The difference between a Movie Star and an Actor.

I was watching David Letterman last night and he mentioned something intresting. He described Johnny Depp as both an actor and a movie star. That made me think, who do you think are actors and who do you think are movie stars.

For me:

Actors:
Hillary Swank
Brad Pitt
Sean Penn
Jaquoin Pheonix (well he used to be until he started his "rap" carrer)

Movie Stars
Robert Downey Jr.
Adam Sandler
Megan Fox
Shia Labouf

Personaly i would much rather be a movie star than an actor. You would get heaps more money, more fans and alot more work just by doing the same amount of work an actor would do.

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You`ve made a little mistake. Great Actor Robert Downey Jr. somehow slipped out of the `Actor` list.

lol he is a great actor but lately he has been staring in more movie star roles.

I disagree about Shia LeBeouf. I think he's got a lot of potential, and he doesn't pick all completely dumb films

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I would't say movie stars always star in "dumb" films. Theres a diffrence between films that are not smart and just plain dumb films.

I think that Depp is considered both because, it appears, that he's decided to make his money now rather than back in his 20's and 30's, when he turned down a lot of roles that would've made him the Leonardo DiCaprio of the late 80's/early90's. You look at the work that Leonardo's done this decade and he still doesn't get the respect his talent deserves from a lot of people. People who's opinion of him, I think, is mainly based on two or three films, when he was the #1 pin-up. It hasn't hurt his career but only because, it seems, that he made a conscious decision to make films with more respected people. Honestly, after R&J, Titanic, The Man In The Iron Mask and The Beach, did you really expect three of his next four films to be directed by Martin Scorsese? How about the other one by Steven Spielberg?

I agree... Robert Downey Jr. is an awesome actor... I loved him as Charlie Chaplin...

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He is a very good actor. But his roles latly have been more movie star roles (Iron Man and Tropic Thunder)

I understand what King is saying, he has been doing the big movies of late. Mainly, I assume, because as he's on his millionth chance, he's decided to make some real money so that if he f'cks up again and doesn't get another chance, then at least he'll have enough. Hopefully though, he's grown up and once he feels secure, will go back and make some good/interesting films again.

probably the size of their paycheck and the ammount of interviews they give.

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Well let's face it, one can learn to act but charisma and being photogenic can't be learned.

As for Robert Downey Jr., he sometimes relies on his questionable charm rather than acting ability. But I saw him in The Soloist and I didn't want to smack him, he was actually playing a character that required more than his usual flirting with the camera. So yeah, he is doing some acting. And what about Fur, certainly an actor's role not a movie star one though he does rely heavily on his weird charm for this one. But it is certainly appropriate in this role.

Actors do films.

Movie stars do movies (Duh!).

And actors never star in movies and movie stars never act in films.

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they do when they want to win Oscars, but then they become actors :P

There's no big difference really. Who ever said you can't be an actor without being a star at the same time..

Look at the likes of Connery, Pacino and Hoffman.


On the other hand, there are the likes of Sandler, Affleck and Cage, who play the star role without having talent in the Actor's department.

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Sandler was good in Punch-Drunk Love, and Cage was excellent in Leaving Las Vegas and Adaptation. As for Affleck um......Dazed and Confused, yes he was good in that, good enough at least for what little time he was on screen.

That's why they both fall in the stars category ...because they were both good in very few movies...

Hard to be both like i mentioned..only few exeptions.

Um... Actor? Really? Movie star, definately, but I don't really remember any acting going on.

Wow. Ugh. Anybody lumping the acting chops of Robert Downey Jr with Megan Fox has to be a comedian. Chaplin wept.

There was this movie with Peter O'Toole called My Favorite Year. He plays an Erroll Flynn like movie star called Alan Swann. A complete drunkard...

[Alan Swann pours himself a drink]
Benjy Stone: Mr. Swann, I was supposed to watch you, remember?
Swann: Good. Watch this.
[Pours another drink]
[Handing Benjy a glass]
Alan Swann: Stone, you can watch me or you can join me. One of them is more fun.

[an obviously drunken Swann meets the writing staff]
Sy: He's plastered!
Alan Swann: So are some of the finest erections in Europe.

[Alan Swann has blundered into the wrong restroom]
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.

The best line in the film though comes at the end when the revered movie star realizes the TV show hes about to do is live. Hes terrified, and when confronted with the absurdity of his fear Swann cries "Damn you! I'm not an actor, I'm a movie star!"

So thats what I thought of when I read the thread title.

King 316, i think your only mistake is watching too much Entourage perhaps!

I think defining an actor is simply to look at the films he/she has chosen to do and how those films have shaped their career. Taking this into account, for me, Johnny Depp is a great actor.