Allure of the small screen: The movie stars turning to television
The flood of Hollywood actors turning to television gathers speed, as everyone from Richard Gere, Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman and George Clooney sign on to new shows on the small screen.
Gone are the days where the world’s top big screen actors looked down on television like it was their embarrassing poorer cousin.
Only a decade ago, many of those we flocked to see at the cinema would have shunned any offer of starring in a mini-series — but times have changed and some of the biggest names are popping up during this golden age of TV.
Here are just a few who have made the switch.
RICHARD GERE
MotherFatherSon
Hollywood heavyweight Richard Gere, 69, stars in mini-series MotherFatherSon, now airing on BBC First.
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He plays media mogul Max Finch, opposite Peaky Blinders’ Helen McCrory and Billy Howle.
But don’t expect him to make more TV.
“I don’t think I’ll do it again,” he told the UK’s Radio Times.
“It was six months’ shooting, like doing four indie movies back to back but playing the same character. It’s too long.”
JULIA ROBERTS
Homecoming
Meanwhile, Richard’s Pretty Woman Julia Roberts, 51, recently graced TV screens in Amazon’s thriller Homecoming.
She played Heidi Bergman, who pieced together the mysterious circumstances surrounding her exit from a defence facility. Her performance won her rave reviews and a Golden Globe nomination.
“Let’s not … (put) my film days in the past tense,” she said.
MERYL STREEP
Big Little Lies
She might be one of the greatest actors of all time, but she is also a fan of Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman’s Big Little Lies, calling it an “amazing exercise in what we know and what we don’t know about people”.
So when she expressed interest, they wrote a role and even named it after her. Meryl, 69, plays Mary Louise Wright, Nicole’s mother-in-law.
Season two airs on Foxtel next month.
CATE BLANCHETT
Stateless
The Oscar-winner has committed to TV with two political series. Stateless is
an ABC drama about immigration which Cate, 50, co-created.
It is about “the desire for personal freedom”, she said. She is also making Mrs America for Disney’s FX channel, which co-stars Rose Byrne and tells the story of conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly who campaigned against the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s.
Both series will air next year.
GEORGE CLOONEY
Catch-22
The ER star’s career has come full-circle as George Clooney, 58, heads back to TV in Catch-22, an adaptation of the Joseph Heller novel.
Co-starring Christopher Abbott, Kyle Chandler and Hugh Laurie, George also directs it.
He said it was “intimidating” bringing the classic to the small screen, but reviews have been full of praise.
Catch-22 premiered on Stan this week.
BENICIO DEL TORO
Escape at Dannemora
TV also called Avengers actor Benicio Del Toro, 52, who joined Paul Dano and Patricia Arquette to make the gripping real-life prison drama Escape at Dannemora, on Stan.
Arquette went on to win a Golden Globe for her performance.
Benicio said he was attracted to playing the “manipulative character” Richard Matt.
Arquette is in another true crime drama The Act, now on Hulu in the US.
NICOLE KIDMAN
The Undoing
After Top of the Lake and Big Little Lies, which earned her a Golden Globe and an Emmy, Nicole Kidman, 51, is filming another small screen drama The Undoing.
She plays Grace Sachs, a New York therapist turned author, whose life falls to pieces, alongside Hugh Grant and Donald Sutherland.
Nicole chooses her TV roles carefully with her production company Blossom Films, saying her projects have to be “deeply personal”.
The Undoing comes out next year.
HELENA BONHAM CARTER
The Crown
Helena Bonham Carter, 52, is joining TV royalty as Princess Margaret in the third season
of The Crown, with Olivia Colman as The Queen and Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip.
“I’m not sure which I’m more terrified about — doing justice to the real Princess Margaret or following in the shoes of Vanessa Kirby’s Princess Margaret,” she said.
Season three airs on Netflix later this year.
JENNIFER GARNER
Camping
The Mother’s Day actor, 47, plays a horrible mother on her return to the small screen in Lena Dunham’s Camping, the US adaptation of the British comedy series about a camping trip spiralling out of control.
“I was really terrified a lot of the time,” she said.
Jennifer stars alongside David Tennant and Juliette Lewis. The satirical series received harsh reviews when aired on Foxtel earlier this year.
OWEN WILSON
Documentary Now!
Season three of this mockumentary series on Netflix includes Owen Wilson and Michael Keaton.
“I just thought it was a funny idea,” said Wilson.
He stars in double-episode Batshit Valley, a parody of cult documentary Wild Wild Country. Hosted by Helen Mirren, later episodes also star Cate Blanchett.
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