There are tons of great actors that you can hire to do something for peanuts. They're such a commodity that tons of talented actors don't even do it full time.
I live across from a 'Community Playhouse' in Montreal. Some of it is terrible, but some of it is magnificent. Almost zero of them are employed in the industry full time. It partly has to do with the fact it's all in French, and that means 'smaller market' - but it could just as easily be in English and the same would apply.
You're confusing talent and building a brand. The latter is the more difficult bit. If you still question the value of branding consider who built the first apple computers and who ended up becoming the superstar.
An actors brand is built when they are given roles, by their appearances, which could have just as likely gone to other actors.
Their subsequent 'familiarity/likeability' is what gives them their power.
Not their talent.
The 'supporting' things that actors do to support their brand, like doing junkets - is not hard. Yes, doing 12 hours of interviews for a few days every year can be a little stressful, surely, but all the actor do is people polite and just a big gregarious and that's it.
I'm not sure if you're trolling here or not - if you are, bravo, very subtle.
Anyway, in case you're not - top actors are the exact opposite of a commodity. Their careers are about making them unique. Are you really arguing that you can take any movie, replace the actors with any other actor, and it will still do equally well financially? Because if you are, I'm not sure where to go from there, because it's such a preposterous claim.
There are plenty of good actors, but also vastly more horrid actors. It's true that pay is driven largely by established reputation (“brand”, if you will), but that's because even Hollywood is not very good at identifying actors that will perform adequately, except by “have you demonstrated that you can do it, preferably in a very similar kind of role, and the more evidence of consistency, the better.”
That's not because acting is easy or because there's a surplus of good actors. That's because acting doesn't pay shit unless you're really, really lucky. For a show that takes a dozen people a couple months to prepare and sells maybe a few hundred tickets, the financials are pretty stark.
There is a massive surplus of good actors, which is why there are tons of decent films and plays with great acting wherein the actors are paid little.
Go to a film festival. Most films are not that good actually. Lot's of hiccups in the stories, production etc.. But you'll always see a ton of good acting along with some bad.
And there are tons of decent actors who can't do it full time. My neighbourhood is full of them.
There are tons of great actors that you can hire to do something for peanuts. They're such a commodity that tons of talented actors don't even do it full time.
I live across from a 'Community Playhouse' in Montreal. Some of it is terrible, but some of it is magnificent. Almost zero of them are employed in the industry full time. It partly has to do with the fact it's all in French, and that means 'smaller market' - but it could just as easily be in English and the same would apply.