Oscar Winner Emma Thompson On Rising Crop Of Influencer Films: “I Think That’s A Disaster”

At an event hosted by Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, for British Oscar winners, the actress Emma Thompson made clear her disdain for a new crop of movie stars who are emerging from the social stratosphere.

Thompson told the Telegraph that the direction in which the film business is headed “really worries” her.

“We’re casting actors who have big followings so the studios can use their followings to sell their movie,” she said at the event, which was also attended by Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Judi Dench, Colin Firth, Jeremy Irons, and Sir Michael Caine. “The actors are becoming attached in the sort of business way to their social media profiles, and I think that’s a disaster.”

(Some high-profile examples, for instance, include Awesomeness Films’ forthcoming We Love You starring Lele Pons and Yousef ‘fouseyTUBE’ Erakat, as well as Matthew Santoro’s Be Somebody, which is being distributed by Studio71 and Paramount. )

And while he didn’t criticize influencers outright, Caine added that the motivations behind movie-making today have drifted far from the craft itself. “These days, they just say I’m going to be an actor because I want to be rich and famous,” Caine told the Telegraph. “And then they do a little part on television and everyone knows who they are. They can’t really act.”

Caine also warned of the pitfalls of achieving stardom at a young age. “I’ve watched it ruin people,” he said. “By the time they’re 30, they’re through.”

While such criticisms are nothing new, when established Hollywood players have criticized social stars in the past, they are often met with the unparalleled wrath of #TeamInternet. When Jimmy Kimmel denounced the Let’s Play video game genre last year, for instance, the ABC host received an influx of negative comments, which he referred to as an “avalanche of mostly misspelled vitriol.”