To quote the cinematic classic Showgirls, “There’s always someone younger and hungrier coming down the stairs after you.” This adage, which applies to most forms of work but particularly the entertainment industry, has fuelled moviemaking for decades. Actors are, they say, only as good as their next project. If one disappears for a few months, they may disappear for ever. The pop culture memory is short – actors better keep themselves in the spotlight at all times. For Anora star Mikey Madison, though, who was crowned the darling of Hollywood when she scooped the Best Actress Oscar in March, these claims appear to be of no concern. She is currently (and excitingly) out of work, turning down high-profile roles left, right and centre. And it’s a sign of an industry that’s undergoing a thrilling evolution right before our eyes.
Since winning her Oscar – to the surprise of many who assumed The Substance’s Demi Moore would take it home instead – Madison has reportedly been approached for a handful of major movies. One was Universal’s forthcoming adaptation of the Colleen Hoover novel Reminders of Him, which – quality aside – is likely to mirror the stratospheric box-office success of the otherwise doomed Blake Lively/Justin Baldoni weepie It Ends with Us. But Madison said no (Longlegs’s similarly alliterative Maika Monroe swooped in with a yes). She’s been linked to reboots of The Chronicles of Narnia and Resident Evil, yet neither seems (so far) to have enticed her. And then this week came word that Madison has turned down a forthcoming Star Wars movie, directed by Deadpool & Wolverine’s Shawn Levy and co-starring Ryan Gosling.
Madison is currently in an incredibly valuable position, with numerous studios understandably fighting to make sure their project is the one she chooses to follow up her star-making role. But the fact that Madison is taking her time – and rejecting things like a Star Wars sequel – provides us with a fascinating peek into the life of the modern movie star, and how historically sure-things have lately become deeply unappealing to Hollywood’s next wave.
A feature in The Hollywood Reporter last year, which spotlighted the 10 nascent stars making up the industry’s “new A-list”, was full of intriguing details about parts they’ve turned down. Saltburn’s Jacob Elordi reportedly spurned an audition for James Gunn’s Superman (the far less famous David Corenswet eventually booked the part). Paul Mescal “shied away from traditional Hollywood ventures” in the aftermath of his breakout role in Normal People, only making Gladiator II because of the prestige attached to it (and most likely the involvement of director Ridley Scott).
Glen Powell had, the piece claimed, turned down a forthcoming Jurassic Park revival. Florence Pugh, meanwhile, was marked as “one of the few new A-listers making a full-court press with Marvel” – but she had also signed on to the MCU way back in March 2019, months before she broke huge with the horror hit Midsommar and Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, which earned her an Oscar nomination. She could be forgiven for not anticipating her own rise, or the rapid decline of Marvel’s reputation in the cultural consciousness. Others in the piece – among them Austin Butler, Jenna Ortega and Zendaya – were noted as being particularly focused on working with good directors and building long, interesting careers, and only accepting a major franchise if it comes with significant cachet. See Butler’s scene-stealing villain role in Dune: Part Two, for instance.
Compare all of this to a decade or so ago, and the difference is stark. Jeremy Renner was linked to Marvel’s Hawkeye within months of his Oscar nomination for The Hurt Locker in 2009. Margot Robbie didn’t get an Oscar nod for her breakout role in 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street, but during that film’s awards season, eagerly signed up to the ill-fated The Legend of Tarzan, in which she played Jane. Lupita Nyong’o met with JJ Abrams to discuss a role in his rebooted Star Wars trilogy within weeks of her Oscar win for 12 Years a Slave in 2014, and was officially signed up later that year. Alicia Vikander was cast as the new Lara Croft in a Tomb Raider revival two months after she won her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Danish Girl in 2016. That same month also saw Brie Larson, 2016’s Best Actress winner for Room, sign up to play Captain Marvel in the MCU.
The pipeline was clear: a young, buzzy movie star breaks out with a critical smash and/or awards attention, then they collect a major payday in a franchise. But cast a glance over the names above and it all looks a bit cursed now, doesn’t it? Nyong’o spent three Star Wars films playing an entirely CGI character. Vikander’s Tomb Raider wasn’t successful enough to get a sequel. Renner and Larson were trapped for years in Marvel hell, Larson in particular subjected to one of the most vicious and prolonged campaigns of social-media abuse in recent memory. Only Robbie’s undeniable business acumen and quality control seemed to rescue her from a dire fate: she produced both 2017’s I, Tonya, which earned her an Oscar nomination, and 2023’s Barbie, to date her biggest hit.
While much of the industry apparatus remains the same in 2025 (just look at the reboot-heavy offers being sent Madison’s way), the actors floating around inside it seem far savvier and more strategic than their generational predecessors. Perhaps because there’s so much more at stake now. Attaching yourself to a Marvel, DC or Star Wars project doesn’t just contractually dominate your filming schedule for years at a time – it also has the potential to entirely swallow your brand as an actor: Larson is more or less a cautionary tale at this point, with her treatment in the MCU the elephant in the room during every interview.
So too is Rachel Zegler, who leapt from her breakout role in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story and straight into a trio of expensive blockbusters. One was a hit (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes), another a mortifying failure (Shazam! Fury of the Gods), and the final one, well, that could be viewed as an actor’s worst nightmare: last month’s disastrous Snow White took so long to shoot and reshoot that many of the actor’s most valuable years in Hollywood were hoovered up in one fell swoop. And now Zegler can’t seem to move without an army of internet trolls jeering at her. When that is a possible outcome, why wouldn’t you pull a Mikey Madison and hold out for something particularly great? (Or at least something without an incredibly volatile pre-existing fanbase.)
And for Madison in particular, her decision to turn down Star Wars only adds to her strange mystique. A soft-spoken 26-year-old with absolutely no social media presence, she has kicked around in the industry since she was a teenager, quietly stealing scenes in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the 2022 Scream reboot, and as Pamela Adlon’s daughter in the cult TV comedy Better Things. Otherwise, though, she is an enigma: we don’t know much about her personal life, her politics, or her career goals. And what a pleasant, novel surprise to see someone so reserved, considered and fame-resistant shot to the front of the line when it comes to Hollywood’s biggest film offers, lightsaber blessedly not in hand.
