Introduction

The purpose of this book is to analyse the impact of capitalist social relationships on the concept of the actor as a cultural agent, a concept exemplified by the figures of the celebrity and the star, and on the mainstream culture of film-making associated with Hollywood. This is obviously not a new topic, as testified by the history of the study of stardom and, over the last two decades, the development of the celebrity studies field. These are areas to which I have made my own contribution, alongside those of others. But my focus here is on the relationships between how actors are trained, how they find work and how the drive to find work (let alone fame and fortune) impacts on their functioning as collective symbols. Further, to speak of collective symbols means that the analysis uses the optic of stardom, which sets the norms and aspiration of the field. What can be said of actors will also apply, with appropriate qualifications, to all those performers who seek to extend and convert their achievements in specific fields—such as music, sports, literature, politics—into a marketable personal brand.