34 ENTERTAINMENT SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24 2016 WHY TV HAS BECOME Film stars are now clamouring to appear on the small screen. It used to be very COOL different, writes NEALA JOHNSON

efore he was on a TV “Mother of Dragons” Clarke’s 2016 where “selling out” was the for a long time, you’re at least Thrones successor. Marsden shot series, Americans movie Me Before You cost $US20 ultimate sin — had to fight every working with people who want to the pilot two years ago between didn’t know who Ben million). TV has become more instinct telling him not to do it. make statements again. film projects, but didn’t fret over Mendelsohn was. cinematic in style. “When it came to talking “Old Hollywood used to be committing to the full series “Look,” says the And the stars have followed. about me doing a show, no matter about statement films; now it’s shebang. always frank Aussie “The best writing now is on how good the show was, I had more about the spectacle.” “Those kinds of decisions for actor, “American television,” says Halle Berry, who that ’90s switch that was: ‘No, no, James Marsden knows a thing me, it really is all about audiences, prior to returned to the small screen after no. It’s TV — it’s T ... V ...’ It was or two about Hollywood interesting story and interesting BBloodlines, they didn’t have a clue an almost 25-year break for two hard to switch that off. spectacle, having played Cyclops characters,” he says. about me. I mean, you’d get seasons of the sci-fi drama Extant “But when I really thought in four of the X-Men superhero “I’ve never been one to be people who were very into film or in 2014-15. about it, I realised I myself am franchise movies. snobbish about format; it’s always whatnot that might have known, “That’s a reality that all actors more of a fan of TV than film Next month, the actor debuts about quality of material. So but other than that, no one.” have been talking about for years right now.” his much-hyped HBO series when Westworld came my way — Now, 32 years after his career now. But there was always a Another factor in Bentley Westworld, a science fiction a great cast and a really smart, began in Australia — and a good stigma with going to television: If conceding was his two young thriller based on the classic challenging script — that was it.” 18 months after US critics started you do movies, you can’t do children — TV offers stability in 1973 film. calling Netflix series Bloodlines television. the form of a steady pay-cheque Many are proclaiming his “breakout” — Mendelsohn is “Now that line is becoming and a steady filming location. It’s the series will be an Emmy winner: beating out very grey.” a bonus many actors point to. the network’s Game of Thrones duo Kit Nicole Kidman hadn’t made a Peter Dinklage considers Game of Harington and Peter Dinklage to TV series — mini, limited or Game of Thrones “a job that I can be named Best Supporting Actor otherwise — since Bangkok rely on, financially”, thus allowing in a TV drama at the awards Hilton in 1989. Over the past two him to say no to film offers that ceremony in Los Angeles years, she’s shot two: an don’t interest him. this week. adaptation of Australian author For Berry, Extant offered the The 47-year-old wasn’t on Liane Moriarty’s best-selling ability to be a “hands-on mum”. hand to accept the gong as he’s novel Big Little Lies in the US and “The studio did me a real solid in London shooting Steven Jane Campion’s second season of (by filming) this show in Los Spielberg’s new film Ready Top of the Lake here in Australia. Angeles, so I don’t have to leave Player One. Foxtel boss Brian Walsh has my family,” she said when the That simple fact — a said securing Kidman’s services series launched. previously unheralded (in the US, for the latter took a year — but Following his 1997 Oscar win at least) actor moving seamlessly her history with Campion (the for Jerry Maguire, Cuba Gooding between formats — is yet more pair collaborated on the 1996 film Jr’s movie career went straight evidence of how fluid the line The Portrait of a Lady) and to DVD. between TV and film has become admiration for leading lady Even so, the actor admits to over the past decade. Elisabeth Moss (Kidman calls knocking back TV offers Where once TV stars would her “incredible”) ultimately “for years”. have to leave the small screen to proved irresistible. He finally relented in 2014, try to make it big in movies (it Big Little Lies came about agreeing to cameo in the Ben worked for George Clooney, not when Kidman joined forces with Stiller-produced comedy series so much for David Caruso), and Reese Witherspoon to option the Big Time in Hollywood, FL. movie stars would never deign to rights to Moriarty’s book, about a That opened the floodgates: he downgrade to TV, the rise of cable group of kindergarten mothers was Emmy-nominated for the dramas — and more recently, who get caught up in a murder limited series The People v O.J. streaming services entering the investigation. Simpson this year and he’s now originals game — has changed Despite the fact Witherspoon starring in the sixth season of the playing field. had just steered two other book American Horror Story. The good writers have moved adaptations, Wild and Gone Girl, “My main reservation (for to TV. Television budgets have to Oscar nominations, the duo avoiding TV) was being stuck in increased (season six of Game of took the project to HBO. There it the same character over and over Thrones reportedly cost $US10 followed in the limited series and over again,” Gooding Jr says. million per episode; Emilia mould of HBO’s True Detective “But I started to soften because — which teamed Matthew the best material is on television McConaughey and Woody right now, it really is.” Harrelson to great success, then In an era where great movie Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams scripts “are few and far and Vince Vaughn to rather between”, Gooding Jr less acclaim. reckons TV is the The best Industry bible Variety explains medium that is writing now is the appeal to actors: “The limited- more prepared series format gives bigger names a to take risks. on television chance to work in the TV arena “You without making an open-ended can’t deny but there was commitment to an that even ongoing series.” though always a For some, the perceived you might glamour gap or quality chasm be on a stigma between TV and film has been a hit show hard one to leap. American actor Wes Bentley, who shot to fame aged 21 with the Oscar-winning American Beauty, Halle Berry then spent years battling a drug addiction, has resurrected his career in recent years via TV’s American Horror Story. Ben Mendelsohn, Nicole Kidman (left) and But the 38-year-old — who Halle Berry (far left) are all veteran film came of age in the grunge era, actors who have recently stared in the new wave of quality, big-budget “cinematic” television shows.

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