"Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul" - Marilyn Monroe

What does Michelle Rodriguez, Anna Faris, Jennifer Aniston, Bruce Willis and Michael Cera have in common? Aside from being movie stars is the fact that no matter what movie they are in, they ALWAYS play the same role. From being a badass- I-can-and-will-kick-your-butt type of girl (Michelle R) to being a Ditzy blonde, even though she isn’t really blonde (Anna Faris), some stars cant seem to be able to play different roles.

Not so long ago, during the 'Classical Hollywood era' this used to be the case for ALL STARS. Big studios would discover promising actors, sent them to dancing, singing, acting classes and then made them sign a contract that would made the stars literally belong to the studio for the next few years of their lives.

Sounds fun? Not really.  Not only did the actors not get paid enough, but they would have to play the roles the studio demanded them too. They would always play the same roles, no matter what movie they were in. The studio created an image for each of their stars and obliged them to live up to that image, especially in front of the media. Their image was more important than their acting.

So whenever someone went to see a movie, they just had to look who stars in it to know what to expect the movie to be about. How boring right? Nowadays you wouldn’t know what to expect from a movie just by knowing who is going to star in it, if that was the case I would have been more than excited to watch Valentines Day which had an all A LIST cast, but a pretty boring script. If this movie had come out in old Hollywood people would have known what to expect from each character.

Placed among the 10 greatest female artist of all time by the American Film institute, Judy Garland, who’s real first name was Frances Ethel Gumm, would be an excellent example of the star system in Old Hollywood. Discovered by MGM for who she worked for from 1935 to 1950, her typical roles were drama and musicals. She had a hard time battling with insecurity since film executives would tell her she was unattractive and manipulated her on screen appearance. When people went to see a Judy Garland movie, they knew she would burst into a song in no time and im sure they would have been surprised if she didn’t. 

"I was born at the age of twelve on an MGM lot"- Judy Garland