Being partly responsible for turning George Clooney into a movie star, Steven Soderbergh knows a thing or two about spotting a hitmaker. Sure, Clooney had the looks, the charm, and a juicy part on the hit medical drama “E.R.” that gave him the opportunity to hone his craft, but in casting him to lead “Out of Sight,” and their most successful collaboration, “Ocean’s Eleven,” Soderbergh gave him a leg up few stars manage to receive today. Nowadays, it seems acting is a talent you have to be born with, and no one knows this better than recent Oscar-nominee Timothée Chalamet.
“It would appear Timothée Chalamet is a movie star,” said Soderbergh in a recent interview with Men’s Health. “Like, this guy can make movies hits, and they’re a wide range of movies. So, everybody’s chasing him. I don’t know him, but he seems to be making interesting choices.”
In discussing Chalamet, Soderbergh pointed out his draw goes beyond general appeal and speaks more to his deftness in taking on roles. Even someone like Clooney had to take on some stinkers before getting to have more control over the projects he’d agree to be a part of, but Soderbergh isn’t sure Chalamet has ever faced this problem or ever will.
“Even the stuff he’s got coming up sounds and looks interesting,” he said. “He seems to be pretty savvy about finding things that allow him to build out a range that people will accept, which is smart.”
While this is great for Chalamet, Soderbergh isn’t sure whether this has set an unhealthy expectation in the industry that young talent have to bring star power with them to a project instead of the project helping these actors rise in stature.
“It’s interesting to think about how you make a movie star now, because movies aren’t the same as they were 25 years ago,” Soderbergh told Men’s Health. “Leading men, or people who become stars, do so by getting opportunities and making good on them. A lot of the conversation now, if you talk to filmmakers in terms of casting, is using people who have already established themselves and who everybody’s chasing.”
Soderbergh empathizes with this new generation, especially considering there aren’t the same amount of options for work to cut their teeth on as there was when he and Clooney were coming up. However, in conversations he’s been have with Focus Features, A24, and Neon, he does get the sense that young people are starting to find their way into theaters, particularly if there is a director who’s work they’re really interested in seeing.
“That’s a really good sign. If that continues, they will identify certain performers as their favorites, and those people will become stars,” said Soderbergh. “But it’s a funny thing, because you can have somebody that for whatever reason can get you money, but in pure kind of financial ledger terms, and not necessarily someone you’d define as a movie star. Often, they can be somebody who has a rabid fan base in a different part of the world. The parlor game of trying to attract cast is always fascinating to me.”
The latest cast Soderbergh’s worked with for “Black Bag” includes Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Pierce Brosnan, Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomi Harris, and Regé-Jean Page.
“Black Bag” is currently in theaters from Focus Features.
