Actors often select roles that fit into one of three categories: playing the same type of roles consistently, choosing very different roles, or occasionally varying their roles. This allows them to be easily marketed to audiences. Dwayne Johnson and Tom Cruise typically play similar roles, while Christian Bale and Charlize Theron frequently take on different types of parts. Sandra Bullock alternates between romantic comedies, where she often plays an ordinary woman who needs help, and more serious dramas where her characters are stronger. The document provides examples of individual actors and discusses the types of roles they tend to select, and why they may choose consistency or variety in their film choices.

1. Star Appeal
Why do actors select their roles?
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2. Actors
Some key facts
When analysing actors and the roles they select especially when they
becomes big film stars actors tend to do one of three things:
• Select the same kinds of roles – Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger
etc
• Select very different roles all the time – Christian Bale, Charlize
Theron
• Vary roles occasionally – Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey
This is so they can be easily marketed at audiences and audiences
always know the kind of film they will get with a big star.

3. Example
• Dwayne Johnson
• He tends to play the same type
of characters in all his movies
they tend to be:
• Strong, fearless, intelligent,
charismatic and either funny or
quick witted, he is also someone
who is not afraid to mock his
own character persona, the eye
brow raise reference back to The
Rock.
Why does he always play these roles?
The audience understand the type of
movie they will get and like that he has
become the modern movie action hero.

4. Example
• Sandra Bullock
• Non for playing in a range of romantic
comedies. She is usually:
• The girl next door, clumsy, out of luck,
work driven, cute, needs some kind of
help.
• She often changes this by playing very
drama focused roles and these are
often the opposite to her rom com
character she is strong, driven, self
motivated, self reliant, these often win
her acclaim.
• Films like Gravity, The Blind Side and a
Time to Kill.

5. Example
• Christian Bale
• He is an actor who is constantly
changing the types of roles he selects
and even changes how he looks from
each movie.
• He often does this to challenge
himself and vary the roles, he is also
known to method actor where he
becomes the different characters. He
seems to enjoy challenging himself
with different roles.
• Have a look at how varied his roles
are on imdb: from gangsters,
magicians, psychpaths and Batman.

6. Task
• The film you are analysing you need to answer the questions
below on your blog. This is the last part of the macro analysis
so add to the end of the analysis of narrative, character and
representations you have already completed on the blog.
• Is this the kind of role the star usually plays?
• How is this role the same or different?
• Why do you think the star wanted to play this role?
• Why would the producer pick this actor to play the main role?
• Did the star help make this film a success? – Consider the box
office and how much profit the film made.

7. Reminder
• These are the final questions from the last lesson that need to
be completed it they are not already, extra powerpoint is on
the blog.
• Who is the target audience for this product?
• How might the film be interpreted by the viewer does it
convey messages to the viewer?
• Would all viewers see the product the same and why? You
should consider how a young person might view this product
in comparison to an older viewer.

8. Task 3 – Micro Analysis
• You need to have a scene selected from your movie ready for
next lesson. It needs to be a scene which is interesting to
analyse considering the use of:
• Camera
• Sound
• Editing
• Don’t worry too much about the above as I will go through
them.
• The scene needs to be between 5 – 10 minutes.