The new wave of Hollywood’s hottest men take on leading roles
IT MAY seem as if Hollywood has endured a man drought, but that’s all about to change. The young Hollywood leading man is still very much alive — and in many cases, it’s taken them until their 30s to get going.
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FROM Marlon Brando and James Dean to George Clooney and Brad Pitt, Hollywood had never been short of a leading man.
As a species, they appeared to be thriving thanks to a seemingly easy supply of good genes, fawning movie studio bosses and an audience who loved to love them.
But like Sir David Attenborough surveying the Sahara, the moguls of movie town suddenly noticed a change in the Hollywood habitat. Everywhere you turned there were young leading ladies killing it on screen and taking out Academy Awards but where were their young male counterparts?
In 2015 numbers reached crisis point: Channing Tatum, their greatest hope, had failed to catapult the 2103 blockbuster White House Down to box office glory. Of course, there were still the stalwarts of the species — Robert Downey Jr, Will Smith, Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio — but they weren’t getting any younger.
The industry watchdogs decided to call it. Vulture claimed we were suffering a leading man “drought”, while arts bible magazine Variety went so far as to call it a “crisis”.
“I don’t know a young man who can open a movie — I wish I could name one — I don’t see any on the horizon frankly,” warned David D’Arcy, who reviews films for Screen International.
Vulture did the numbers. While 15 actresses under the age of 25 had been nominated
for Academy Awards between 2005 and 2015 — including Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone and Rooney Mara — there were only three male nominees under 25 in the same period.
Worse, they were back in 2005 and 2006 — Ryan Gosling for Half Nelson, and Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger for Brokeback Mountain.
In the years since 2015, young women have continued to hold their own, with Brie Larson winning the Oscar for Best Actress in 2016 at the age of 26, Emma Stone winning Best Actress last year aged 28 and both Margot Robbie, 27, and Saoirse Ronan, then 23, nominated for the gong this year.
But what about the blokes? Having been alerted to the lack of succession planning in the heart-throb stakes, has Hollywood raised its game? Can we expect a fresh crop of new hotties to take top billing and knock the likes of Hugh Jackman and Chris Hemsworth off the covers of GQ? Indeed, what makes a man sexy anyway?
While some believe the popularity of YouTube stars and social media celebrities has killed off the true Hollywood leading man, BW Magazine has done its research and discovered the species is still very much alive.
The trouble is they apparently have to be called either Chris or Tom. And in many cases, it’s taken them until their 30s to get going.
The rise of Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pine has been heralded as a “Christening” in Hollywood particularly since this lot look as good in a cape as they do in boardies.
They play action heroes by day and change nappies by night and they sport bodies, as noted by Esquire Magazine, that appear to be carved from granite and sunshine.
Yet arguably better than the Chrises are the Toms. While the Chrises are best in class at superheroes, the Toms — newcomers Hiddleston, Hardy, Hughes and Holland — and old-timers Hanks and Cruise — are notably more versatile.
They do action, comedy AND drama and whereas the Toms of old continue to inhabit the silver screen, the young guns have also tapped into the growing television audience with groundbreaking and highly-acclaimed projects on Netflix.
Brit cutie Tom Hiddleston is terrific in Thor and the new Avengers film but it was The Night Manager that cemented his star status.
Tom Hardy — who we’re tipping as the one to watch — has achieved likewise with roles in Mad Max, The Revenant (for which he won an Academy Award nomination), Dunkirk and the forthcoming Venom, along with television hits such as Peaky Blinders and the recent Taboo.
What’s more, Hardy is being tipped to replace Daniel Craig as James Bond, with bookmakers recently announcing he was the favourite.
Certainly Matthew Tolmach, producer of Venom, believes Hardy is a star: “You know, Tom … it’s like a masterclass watching him act every day and he’s such a risk taker and he loved this character.”
Not only did Hardy believe in his character, according to Tolmach, but he “pushed it to a place that us mere mortals would never expect it to go”.
What Hardy exhibits, and what People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive covers confirm, is that “hotness” or “sexiness” no longer follows a template.
Gone is the textbook handsome look of say, a Hugh Jackman or George Clooney, and in its place is a more nuanced and rugged notion of attraction.
Last year People selected Gwen Stefani’s squeeze Blake Shelton for its Sexiest Man Alive cover, while similar lists regularly include Idris Elba, Michael Fassbender, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jamie Dornan, Prince Harry, Gerard Butler and Zac Efron.
Indeed, when Reddit asked its readers what makes a man sexy, they voted hands, shoulders and biceps along with how a man dresses.
Having his shirtsleeves rolled up to the elbows is apparently more attractive than being tall, dark and handsome with symmetrical features.
But what of the young guys — is there hope for the species? In terms of awards, they’re still thin on the ground although 22-year-old Timothee Chalamet was this year nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Call Me By Your Name.
He cemented his star status by dating Madonna’s daughter Lourdes Leon and is due to star in Beautiful Boy later this year.
Clint Eastwood’s son Scott, 32, Jeremy Irons’ son Max, 32, Ansel Elgort, 23, (The Fault in Our Stars) and Nicholas Hoult, 28, the kid in About A Boy, are also touted among the ones to watch.
One of the key issues is that young men either become superheroes — and thus are pigeonholed — or risk losing the male vote by being cast as matinee idols in the vein of Robert Pattinson and Zac Efron.
Young women, fortunately, face no such conundrum. They’re romping into Hollywood in droves.
Margot Robbie leads the pack which includes Emily Blunt, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain, Shailene Woodley, our own Katherine Langford (13 Reasons Why and Love, Simon), Claire Foy — fresh from The Crown, Lily James and the brilliant Alicia Vikander.
In terms of old-school sexy, Kate Upton and Emily Ratajkowski are busy filling the brief.
Young women, according to commentators, benefit from ageism in Hollywood. As one said: “Youth plus beauty equals screen time.”
Which is why Reese Witherspoon et al are funding and producing their own projects. When you’re the boss, you set the expiry date.