From Stars to Starmakers: Spotlighting the Producers of Popular Screen Identities

Abstract

Forty years ago, Richard Dyer almost single-handedly inaugurated a new discipline within film studies devoted to the study of stars and their social significance. Since the publication of his ground-breaking book, there have been many attempts at expanding his semiotic and sociological paradigm and also at redirecting the focus to gain a better understanding of the role of ideology, performance style or historically positioned audiences. One meaningful avenue of research was opened up, in particular, by Paul McDonald who has called for studying the industrial and economic processes behind what he calls the production of popular identities. While his model proved influential, it seems that most research projects are still dominated by emphasis on individual stars, neglecting or marginalizing other important agents in the star-making process. In this article, I propose to move one step further and refocus our attention on film producers, talent scouts, agents, publicists and other skilled professionals whose business was in the Hollywood studio era to discover, develop, promote and sell stars. Using a case study focused on producer David O. Selznick and his “Swedish discovery” Ingrid Bergman I demonstrate that the actress’ public identity – often assumed to be wholly authentic and autonomous – was in fact systematically constructed by Selznick’s independent production company.