Is the era of the A-list movie star a relic of the past? Maybe, according to Reese Witherspoon, who spoke at an event for her Apple TV+ series The Morning Show, which she stars in alongside Jennifer Aniston. Witherspoon said, per The Hollywood Reporter, that she wasn’t sure that careers like her’s and Aniston’s were possible anymore thanks to streaming, the outlet reported.
Asked by interviewer Kara Swisher about this particular time in tech and media—roughly six months after the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike—Witherspoon said that the streaming landscape has changed in recent months.
“Streaming was, like, the biggest thing for three to four years, and there was a never-ending constant smash for content, and, like, literally, we could sell anything,” said Witherspoon, who, in addition to acting, also frequently executive produces content. “What I’m seeing right now, I think from the buying and selling landscape side of it, is that probably part of the strike was a reset for these studios that are not profitable—the streaming services—and an opportunity for them to resize, rework, and cut costs. So we’re going to probably see less stuff, which is probably good, right? It was just chaos. It was a flea market. We can slow down a little bit. But there’s going to be more intention around it, and it’s going to be a little bit harder.”
Witherspoon said she wonders and worries what the future will be like for actors in Hollywood, pointing to her co-star Aniston beside her and asking “Are careers like ours possible ever again? Are there opportunities for people to really emerge as a star? How do you know with no data transparency? How do we even know if something did well or didn’t do well?”
Witherspoon added that Netflix is “pretty transparent about it” and reveals some figures, but “the other people don’t. And it’s tough as an actor—how do you negotiate? How does a producer? How do you market? If you don’t know where you sit in a landscape, how do you value something?” She added “There’s real amounts of data, too, and they’ve got a lock on it. They don’t want you to have the advantage, and it’s tough.”
Aniston shared her own thoughts on working in Hollywood today: “We did start in this industry in a time when it was so glamorous and so fun, and [you would] just go on auditions and auditions and just hope that you get it,” she said. “And if you did get that Movie of the Week and then hope you get that little guest star on Quantum Leap. When it was so simple, and now it is becoming so…it’s too much sometimes.”
As for when we can expect season four of The Morning Show, at the event it was noted that it wouldn’t be until sometime after the presidential election in November, showrunner Charlotte Stoudt said.
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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.
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