I think of Donald Sutherland as like one of those British actors trained at RADA or wherever who are superb at what they do and who’ll also do pretty much anything for a paycheck as it’s just a job, man, with the result that they work a lot and it’s almost always great to see them pop up in a film.
was he ever a leading man who would "open"? cuz that seems to be when actors get very strategic abt what roles they take.
maybe DS was lower tier so he could be free to be more adventurous?
or maybe the culture of 70s movie-making encouraged big names to do challenging artsy stuff.
Michael Caine and Anthony Hopkins also took on lots of things if there was a pay check involved, and they could “open”. I agree with Kieran that it’s part of the professional culture.
Personally I like it when actors are willing to show up in just about anything. They treat it much more like work than as celebrity. I have *no* problem with people who do more selective work, though. Just something I like.
I envy the actors who make it big enough early enough in their career that they can spend the rest of it doing whatever they want to do (Dan Radcliffe, enjoy your Tony!).
I once got an Uber in LA driven by someone who'd been a spear carrier on one of the Thor movies, and said that Hopkins had taken particular pains to talk to him and the other non-speaking roles/extras, make sure they had what they needed etc, all in an unfussy, decent way. Pro in many senses.
I recently read Patrick Stewart's autobiography. Great book. He describes his first showbiz job as an assistant stage manager, when he had to sweep the floor and make the coffee every morning, and says some Hollywood actors might benefit from such an experience. 😀
He was in Animal House specifically because the studio thought that he was a big enough movie star to make the thing viable (unlike that kid from TV, Belushi).
