When actors become brands, fans become disillusioned

The tide of public opinion is turning against some very famous figures. While actors are often considered performers with artistic merit, some stars like Robert Downey Jr., Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are frequently being branded as money-hungry or too transparently concerned with their personal brands. And an increasing number of fans seem to be turned off by actors who are no longer best-known for their acting. 

Why actors are becoming brands

Actors do not make money as easily as they once did. Two years ago, "Euphoria" star Sydney Sweeney revealed she could not afford to take breaks, and many celebs joined last year's Hollywood strikes to protest how "amid the rise of streaming services," residuals have "significantly diminished," said CNN.

To supplement their income, many celebs sell their own products, which is less of a liability than "attaching one's name to a company that may misbehave or a product that may have quality issues that are out of the actor's control," Olav Sorenson, a chair of entrepreneurial studies at UCLA's Anderson School of Management, said to the Los Angeles Times. 

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Actors like Gwyneth Paltrow (her brand: Goop) and Selena Gomez (Rare Beauty) have become as famous for their lucrative side hustles as they are for the art form that catapulted them to stardom. And the trend is gaining steam. "Nearly 60% of all celebrity brands" were "founded in the last six years, and more than a third of modern celebrity brands were launched in 2020 or later" said the Times. Actors also "make up the biggest group of retail business owners in the entertainment industry."

The recent controversies

While Downey Jr. only recently launched his own business — Happy, a coffee company — he became a brand unto himself long ago thanks to his role as Marvel's "franchise crown jewel," said Variety. Downey Jr. was among the first serious actors to join the MCU as Iron Man in 2008 and has since appeared as the character in 10 films. He legitimized the notion of actors as comic book heroes, and "when other Oscar nominees or respected indie stars started signing up," it "wasn't so shocking," said RogerEbert.com. 

Then last month, it was announced Downey Jr. — fresh off his first Oscar win for "Oppenheimer," which seemed to herald a return to more thoughtful roles — was instead returning to the MCU to play Doctor Doom, earning upwards of $80 million. This seemed an egregious amount to pay one person, especially with the film industry in dire straits. "His enormous payday struck a nerve with some members of the entertainment industry," said Yahoo Entertainment. Tyler Scruggs, a costume production assistant, contrasted Downey Jr.'s offer with his own paycheck of $12.50 an hour for "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."

Married power couple Reynolds and Lively are also feeling the heat. Reynolds, who plays snarky superhero Deadpool in Marvel's new release "Deadpool & Wolverine," has "long abandoned any attempts to be a real actor," said The New York Times. He is focused instead on building his empire, doing ads for everything from Mint Mobile to dating website Match.com. Reynolds is "something of a master of shameless cross-promotion," the Times added. Players from Wrexham A.F.C., the soccer team Reynolds co-owns, have a cameo in "Deadpool & Wolverine," plus fans "can buy limited-edition bottles of Aviation Gin, another Reynolds enterprise."

Lively has been similarly criticized for using the release of her new movie, "It Ends with Us" (based on a popular Colleen Hoover novel), to promote her new hair care line, Blake Brown. Her drinks labels, Betty Booze and Betty Buzz, also released cocktails themed around "It Ends With Us" that featured Reynolds' gin. "Lively has transformed the project into film-as-commerce," said the Times. The movie is about a woman in an abusive relationship, yet Lively's approach to press has been described as fashion-centric, bubbly and arguably tone deaf. 

'This can't be the future of Hollywood'

These actors have "fully embraced a new kind of superstardom, wherein a creative project isn't just a creative project but a merchandising opportunity, one synergized for maximum profitability," said Adam White at The Independent. Clearly, many fans disagree with the trend of self-promotion at any cost. For example, "large swaths of the audience have decided to turn their backs on [Lively]," said The Cut, and on Instagram, there are "hundreds of angry comments suggesting that Lively has misread the room," said White. 

"This can't be the future of Hollywood — our best movie stars treating filmmaking as one quadrant of a wider business plan," White added. These actors "should be the anomaly and certainly not the blueprint."