My 20/40 theory is that good looking actors can't work after the age of 20 and before the age of 40, but are wildly successive in the period before and after.
When they're near 20, they play teenagers. When they are over 40, they play handsome love interests. In between those ages, they don't get work. Why? I don't know. They're not young enough to be "young", and they're not old enough to be taken seriously.
This has resulted in many actors getting famous young, then disappearing, then magically making a comeback when they get near 40. For example:
Jason Bateman
Patrick Dempsey
Anthony Edwards
George Clooney
Scott Wolf
Mathew Fox
The guy who played Vinnie Delpino on Doogie
But sometimes, actors slip through the cracks. Usually it's because they are too famous to simply disappear.
Look at Leonardo DiCaprio. Is any of us comfortable with him playing adult roles? Cause I'm not. He's the reason for the entire theory! It works. He should've gone away and come back when we can accept him as a man. Same goes for Tobey Mcguire and Hilary Swank.
Of course, sometimes actors don't get famous when they're young. Thus, they are stuck in 20-40 actor purgatory until they reach the appropriate age:
Blair Underwood
Steve Carell (can you even imagine him in his '20's?)
Michael Chiklis
George Clooney
Wil Arnett
James Gandolfini
Phil Hartman
David Duchovney
And then there are the actors that got famous young, and who are still waiting to be men...
Fred Savage
Adam Brody
Jaleel White
James Van Der Beek
Topher Grace
Brian Austin Green (beginning the 40 year old resurgence)
Every Boy Band
In fact, this is why boy bands die and never recover. They can't go past their 20's, and then no one wants to hear dudes in their 40 harmonize.
30 year old actors are like 40 year old actresses. They're worthless.
My only regret is that Corey Haim died before I could tell him the theory - he was about to become very successful again.
5 comments:
Category A addition: Michael Anthony Hall. I thought Jason Bateman worked prett consistently, if somewhat under the radar, but I really can't remember anything after the Hogan Family, so maybe I'm wrong. Pretty astute of you, though.
anthony michael hall is a good one. i'd also go with john stamos.
this blog has become just a conversation between me and heidi, and i'm fine with that.
Funny, although a few of those don't quite really fit. According to IMDB*...
Anthony Edwards started on ER at age 32 (maybe he just seemed older because he was bald?).
Blair Underwood first got famous on LA Law, which he was on from ages 23-30 (playing an adult, not a teenager), and has worked pretty steadily since (and I would say, maintained mostly the same level of fame).
Matthew Fox first got famous on Party of Five (playing an emotionally stunted adult, but an adult nonetheless), which he was on from ages 28-34. He didn't do much else after that until Lost, but it was only four years, which probably seems like while for an actor, but isn't really all that long.
Will Arnett was 33 when Arrested Development started, which I'm assuming is when you consider the start of his fame.
*Some of my ages might be slightly off - I'm just going by the year of their listed birthday and the years the shows were on, not checking specific months. But I think it's close enough. And now I've spent waaaay too much time on this comment.
how dare you fact check me!
ha, i love it. but i think the exceptions prove the rule. i just need to add a "baldness and/or beardness caveat".
the baldness/beardness caveat states that if an actor is between 20 and 40, but is bald and/or has a beard, he can still be successful.
this lack of hair or non-lack of hair allows said actor to appear older than he is, and thus get away with being under 40 by looking over 40.
Alec Baldwin... probably has worked steadily but has blown up since grey hair!
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