Mikey Madison and the Return of Movie Star Mystique

the movie star isn't dead. they're offline.

In an interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast in February, actress, singer, and nepo baby Maya Hawke complained about not being able to delete Instagram because prospective producers often tell her, “If you have over this many followers, you can get the money movie funded.” I’ve said this before, but right message, wrong messenger. You shouldn’t have to be on social media to succeed in Hollywood, but now, I’m trying to figure out if you necessarily have to.

Two weeks after this quote started making the rounds, Mikey Madison (famously not on social media) won Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her performance in Anora. She didn’t need to post about her every waking thought online to get there. She showed up to set, to screenings, to interviews, to roundtables, to awards shows. She simply put in the work and the networking without ever needing to fight for engagement. The film’s director, Sean Baker, had Madison in mind for the role after seeing her in Scream 5. She wasn’t cast in Anora because she had X number of Instagram followers or because a casting director came across her TikToks. She was cast because of her talent and her genuine personality, not some act she puts on for social media to advertise sponsorships.

Madison’s Oscar proved you don’t need social media to be an actor. In fact, maybe not having social media is the key to unlocking the door a step above that — movie star status. Madison’s win got me looking at all the Best Actress and Actor winners of the past decade, and only around a third of them have public Instagram accounts (or more likely a third of their social media managers).

Madison’s campaign was a refreshing return to form. We learned what she was thinking and experiencing going through awards season with magazine features and sit-down interviews. Before social media, that’s how it always worked. There was no Instagram for Angelina Jolie to promote Mr. & Mrs. Smith. That diva just went out there and did it, serving face and looks along the way. More recently, neither of the stars of the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon had Instagram to promote their films. Both Barbie and Oppenheimer were big both commercially and critically simply because they’re really good films with great actors behind them.

It’s not in the film realm, but just this year, Patrick Ball has gained a fervent fanbase for his role as Dr. Langdon on The Pitt, only his second TV role in his entire career. He just went to drama school and did the work (Jeremy Strong, anyone?). He doesn’t even need a huge social media presence to keep his name out there because his fans are doing it for him (trust me, I am one of said fans) and his work on The Pitt is there to back it all up.

I don’t need or want to know a celebrity’s every waking thought. Most of the time, they’re out-of-touch and far better in doses. I don’t want to see what they’ve liked on social media and who they follow. Even mildly controversial takes are going to do far more harm for your career than good. Even if you aren’t being controversial, you might be chased off anyway just for being a woman because even that is controversial these days.

The most universally liked celebrities aren’t showing up on your Instagram feed every other minute and getting hit with “overexposed” allegations. They’ll show up in the real world once in a blue moon to promote their next project, so you better pay attention. Catch Cillian Murphy before he heads back into hibernation. Catch Margot Robbie before she goes back to moving in silence. Catch Alexa Demie because we still don’t know her real age.

It’s different for musicians. Accessibility, familiarity, and relatability are the ingredients to their success. That’s why rising artists post TikToks using the same snippet of their upcoming single a million times before it’s released in order to build hype. Even Lady Gaga understands the importance of this as she’s been posting fervently on TikTok this entire Mayhem era. For actors, a larger-than-life personality paired with too much of these same three elements can be detrimental to both the public’s perception of you and your craft. Talk about separating the art from the artist. Cinema is for escapism. Nobody wants to watch a movie and be thinking “that’s [insert actor]” the whole time. You have to disappear into the role and real life eventually.

I think there is a healthy balance to be struck with movie stars and social media. Taylor Russell and Jenna Ortega have Instagrams exclusively to promote their projects and fashion contracts and disappear for months on end once their press tours are over. Obviously, they’re two hugely popular actresses (Ortega even more so) and probably have teams logging in and posting for them. They can afford to be cast on their name alone and pay bills on their acting alone. The same can’t be said for up-and-coming actors. They very well may need a certain number of followers to even get their headshots noticed. If they’re lucky, at some point, they too can choose to use social media sparingly or remove themselves from it all together.

What puzzles me is why studio executives and casting directors are so adamant about this push for actors to promote not only their projects but themselves on social media? I’d like to say Maya Hawke simply isn’t talented enough for casting directors to be begging on their knees for her to sign onto their projects and they’re using her following as an excuse. I’d like to say Madison’s win without the help of social media is because Anora was more of a prestige push rather than a box office push. I also wonder what is the reason for pushing someone like Scarlett Johansson to promote on Instagram. Why does one of the biggest A-list actresses on the planet need to promote one of the biggest franchises on the planet on Instagram? Social media followers clearly don’t translate to butts in seats. Zendaya’s 180 million Instagram followers didn’t help Challengers break even. How is Black Widow posting about the newest remake of the dinosaur theme park franchise going to move the pendulum by any significant means? Let the marketing team run with the fact that they have one of the most recognizable blockbuster movie stars in one of the most recognizable blockbuster franchises and leave it at that.

While I wouldn’t categorize him as a movie star because I don’t think most people even know his name, the lead of James Cameron’s Avatar franchise, Sam Worthington, also doesn’t have Instagram. He’s an anomaly when compared to other Hollywood blockbuster leads, and the Avatar movies do just fine without using an Instagram of his to do promo. Tom Cruise has an Instagram account which he seems to use almost exclusively for Mission: Impossible promo. But let’s be real. That’s Mission: Impossible. Scrolling through his stunts and behind-the-scenes footage would definitely get me to see the movies if I hadn’t already. On the other hand, I’m not so sure what Scarlett Johansson could possibly post about the millionth Jurassic Park reboot to get me wanting to see that. Hello? You have Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali in your movie! They already have Instagram! Go do something with that! It seems like nobody wants to work with what they already have these days. Get it together PR people and leave Johansson alone.

“She said no Instagram promo!”

Of course, Hollywood has found a way to get around actors who refuse to download Instagram. Now, they’re casting influencers. TikToker Addison Rae was cast in (notorious zionist) Eli Roth’s 2023 Thanksgiving and Netflix’s He’s All That. TikToker and podcaster Jake Shane was just cast in Hacks season four. Youtuber Emma Chamberlain was recently announced to be making her acting debut in Forbidden Fruits alongside Lili Reinhart, Lola Tung, Victoria Pedretti, and Alexandra Shipp.

I highly doubt Rae, Shane, and Chamberlain anonymously walked into an open casting call and gave the audition of a lifetime. The producers saw the follower count next to their names and saw dollar signs. Why? I’m not sure. Are Chamberlain’s twelve million subscribers on Youtube really going to see her movie because she vlogged her premiere experience? Maybe a few, but the idea of that being anything substantial is crazy to me. We don’t even know if this girl can act. Even if we go see this film to find out, the appeal and intrigue of finding out will eventually be lost so I’m not sure how this is a sustainable approach to anyone’s acting career. Like ok? That’s Emma Chamberlain, I guess. What am I supposed to with that? At least I know Charli XCX has some kind of talent in performing and a dedicated fanbase here for said talent so I’m fine with her booking roles on her name alone. How does making TikToks and YouTube videos anywhere compare to the amount of craft and talent that acting in a feature film requires? Influencers are not the future of Hollywood and neither is Instagram.

Actors aren’t marketing majors. They aren’t influencers. Why are we expecting them to take on those roles on top of their actual role? Shouldn’t we just expect them to turn in a good performance and call it a day? Isn’t that how it used to be? Can it be that way again? Mikey Madison just won an Oscar without it. You’ve clearly reached movie star status when you don’t need to use social media for promo, but movie studio executives refuse to accept that. Maybe Hollywood teamed up with social media to kill the movie star. Or maybe they just faked their deaths and are praying we don’t realize none of us should need Instagram to survive.