A surprising number of star actors are also namechecked as co-producer on their films. So have they really been mucking in with the crew, asks Dave Calhoun? At a recent film industry lunch, Jude Law gave a speech about his passion for cinema and introduced himself as an actor and producer .
Hang on producer? A quick browse on the internet proved that it wasn t the wine flowing to Law s head. He s credited as a producer on the 2004 fantasy flick Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and has the same credit on the recently wrapped , a remake of the 1972 original.
And let s not forget his involvement with Natural Nylon, the production company which launched in 1997 with Law, Sadie Frost and Ewan Macgregor on board but came to a halt in 2003. He s not just a pretty face then: watch your back, Dino de Laurentiis. But what does it mean when an actor is credited as a producer?
Is it a matter of prestige? Is it a savvy fund-raising technique? Or is it a genuine reflection of backroom toil?
Law s not alone. A further trawl reveals that other actors are playing a similar game. Johnny Depp is a producer of Bruce Robinson s adaptation of Hunter S Thompson s novel, ; Brad Pitt is a producer on Michael Winterbottom s ; and Joaquin Phoenix is a producer on James Gray s We Own the Night The reasons are numerous and complex: Depp, for example, had a long-standing friendship with Thompson and so we must assume that he is willing to trade on his name to get the film made; Phoenix has worked with Gray before and presumably feels the same about a close collaborator.
Here, producing doesn t mean getting your hands dirty on location: the producers credits on these small budget movies have more to do with practical and financial necessity than an actor s ability to choose superior production managers or organise the on-set catering. It s unlikely that these guys, however committed, were sitting in meeting after meeting with financiers. In other words, a producer s credit for an actor can conceal a web of horse-trading, ambition and real-politik.
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People What people must know is that financing is based on actors. The reason that Scorsese has an open cheque to make whatever he wants is not because he s a leading director but because he can cast Leonardo DiCaprio. To most of the world, Scorsese s films are DiCaprio pictures.
Woolley s point: never underestimate the power of an actor in the filmmaking equation. In that light, it shouldn t surprise anyone to learn that DiCaprio was an executive producer of and is credited as a producer on Scorsese s upcoming The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt . Without his star wattage, the picture might flounder.
Credits are often well-deserved: Woolley remembers producing Rage in Harlem in 1991 and giving Forest Whitaker a co-producer s credit. For three years, he stayed with us through thick and thin, he says of Whitaker. But it s not always so rosy.
If you can attach a big-name actor to your film, then you re powerless if that same actor then says, Give me this or that credit , Woolley adds. On a low-budget level, an actor s commitment as producer can be make-or-break. Consider Tilda Swinton, who is credited as a producer on two recent American indies in which she appears: (2005) and A surprising number of star actors are also namechecked as co-producer on their films.
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