The Myth of the Indie Career Boost

Shia LaBeouf has given up big Hollywood pictures, or so he claims, having landed himself a part in Lars von Trier's "The Nymphomaniac." The only thing we know about the film so far is that the sex scenes will be real instead of simulated. LaBeouf is taking the separation pretty seriously, it seems. I wish him the best of luck, having kept an eye on the guy's career since his "Even Steven" days, but I hope he understands the risks. Plenty of young stars have decided to take a detour away from mainstream films in search of indie credibility, never to be heard from again.

Some successful Hollywood actors start out in the mainstream and never leave it. Some come from theater or stand-up or television. A few are shipped in from overseas. However, there may be no bigger way to make a splash than by delivering a really knockout performance in some tiny no-budget film nobody saw coming. Under-the-radar child actors suddenly emerging from independent films as the next hot leading actor or actress has actually turned into a bit of a cliché. Everybody knows the success stories. Ryan Gosling went from "Mickey Mouse Club" member to eye-catching roles in "The Believer" and "Half Nelson," nabbed an Academy Award nomination, and now he's one of the most sought-after leading men in Hollywood. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was a prominent child star all through the 90s, but people didn't really start paying attention to him until after he quit Hollywood teen fodder for challenging films like "Mysterious Skin" and "Brick." And then we have Michelle Williams, who spent years playing second fiddle to Katie Holmes on "Dawson's Creek." Ten years and three Academy Award nominations later, she's built a sterling reputation for playing difficult roles in independent dramas. More recently, Jennifer Lawrence and Elizabeth Olsen shot to fame thanks to "Winter's Bone," and "Martha Marcy May Marlene" respectively.

So when young actors who have largely made their names based on less substantive fluff start looking for options to beef up their acting chops, they almost always head for the world of independent cinema. Shia LaBeouf will find himself in good company. Robert Pattinson and Kristin Stewart both had films premiere at the Cannes Film festival this year. Then again, those two have actually been making indie films for years without getting much attention for them. And you rarely hear anything about the actors who never quite managed to engineer those career jump starts that indie film work was supposed to give them. Macaulay Culkin's has done a string of smaller films, angling for a comeback, but never got anywhere. Then there was the disastrous "Hounddog," that was supposed to help transition Dakota Fanning from a child star to grown-up roles, but only managed to stir up a public outcry because of the controversial content. She's been doing better since, but hasn't received nearly as much attention for her indie roles as her mainstream ones. More recently, Miley Cyrus's "LOL" was a notorious bust, only released in theaters because it was contractually required to be. And then there's Haley Joel Osment, who keeps toiling away in increasing obscurity.

The thing about independent films is that they offer a great opportunity to do substantive work, because there's such a wealth of interesting projects and far more creative freedom. A budding talent who has never had the chance to really stretch their acting muscles will find better roles and better options. On the other hand, someone without much talent or skill will find themselves facing a steep learning curve. Former child actors have it especially rough because many of them have to essentially start over again from the beginning, figuring out how to deal with more mature roles and changing self-images. There's also the little matter of reduced visibility, as the vast majority of independent films don't get much attention, and many never find distribution. Even the ones that are released in theaters get only a fraction of the marketing and viewers that studio films get, and audiences tend to be more discerning. A famous name helps, but only up to a point, because it really is the acting that matters. So, independent films can be a great learning experience for some, but terrible for others, especially if they choose the wrong projects and the wrong parts, which can wreak havoc on previously squeaky clean, picture-perfect public personas A little edge goes a long way.

For an actor like Matthew McConaughey, who is in the middle of a career renaissance thanks to a string of good roles in small films, turning to the indies was a great way to reinvent himself. Miley Cyrus, on the other hand, never should have gone within a hundred miles of them. Television would have been a better route for her, which generally requires less - well, you don't have to be able to act to be on television these days. I am interested in how well Shia LaBeouf is going to do, though, because I really have no idea whether he really can act or not. I haven't seen anything particularly impressive out of him so far. He has a lot of promise, like Robert Patitnson, but maybe these guys just haven't had the right opportunities yet. Maybe they just haven't been in the right kinds of films.

What the indies are for these guys is more like a proving ground, and it's a rough one. But if Shia LaBeouf's career can survive Lars Von Trier, he'll probably be able to survive anything.
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