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and Magic Mike — all of which
overperformed at the box office
and with critics; Kitsch, meanwhile, starred in two blockbusters
(Battleship and John Carter), both
of which failed to live up to the
lofty expectations set by massive
budgets (each cost over $200 million). His best effort last year was
the already-forgotten Oliver Stone
film Savages. Writes Harris:
“A star convinces us that he’s
filling a void we didn’t know was
there; he makes us believe that until he came along, the movie world
of which he is now at the center
was somehow incomplete. [...] But
movies like John Carter and Bat-
BEHIND
THE SCENES
HUFFINGTON
03.31.13
[Movie stars] play by new
rules, and they have to navigate
an industry that often seems
hostile to their very existence.”
tleship pull an actor away from the
specific and toward the generic.”
Which, at least on the surface,
is why Kitsch is not a movie star
right now, while Tatum is the
next great leading man. Perhaps,
however, there’s another reason:
Tatum worked with Steven Soderbergh and Kitsch did not.
Quick, run down the list of biggest male movie stars from the
last 20 years: Brad Pitt, George
Clooney, Matt Damon, Johnny
Depp, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks,
Leading men ) Ʌ