Jessica Lange is calling out modern Hollywood for not valuing the “creative process” of filmmaking.
The “Feud” actress told Vulture that “artistic impulse” is squashed by the “corporate profit motive,” much like Warner Bros. Discovery canning almost-completed films like “Batgirl” and “Coyote vs. Acme” for tax write-off purposes. Of that in particular, Lange said, “There should be a law against it.”
“We’re living in a corporate world and it certainly has rolled over into the film industry,” Lange said. “So much of the industry now is not about the creative process. Obviously, this is not across the board, but there are many instances where I feel like the artistic impulse is overwhelmed by the corporate profit motive.”
Lange instead cited international features for being more bold in their storytelling.
“You look at some of the best films of the past year — what do they have in common? They’re not from America,” she said. “My favorite was ‘Anatomy of a Fall.’ How often do we get to see a film like that, where the ambiguity of things is never sewn up?”
Lange also lamented on how the state of filmmaking itself has drastically changed since she was beginning her career.
“Before the video village, where the director is sitting in a little separate room looking at monitors, there was a kind of synergy between the actors and the filmmakers,” she said. “The director would stand next to the camera, and there was almost an alchemy, this transformation of energy between the director and you in front of the camera while you were playing the scene. … You got this sense that the director was there with you in every moment — almost as if he were willing your performance. It was a beautiful way to work.”
She added, “[Now] you’re not going to watch dailies. It’s a different ball game.”
Lange previously announced her plans to retire given her dismay with the film industry. Lange told The Telegraph in 2023 that “wonderful films by really great filmmakers, wonderful stories, great characters” are rare in modern Hollywood.
“I don’t think I’ll do this too much longer,” Lange said. “Creativity is secondary now to corporate profits.”
The frequent “American Horror Story” star added that “the emphasis becomes not on the art or the artist or the storytelling. It becomes about satisfying your stockholders,” which in turn “diminishes the artist and the art of filmmaking.”
Lange specifically pointed to “big comic book franchise films” for squandering the “art that we’ve been involved in for the sake of profit.”
