It is said that winning a Goya for Revelation is a poisoned prize that condemns those who take it home to oblivion. And something similar happens to the planetary stars from the most successful Netflix fictions. Virtually unknown actors and actresses who become mass phenomena and are relegated to the background before being able to establish themselves in an industry as demanding as it is ruthless. When Netflix crosses the path of these emerging actors, protagonists of world-famous series, their lives change overnight, and this time the expression must be interpreted in the most literal way. One day you are just another anonymous person in the world and the next your face is on canvas several meters high in cities in France, Canada, Brazil or India, some of the more than 190 countries where the audiovisual giant is present. There are many cases of newly arrived actors who have seen their budding careers take off to the top before even having started in the industry. The children of Stranger Things They perhaps exemplify one of the most famous phenomena.
It was the middle of summer 2016 when the Duffer brothers’ series was released. Its success was almost instantaneous and the character of Eleven (played by Millie Bobby Brown), who in those first episodes was shown with a shaved head, eating waffles and with blood dripping from her nose every time she put her powers into practice, became the star Halloween costume. Almost a decade later, the series is coming to an end and the children of Hawkins High School have already left their adolescence behind. With the exception of Millie Bobby Brown, who has capitalized on her success by launching a cosmetics company and starring in teen movies, such as the series Enola Holmes either Damsel (both from Netflix), and the Canadian Finn Wolhfard (Mike Wheeler in the fiction), the rest of the young cast has not finished standing out.
Wolhfard combines acting with music and among his most notable films of recent years we find When you finish saving the world (2022) and the blockbuster new versions of GhostbustersMore timely has been the success of Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), revered on TikTok thanks to the unexpected boom of his song End of Beginning. Of the main cast, Noah Schapp (Will Byers) has also been making headlines recently, but not for work reasons. In November, he received criticism after filming himself with a sticker that read “Zionism is sexy” weeks after the confrontation between Israel and Gaza. And just a few weeks ago, Page Six published that the interpreter had been expelled from a nightclub for behaving inappropriately while under the influence of alcohol, despite being 19 years old and the minimum drinking age in the United States being 21. According to the IMDB platform, there is only one project on his work horizon: the fifth and final season of Stranger Thingswhich still has no confirmed release date. Natalie Dyer and Charlie Heaton, the couple who played Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers and whose love transcended the screen, do not seem to have a very busy schedule either.
The elastic fame
One year after Stranger ThingsNetflix faced controversy when releasing For thirteen reasonsa series starring Australian Katherine Langford. The plot revolved around a student who takes her own life after dealing with several episodes of bullying. The fiction was produced by Selena Gomez and its premiere was accompanied by intense promotion with Langford as the main attraction. The public responded and today the series is one of the most watched in the history of the platform. However, little is known about its protagonist. The actress participated in the first two seasons and then tried her luck with new projects, including the film Knives in the back (2019). Since then, his work has gone largely unnoticed.
More recently, the phenomenon of The Bridgertons The series has also produced new actors who are more like eternal promises than superstars. Shonda Rhimes’ bet, a period story that condenses love, sex and a touch of mystery, was a hit in terms of audience in a post-confinement era with many people still isolated in their homes. Among all the characters, it was the Duke of Hastings, played by Regé-Jean Page, who unleashed madness among the fans of the series. The British actor had years of experience behind him, but with minor projects that made him unknown to the general public (perhaps his most talked-about performance was a tiny appearance in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1). Following the premiere of the series, brands flocked to the man who seemed to be the new actor of the moment. He became the face of the Armani Code perfume and ambassador of the watch brand Longines. There were even rumours that he could be the new James Bond, something that ultimately did not happen.
Page experienced firsthand the elasticity of fame and how no matter how quickly you rise, the fall will always be much faster. After failing at the box office with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023), could have a new opportunity alongside Cate Blanchett in the thriller Black Bagdirected by Steven Soderbergh and currently in production. Phoebe Dynevor’s absence from the red carpet was not so sudden, as the actress, co-star with Page in the first season of The Bridgertonsshe has participated in later seasons of the series. However, she recently complained publicly about the lack of roles for women her age: “There is room for actors… there are many. And they are great. They are very talented young men who are constantly working, and I am happy for them. But when you think about women my age… there is much more room for them and there is still not enough room for us in the room,” He told The Standard.
Fly Out of the Nest Netflix
Landing a role in a Netflix series is already a colossal achievement. Surviving a global hit, avoiding being pigeonholed and having people see beyond your character is something that only a few can achieve. You only have to look back a few years to see how the stars of the big series have stopped shining before their time. But there are exceptions. One of them is Anya Taylor-Joy. The actress had already captivated with her role in The Witch before becoming an enigmatic and prodigious chess player in Queen’s Gambit. The 2020 fiction boosted chess board sales and placed the actress as one of the names to watch. Four years later, she continues to be one of the most coveted and sought-after faces in the industry. This year she has been part of the second installment of Dune and has starred Furiosa: from the Mad Max sagapresented at the last Cannes Film Festival, where the actress moves like a fish in water.
Another woman who could fly away once out of the Netflix nest is Jenna Ortega, the sinister Wednesday Addams from remake launched with great fanfare last year. The series directed by Tim Burton broke records and led the list of most-watched content for weeks. “I feel like I’m a public figure more than ever and it’s really stressful because anything you say can be twisted, suddenly someone can take things for granted about you or hypersexualize you,” she lamented to the Associated Press, referring to the media exposure and everything that it entails. That fame, however, has given a powerful boost to her work. In Wednesday She makes a few people have a hard time, but on the big screen she has been the one who suffers with Scream VI. In addition, we will soon see her in another iconic title of the Burton universe, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, alongside Winona Ryder, Monica Bellucci and William Dafoe. Not to mention the second season of Wednesdayscheduled for 2025.
The Spanish case
If the platform has demonstrated anything, it is that national series can be exported with relative ease outside our borders. The Money Heist It was the most watched non-English speaking series on Netflix when it landed on the platform (its original premiere was on Antena 3 in 2017) and in 2018 more than 20 million households connected with the teenagers from Las Encinas in the first month of broadcasting. Elite. These figures put the spotlight on a whole generation of very young actors and actresses, who were in most cases completely unknown. In a matter of hours, anonymity vanished and many have still not recovered it. “Sometimes it bothers me when people ask me for photos, but that’s what happens, every job has its things. In the balance, the good wins,” she said in an interview with The vanguard Aaron Piper, present in four of eight seasons of EliteThe cast varies almost entirely from season to season, which is why since the much-hyped premiere of the series, announced as a Gossip Girl In the Spanish version, the list of actors and actresses is getting longer and longer. For the moment, among the names that became known as a result of the fiction, actors such as Miguel Bernardeau (the new Fox), Ester Expósito (this year she premiered the series Bandits and has three other projects for the coming months), Claudia Salas (awarded in 2023 with the Feroz for best leading actress for the series The route) or Georgina Amorós (co-stars alongside Karra Elejalde in Second deathon Movistar+). Others like Manu Ríos, Miguel Herrán or María Pedraza were already known before the series.
On the other hand, the popular The Money Heist helped redirect the careers of already established actresses, such as Úrsula Corberó, who has dazzled Hollywood with her latest action films. Or the actor Pedro Alonso, star of spin off Berlin. And among the actors less known to the public, Jaime Lorente can boast of offers after the Netflix boom: in recent years he has been Ángel Cristo in a biographical series about the circus artist, El Cid in a historical miniseries and more recently the founder of Locomía, Xavi Font, in the feature film Disco, Ibiza, Locomia (2024). This year marks the end of Stranger Things and EliteSo the question is: which still unknown actors and actresses will make it into the new audiovisual hits of the future?
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_
#working #life #Netflix #phenomenon