also the leading figure among his peers. When he was making a name for himself, he could have easily opted to go the route of playing the same character for 10+ years in a Marvel or DC franchise, but — as corny as it may sound — he prioritized cinema.
Even if Chalamet’s approach is a fully selfish one, driven by a desire for people to praise his work, the byproduct is still more great art being made. You can take issue with his blunt honesty regarding his competitiveness or the brazen way he states his goals, but you can’t deny the positive impact he has on the world of movies. You can call his SAG speech cringy, but you have to admit there is something commendable about a person taking the work they do seriously.
Not A Real Person Yet 