Natalie Portman notes the younger generations don’t know movie stars as much as they know YouTube and social media stars, suggesting film is slowly becoming more of a “niche” form of entertainment.
Just as rock-and-roll has faded from the dominant form of popular music into more of a niche genre, making way for hip-hop and rap to dominate, Natalie Portman thinks the same thing is happening in the film (and arguably television) industry.
“If you ask someone my kids’ age about movie stars, they don’t know anyone compared to YouTube stars, or whatever,” she told Vanity Fair in a new interview.
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The Oscar winner calls it “striking” when describing what she sees as “the decline of film as a primary form of entertainment,” saying that “it feels much more niche now.”
At the same time, she’s not saying that it’s necessarily a bad thing — at least from the artist’s point of view. “There’s a liberation to it, in having your art not be a popular art,” she argued. “You can really explore what’s interesting to you.”
“It becomes much more about passion than about commerce,” she added. “And interesting, too, to beware of it becoming something elitist.”
“I think all of these art forms, when they become less popularized, you have to start being like, okay, who are we making this for anymore?” she asked. While some might argue that studio reluctance to support art films for the big screen might argue against Portman, the proliferation of streaming has seen a new outlet for those types of projects emerge.
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Portman describes the evolution as a “democratization of creativity where gatekeepers have been demoted and everyone can make things.” Taking away some of the powers of studio heads and powerful producers to decide who gets a shot in the industry is another major shift.
It could be argued this is evidenced by the rise of YouTube and social media stars, many of whom have taken their success on those platforms into more “mainstream” formats — though what is mainstream in a world dominated by social media? Perhaps, instead, they’re going from the more mainstream format into Portman’s “niche” industry.
Portman says that the “accessibility is incredible,” too, when it comes to being a consumer. Whereas you used to have to be able to make it to a theater and then hope you were in a community large enough or diverse enough to support whatever art film was made, now everyone has access to the same things.
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“If you lived in a small town, you might not have been able to access great art cinema when I was growing up,” said the 42 year old. “Now it feels like if you’ve got an internet connection, you can get access to anything.”
“It’s pretty wild that you also feel like at the same time, more people than ever might see your weird art film because of his extraordinary access,” she added. “So it’s this two-sided coin.”
Whereas the struggles for filmmakers used to be convincing a studio to finance your art film that isn’t likely to compete effectively in theaters with Marvel for biggest box office haul of the year, now there are so many more options.
In fact, with the streaming wars in full effect and seemingly everyone offering their own service, there might be more competition for that art film than ever before, creating all that access and opportunity Portman was talking about — competing now with those streaming stars on YouTube and the like.
