Steven Molony: Actor in Los Angeles, California.

Hi, Steven! Thank you for the connection, much appreciated. I hope life is treating you well?

I've been something of a spectre on this site since I first joined - reading blogs now and again, accepting network requests once every couple of months - so I figured I'd do this to prove that I actually exist and do visit this site on occasion. Plus, I'm a bit of a completionist, and the "Your profile is 75% complete" bar is nagging at me. So here I am. I look forward to potentially meeting you!

I've always found the general measurement of success to be inaccurate. People measure by how much money the film grossed, but I think sheer ability and staying power speak louder than currency. I've seen plenty of films that are considered "successful" because they made enough to pay off the national debt, yet the films are shit and will be forgotten before the next recycled super hero film comes out. There will always be respect for the movie star who captures peoples' hearts through their performances. I will always attend a film Daniel Day-Lewis stars in. And he will go down in history as being one of the greatest film actors ever. He's not the highest paid actor, and his face isn't on the school folders of 12 year old girls, but he will be remembered long after those folders get replaced with the next icon. At the end of the day, it's the ability, truth and ferocity with which an actor attacks his or her roles that will make them remembered. Going back to the idea of box office numbers suggesting the era of the movie star is dead, I don't think that has anything to do with people not caring about movie stars anymore, and everything to do with the fact that people don't need to go to the theatre anymore. They will still show up for crazy, over-the-top spectacle in which yet another city gets destroyed, but it's only a matter of time before that wears off too. The fact of the matter is, people can watch anything at home, and the vast majority prefer to do so. They're still happy to watch a film because their favorite actor is in it; they just don't have to go outta their way to see it at the theatre anymore. The theatre isn't as much of a commodity as it used to be. Hopefully, the industry will adapt by making films for less money and with a wider variety of actors to make more content that doesn't have to make hundreds of millions to be considered a (monetary) success. And hopefully that'll result in more jobs as well as a better share of the wealth.