Films are sold on star image. They are not just labour but they are a form of capital too because they create an advantage for the film that it would not have if it just had an ordinary actor in the role, so they will hopefully get good profits.
Not all film actors are stars though. Stars have to do extra publicity for films, interviews and premieres and do not usually have to audition for parts. Ordinary actors will have to audition and do not usually have to do the publicity which stars do. They do not get the glamour of being a star. It is rare that even for stars that all their films will be major successes because even stars go in and out of fashion.
Stars come across as ordinary through their image as normal people but their extreme wealth and looks sets them apart from other people.
Stars and Moon
Scorsese at the Gangs of New York screening at the...
English: Jean-Claude Van Damme at the Cannes film ...They seem ordinary at first but their money and attractiveness makes them then come across as extraordinary and sets them apart from other people.
According to The Star System - Hollywood's Production Of Popular Identities by Paul McDonald:
The star image is not the person but a set of texts and meanings that signify the person. Image is something separable from the star.
The meaning of a stars image is therefore not contained in the sources that represent the star but is produced in the moment of interaction between moviegoers and star texts.
Audiences don't get the real person but images, words and sounds which are taken to stand for that person therefore moviegoers get an impression of that person so the star becomes a collection of meanings.
This is meaning that it is not just the actor that is the star image but everything around them that makes...