Actors can play any role, of course, but it helps if that role is an actor because they know exactly how an actor thinks and feels. Hollywood has a soft spot for movies about Hollywood, and this sometimes gives actors the opportunity to immortalize their own occupation on-screen, either in a satirical capacity or in a straight dramatic story.
One great movie about acting is Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Oscar-winning dark comedy masterpiece Birdman, which stars former Batman Michael Keaton as a washed-up superhero actor desperate to prove his artistic credibility. But there are plenty of other terrific films about actors.
Birdman (2014)
There’s a meta element to Michael Keaton’s casting in Birdman. Although Birdman ironically ended up revitalizing his career, Keaton’s heyday was his stint in the role of Batman. The same goes for the character of Riggan Thomson, who has struggled to prove his worth as an artist since starring in the Birdman franchise.
Edited to look like it was shot in a single take, Birdman revolves around the opening of the Broadway play that Riggan hopes will earn him some respectability in the artistic community.
All About Eve (1950)
Lauded as one of the greatest movies in Hollywood history, All About Eve stars Bette Davis as an aging Broadway icon and Anne Baxter as a young fan who manages to become a part of her life.
The movie was written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the brother of the Citizen Kane screenwriter that Gary Oldman played in David Fincher’s recent Netflix biopic Mank.
The Artist (2011)
The Academy was very pleased with Michel Hazanavicius’ work on The Artist. It’s about a Hollywood movie star played by Jean Dujardin who struggles to adapt to the “talkies” that are replacing the silent films he made his name in.
Hazanavicius wrote and directed the movie in the style of an old black-and-white silent film. It was the first silent film to win Best Picture since the 1st Academy Awards in 1929.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood captures a specific turning point in the American film industry. In 1969, classical filmmaking techniques went out of style and the New Hollywood era officially began.
While the movie explores all facets of the film industry, it’s specifically focused on a day in the lives of a couple of actors. Sharon Tate goes to a theater to see her own performance in The Wrecking Crew, while the fictional Rick Dalton shoots the pilot episode of Lancer and has a meltdown in his trailer after flubbing his lines.
Mulholland Drive (2001)
The first half of David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive presents an idealized version of the Hollywood dream as Naomi Watts plays a starry-eyed aspiring actor who moves into a relative’s cushy L.A. home and lands a major part in her first audition.
In the second half, depending on your reading of the film, reality comes crashing down as she encounters her own miserable doppelganger working as a waitress in a diner.
La La Land (2016)
Harking back to the classic musicals from the Golden Age of Hollywood, Damien Chazelle’s La La Land has a romantic, visually stunning view of Tinseltown from the perspective of a jazz musician played by Ryan Gosling and an actor played by Emma Stone.
Stone’s scenes perfectly capture the frustrations of being a struggling actor, as she faces constant rejection and finds herself at the mercy of casting directors.
A Star Is Born (1937)
There have been a ton of remakes of A Star is Born and some of the more recent ones (including the 2018 version with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga) have recontextualized the story to take place in the music industry, but it was initially a story about actors.
The original 1937 version of A Star is Born starred Janet Gaynor as an aspiring actor and Fredric March as the fading movie star who takes her under his wing.
For Your Consideration (2006)
One of Christopher Guest’s funniest mockumentaries, For Your Consideration sees a bunch of actors launching awards campaigns when their performances in a movie that isn’t even finished yet receive Oscar buzz in the industry press.
The star-studded cast contains a lot of comedy legends that Guest has worked with before, from Eugene Levy to Catherine O’Hara to Fred Willard to Jane Lynch.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Billy Wilder’s film noir masterpiece Sunset Boulevard opens with screenwriter Joe Gillis floating dead in the swimming pool of fading movie starlet Norma Desmond. Desmond initially hires him because she wants to mount a comeback vehicle.
She becomes so delusional throughout the movie that when she’s arrested for murder, she mistakes the news cameras for a film crew preparing to shoot her big closeup.
Tootsie (1982)
Directed by the great Sydney Pollack, Tootsie stars Dustin Hoffman as an unemployed actor who disguises himself as a woman to land a part on a soap opera whose male roles have all been cast.
While most high-concept comedies of this nature just beat their premise to death, Tootsie is a movie with a lot of warmth, timeless gags, sharp storytelling, and sympathy for its characters.
