By: Thomas Horvath

Hollywood movies have always been filled with advertisements. All the characters wear branded clothing, eat branded food, and use branded products. This is how movies get made, since without funding, there could be no profit. With this funding, companies can have high budgets and attach actors to projects that otherwise might not perform well. The acting field is pretty different than it used to be because it seems like actors are no longer just actors, they’re a brand.

Two notable examples of this are Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds, arguably two of the biggest movie stars of the twenty-first century. These two actors have been playing the same character type in every movie they’re in since the 2000s, with the Fast and Furious franchise shaping The Rock’s character type and Deadpool being Ryan Reyolds’s titular performance. These actors can detach themselves from the characters they play since, in most movies, they’re not playing Agent Luke Hobbs or Michael Bryce, they’re playing Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds. They also both plug all of their companies into every possible shot in the movie they can, like the alcoholic beverages they both make(Teremana Tequila and Aviation Gin). A great example of this is the 2021 Netflix movie Red Notice. This movie stars Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds, where they play the same character they’ve been playing since the 2000s and plug their adult beverage into every shot they can without making it too obvious. 

The movie landscape is changing, and this is how many actors will continue to be successful in the future. Acting is no longer a career itself but one revenue source of a larger brand. Movie stars now feel the need to branch out from just acting and become a brand themselves, and time will tell if this overexposure will lead to more or less success.