Natalie Portman recently featured in a fun teaser for Vanity Fair’s annual Hollywood issue cover as she got talking about the decline of the movie star. The Oscar-winning actress said that kids these days have no idea who movie stars are. On the contrary, the kids know about popular YouTube stars.
Natalie said, “The striking thing has been the decline of film as a primary form of entertainment. It feels much more niche now. If you ask someone my kids’ age about movie stars, they don’t know anyone compared to YouTube stars, or whatever.”
Natalie Portman finds liberation in her art not being popular
But does she think that’s wrong? Well, the answer is no as she added, “There’s a liberation to it, in having your art not be popular. You can explore what’s interesting to you. It becomes much more about passion than about commerce. And interesting, too, to beware of it becoming something elitist. I think all of these art forms, when they become less popularised, you have to start being like, okay, who are we making this for anymore?”
She thinks this is a sign of good times because “there’s also been this democratisation of creativity, where gatekeepers have been demoted and everyone can make things and incredible talents come up.”
“And the accessibility is incredible. If you lived in a small town, you might not have been able to access great art cinema when I was growing up. Now it feels like if you’ve got an internet connection, you can get access to anything. It’s pretty wild that you also feel like at the same time, more people than ever might see your weird art film because of his extraordinary access. So it’s this two-sided coin,” the Black Swan actress added.
No mystery around movie stars, feels Ana de Armas
There is no novelty in meeting or knowing a movie star with anyone finding instant fame and recognition courtesy the social media. Ana de Armas affirmed the idea herself last year when she spoke to Vanity Fair about there being no “mystery”. She said, “I feel like the new generations don’t have that concept, because of social media. There is so much information out there and oversharing. The concept of a movie star is someone untouchable you only see onscreen. That mystery is gone. For the most part, we’ve done that to ourselves — nobody’s keeping anything from anyone anymore.”