what have happend to these mega-stars

Cafe Society
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[QUOTE=Alessan]
Harrison Ford - Chickenshit. A coward. Refused to take a pay cut in return for interesting, callenging roles, and instead kept on making the same type of movies for diminishing returns. Should have been an “elder statesman” by now, but his ego is too big.
[/QUOTE]

I don’t know… I wouldn’t call a guy who flies volunteer rescue missions in mountainous terrain in his own helicopter “chickenshit”. I think the real issue is that Ford doesn’t really care about acting all that much. To him, it’s a paycheck. He stays out of Hollywood, doesn’t play the game, etc. So they only way they can get him to work is to offer him insane amounts of money. He’s not to snobby to play small-but-challenging films - he just doesn’t care.

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[QUOTE=Alessan]

Ralph Macchio - Went where 99% of all child actors go.

[/QUOTE]

Southland Mall in Hayward?

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I’m not Alessan but I think you misunderstood his or her post. I think Alessan was specifically speaking of cowardice in Ford’s professional career not an overall cowardice in his personal life. A person might be a hardocre Marine who’s volunteered for dozens of missions in combat; however if he likes a girl but is afraid to ask her out, he could justifiably be called a coward in his personal relations.

As for Ford’s standards, what you say might be true. But if it is true, it doesn’t speak all that well of Ford. A person who has no real interest in doing a job but is willing to go through the bare minimum if the paycheck is high enough is more likely to be known as a prostitute rather than an artist.

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Brando did the same didn’t he?

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Or he just learned his profession form some Brits. Michael Caine has acted in some stinkers over the years, but it’s because he does the job as a way to make a living, not to make the Great Artistic Statement. Someone once asked him whether or not he’d seen **Jaws:The Revenge. ** His reply was roughly “No, but I see the pool it bought every day.” You don’t have to regard the job as Art to be able to do it well.

26

So with Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez being brothers and all, and having roughly equivalent acting ability, what do you think accounts for the fact that Sheen has been the more successful? I’d posit that his resemblance to Tom Cruise opened up quite a few opportunities - i.e. roles in comedies spoofing Cruise films.

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[QUOTE=silenus]
Or he just learned his profession form some Brits. Michael Caine has acted in some stinkers over the years, but it’s because he does the job as a way to make a living, not to make the Great Artistic Statement. Someone once asked him whether or not he’d seen **Jaws:The Revenge. ** His reply was roughly “No, but I see the pool it bought every day.” You don’t have to regard the job as Art to be able to do it well.
[/QUOTE]

Maybe, but first, no matter what the movie is, Caine always gives it his best (another British quality , BTW); Ford, for his part, hasn’t been fully awake on a set for over a decade. Second, Caine works for much less, and he’s willing to get paid even smaller sums if the movie interests him, which means there’s a good chance he’ll appear in a good film occasionally; while with Ford, all he cares about is his paycheck, and because his start hasn’t shone brightly for a long, ,long time, he doesn’t get cast in big-budget films - which means that if they pay him, they can’t afford anything else, like a good director. When was the last time Ford worked with one of those?

Ford was the icon of my childhood. As far as I was concerned, he sat on the right hand of God*. And yet, at some point he lost his divine spark. He used to be bigger than life, with intense personal magnetism, Old Hollywood charisma, and a cocky, devil-may-care attitude towards whatever the the world had to throw at him… and then, suddenly, he became a glum middle-aged guy who looked funny when he ran. His smile disappeared and his voice turned into a querelous drone. Movies that were good because of him became god despite him. Would 1984’s Harrison Ford let Tommy Lee Jones steal a movie out from under him? Ant that was one of his BETTER films.

By the time I learned that he had refused to play a partin Steven Soderberg’s Traffic - a real juicy part that eventually went to Michael Douglas - Michael douglas, the guy who got famous stealing Ford’s moves in Romancing the Stone, the guy who had the career (and the Oscar) Ford should have had - I decided that I just don’t care about Harrison Ford anymore. The man is dead to me.

*George Lucas

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Last night on Bravo they aired AFI’s 100 Years…100 Cheers which was allegedly a countdown of the 100 most inspirational films to date.

Guess who was one of the celbs providing commentary?

The Karate Kid eeked into the countdown at #98. I only watched the last half of the show, but it looked like they interviewed various actors (and some directors) who appear in films that made the cut, asking them about the various films on the list and how those films may have inspired them.

My first reaction was “Wow. I haven’t seen him in forever…” quickly followed by “Wow. He really looks different.”

He’s got one of those faces that illustrate how the cartilage in your nose (and the size of many men’s foreheads) continues to grow throughout life…

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[QUOTE=Alessan]

Ford was the icon of my childhood. As far as I was concerned, he sat on the right hand of God*.
[/QUOTE]

There’s a great little movie called My Favorite Year, which is a quasi-autobiography by Mel Brooks about his early years in televison. The Brooks alter ego is burdened with chaperoning a former matinee star, Alan Swann (played brilliantly by Peter O’toole, another actor who, like Caine, has done an insane amount of crap, but always managed to keep his nose abve all that crap, looking cool). O’toole’s character is a thinly disguised Errol Flynn who’s about to do a tv show. This being the fifties, television is live and there’s no room for screwups. When Swann realizes that there are no rooms for mistake, he freaks, being accustomed to numerous takes to get a perfect scene. When the bqabysitter scoldes him, saying this should be easy, Swann replies:

“I’m not an actor, I’m a MOVIE STAR!”

This is how I feel about quite a lot of movie stars. They really can’t act. But they’re good at being movie stars. Ford was never an actor, he was always a movie star, who happened to get lucky and get parts that made him very attractive at the box office. He’s been coasting on this for about 20 years. If you try to watch Star Wars obectively, and look at Ford’s acting skills, he’s no better than Hamill. And he would’ve vanished in the same way, had he not been cast as Indy Jones.

This is why he makes movies like Air Force One. He’s range is not better than that and he knows it.

As for the hatred of Martin Sheen’s sons, at leats Emilio had the smarts to do Repo Man early, and Bobby seems promising, so maybe he really is a good writer/director.

As for the the others on the list - none could be considered failures. Most of them have worked and earned money for more than a decade. That’s an eternity in Hollywood. Stallone has made at least two really good movies in his life, one which he wrote. Moore might be Mrs Kutcher now, but she had a solid 20 year career and made money, gave birth to three kids. Swayze might not be the hottest item in town, neither is Macchio, but considering a lot of other has beens, wanna bees and never gonna bees in Hollywood, I don’t think they need to feel ashamed.

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Ah…My Favorite Year. One of my “hidden gems.” It really should have won some awards.

*Lil: This is for ladies only!
Alan Swann: [unzipping fly] So is this, ma’am, but every now and then I have to run a little water through it. *

*Alan Swann: Stone, you can watch me or you can join me. One of them is more fun. *

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Charlie Tan writes:

> There’s a great little movie called My Favorite Year, which is a quasi-
> autobiography by Mel Brooks about his early years in televison.

Although Mel Brooks was an (uncredited) executive producer for this film, he didn’t write it, so it’s not an autobiography. It’s not even clear that it was originally intended to be so similar to his life. The original script was later rewritten to have it happen in New York in the 1950’s, so it didn’t even start out that close to his life. Also, one could argue that the main character (a young Jewish New Yorker who’s a writer for an important TV sketch comedy) was as just as similar to Woody Allen as he was to Mel Brooks.

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[QUOTE=Little Nemo]
A person who has no real interest in doing a job but is willing to go through the bare minimum if the paycheck is high enough is more likely to be known as a prostitute rather than an artist.
[/QUOTE]

Or they might be known as 90% of the people who work for a living.

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1 - Most people don’t make any pretense that their job is an artistic calling.
2 - Most people don’t have $100,000,000 in their savings account.

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[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

Although Mel Brooks was an (uncredited) executive producer for this film, he didn’t write it, so it’s not an autobiography. It’s not even clear that it was originally intended to be so similar to his life. The original script was later rewritten to have it happen in New York in the 1950’s, so it didn’t even start out that close to his life. Also, one could argue that the main character (a young Jewish New Yorker who’s a writer for an important TV sketch comedy) was as just as similar to Woody Allen as he was to Mel Brooks.
[/QUOTE]

Well, it was released by Brooksfilms, so even though he was uncredited, I don’t think it’s a WAG to think that he had influence over the content. I seem to remember (but can’t back it up) Brooks being interviewed when it was released and making comments about chapperoning a drunk Errol Flynn, when Brooks just started out in tv. Note the qualifier “quasi”.

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Demi followed Ghosts with Striptease , G.I.Jane , and Scarlet Letter. She did not pick wisely.

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[QUOTE=Alessan]

Ralph Macchio - Went where 99% of all child actors go.

[/QUOTE]

To heaven?

[QUOTE=gonzomax]
Demi followed Ghosts with Striptease , G.I.Jane , and Scarlet Letter. She did not pick wisely.
[/QUOTE]

Ashton Kutcher. I rofled IRL.

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[QUOTE=Little Nemo]
1 - Most people don’t make any pretense that their job is an artistic calling.
2 - Most people don’t have $100,000,000 in their savings account.
[/QUOTE]

I second this..if you have a huge amount of money 9and haven’t lost it by spending like a drunken sailor), then why act anymore? This isn’t like the old Hollywood studio-contract system-when you would see actors always making movies. alan hale is an example-he must have acted in hindreds of flicks. Now, actors are essentialy free agents, and once you make enough, who cares? There is nothing more pathetic than an actor staying on past his prime, or a has-been 9like jay North) trying to get back in.

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Although I wonder if Harrison Ford has, in recent memory, claimed he is engaged in an artistic calling.

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Not to continue the Hijack, but, to continue the Hijack:

Ford went from picking work that interested him, to picking work that paid and wouldn’t embarass him (which still fails to explain that Six Days Seven Nights film with Anne Heche) which is actually the most dreadful thing he’s done.

Ford has quite a bit of technique, but is somewhat limited in his ability to stretch. I think most actors if you gave them billions of dollars would continue to act, if they began as actors and wanted to be actors. Carroll O’Connor was rich, and continued to act. I’m pretty sure Patrick Stewart doesn’t have to work for living and could make his life an endless vacation if he desired, yet, he works. Same of Ian McKellan, same for many many others.

Acting is a job, but it is also a calling. Ford was on the verge of giving that calling up and becoming a carpenter/contractor instead when he got his break. He carefully chose work that paid well, but paid in dividends of respect for his craft as well: “Witness” “Regarding Henry” “Mosquito Coast” among others. Hell, I’d love to see him do a remake of the Amazon Queen, but again, he feels he’s worth a particular amount and won’t compromise on that, because he doesn’t have to. Perhaps one day he’ll wake up and realize there’s some good roles he could do, if he were to not have to worry about money (which he clearly doesn’t have to do yet). I hope we see a return to Ford choosing roles over pay – he’s done it before, I believe he still has it in him to do it again.

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[QUOTE=dropzone]
I’ve yet to hear of any billboards telling us to call Ralph at ReMax but I don’t live in LA.
[/QUOTE]

No, they say call Rex Smith