The Hollywood landscape has seen immense transformation over the years, especially with the rise of the streaming giants. The small screens are playing more important roles than the big screens and something about it is very concerning. Recently, the Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon claimed that with the rise of OTT giants, it is getting tougher for emerging stars in the industry.
Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde
Reese Witherspoon has established herself as one of the most prominent faces in Hollywood. The actress and producer is one of the richest women in America. And according to her, the emerging stars are likely to never enjoy a career like hers or Jennifer Aniston due to the lack of data transparency by the popular streaming giants.
Reese Witherspoon explains the negative impact of the rise of streaming
Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston in The Morning Show
When Reese Witherspoon was spotted along with her The Morning Show co-star Jennifer Aniston at the PaleyFest, she reflected her take on the current state of media. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she stated that the WGA and the SAG-AFTRA strikes had a positive impact and led the studios to produce fewer shows. Witherspoon admitted that pre-strikes “It was a flea market”.
However, Reese Witherspoon captured more eyeballs when she started speaking on the negative impacts of the rise of streaming. The 48-year-old actress thinks that the future is going to be tougher for the emerging stars. Pointing to Jennifer Aniston, who was also present on The Morning Show panel, she asserted that getting careers like theirs will be very tough for the new stars.
“I really worry and wonder about what is the world for artists? 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 right?”
Although Netflix is pretty transparent to some extent, the other streaming giants are not. Witherspoon thinks it is very tough for emerging actors to know their worth and place in the industry without knowing where they stand.
“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? There’s real amounts of data too, they’ve got a lock on it. They don’t want you to have the advantage, and it’s tough.”
The statement has raised a buzz on the internet with a massive discussion among fans. It cannot be denied that without real-time data, it gets tough for the stars to know their place. However, some fans have also agreed that it is more applicable to TV stars. The streaming giants can limit the stars from being true household names.
Jennifer Aniston thinks that the industry has changed a lot
Jennifer Aniston in Friends
Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston co-star and also serve as Executive Producer on the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show. The latter was also present at the PaleyFest and agreed with her co-star in the debate surrounding the modern Hollywood landscape.
The actress, who rose to popularity with FRIENDS, believed that the industry she and Witherspoon were in was very different from the one today.
“We did start in this industry in a time when it was so glamorous and so fun, and [you would] just to go on auditions and auditions and just hope that you get it. And if you 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.”
On the other hand, it should be acknowledged that streaming also gives a chance to a lot of stars to rise and gain worldwide stardom. The OTT giants promoted several young stars and also pushed them to try different genres. Nevertheless, several fans agreed that the lack of data transparency has stopped them from becoming big movie and TV names.
