In the 1950s, when Audrey Hepburn was adorable and pixie-ish, just before the days of horrendous beehive hairdos, she often starred in films with much older romantic leads: Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday, Humphrey Bogart in Sabrina, Gary Cooper in Love in the Afternoon and Fred Astaire in Funny Face. The general wisdom behind these pairings went that Hepburn was far too sophisticated and vibrant for men her own age; that, framed in her presence, the camera and audiences would ignore them.
One would think Hepburn was a special case but that trend continues today. One of two things is happening: Either our young actresses are too powerful for their male counterparts, or the males are just too bland.
After having played a princess three times, 22 year-old Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries) is the most likely heir to the Hepburn throne. Blessed with huge, sparkling eyes, a playful smile and an astonishingly warm, earthy beauty, she easily assumes the mantle of royalty, but like Hepburn, carries enough amiability and charm to cavort among the peasants.
In the charming family film Ella Enchanted (2004), Hathaway plays a peasant girl who winds up in love with a prince (Hugh Dancy). The prince is the kingdom's top male pinup sex symbol, inspiring shrieking fan clubs full of smitten girls. It's well that the film establishes this for us because poor Dancy can't convey that star power all by himself. Hathaway effortlessly steals the film, and indeed, makes it hard to even look at Dancy when they're onscreen together. Still, thanks to Hathaway's skill and presence, and a boost from the screenwriters, the film pulled off a fairly successful romance.
For last year's Garden State, Zach Braff, 29, put on the auteur hat and wrote, directed and starred in the film, giving it all the quirky touches it needed, selecting all the mood music, and writing all the deadpan jokes. But all the quirkiness in the world does not a good movie make. Only the lovable energy of 23-year-old Natalie Portman, with her lovely organic line readings, could wake it up. When Andrew Largeman (Braff) gazes at her and asks, "Who are you?" she replies, "I'm your new friend, Sam!" in a voice that's coy and silly and warm and sexy. That one line alone is enough to make anyone fall for her. She makes us believe that she's in love with Large, and though Braff doesn't really show much on his end, we believe it without seeing it.
But these are best-case scenarios. The potent, pouty, 20-year-old Scarlett Johansson also has gravitated toward more adult roles. Starring opposite grown-ups like Bill Murray (Lost in Translation), Billy Bob Thornton (The Man Who Wasn't There) and Colin Firth (Girl with the Pearl Earring), she convincingly portrayed painful, silent crushes on these older men, ranging from showing almost nothing in Pearl Earring to betraying everything with a tearful good-bye in Translation. These complex men gave her something to be fascinated by and she ran with it.
But with men closer to her own age (The Perfect Score, In Good Company, A Love Song for Bobby Long) she becomes disconnected, sabotaging both her own performance and her counterpart's. With Topher Grace in In Good Company, she appears bored, as if waiting for the stupid dating ritual to be over. There's nothing fascinating, intriguing or passionate about these younger lovers, and her disengagement causes the chemistry between them to merely dissipate.
The list goes on. Dull-as-dishwater Martin Henderson, 30, failed to ignite any sparks with his co-star, the "world's most beautiful woman" Aishwarya Rai, 31, in Gurinder Chadha's Bride and Prejudice. Premiere magazine correctly described him thusly: "has all the raw charisma of an empty Michelob Ultra bottle."
That sentiment sums up the current state of cinema. Too many empty pretty boys are going head-to-head with some fiercely talented and beautiful young actresses, and the audience is coming up short. The term "charisma" comes up again and again, as in "they lacked charisma." Yet it seemed so common in the old days. William Powell and Myrna Loy had it. So did Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Julia Roberts had it with just about anyone, from Hugh Grant to Mel Gibson. Meg Ryan clicked with both Billy Crystal and Tom Hanks.
Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet had it recently in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But he was 13 years her senior, 42 to her 29. Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore have made a good couple in The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates, with a mere eight years difference in their ages. Anna Paquin, 22, has never generated so much heat as in 25th Hour, when she attempts to seduce her much older poetry teacher (Philip Seymour Hoffman, 37), or nursing a crush on Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, 36) in the X-Men films.
So what's going on? Jean-Luc Godard once said that, "the cinema is the history of boys photographing girls." But men understand it takes more than looks for an actress to really jump off the screen and make her impression felt. She also needs screen presence and talent.
It's possible, by the same token, that the men running the business have no idea what to look for in male actors. They latch onto youth and looks but are unable to separate the two. Good looks in Hollywood men often run toward the juvenile or even the feminine.
Among our most promising men, Leonardo DiCaprio, 30, is the perfect embodiment of this. He may be a terrific actor but he constantly struggles against his youthful look. One of the most common complaints about his performance in The Aviator was that he could not look like the older Howard Hughes. And in 2002, he was far more convincing playing a teenager living at home with his parents in Catch Me If You Can than he was as a scowling street thug in Gangs of New York.
As of 2005, many of our most popular male stars are hitting their 40s: Tom Cruise (42), Jim Carrey (42), Brad Pitt (41), Nicolas Cage (41), Johnny Depp (41), Keanu Reeves (40), Russell Crowe (40). Many of them have managed to hang onto their boyish looks while increasing in talent and screen presence. Most often, their boyish looks cause them to be improbably handsome grown men.
All of them have reached stardom and earned longevity by clueing into a specific idea: women, sitting in the dark, want to be with them and men want to be like them. Who hasn't imagined sneering at a bad guy like Clint Eastwood, swaggering into a jet cockpit like Tom Cruise, or even playing pirates like Johnny Depp?
Yet director Philip Kaufman told me in a 2003 interview that, today, he would not have been able to make The Right Stuff, which required adult-looking actors in their 20s, though he was able to find a large cast of them just 20 years ago.
Thus we've hit upon the key: Nearly every male under 30 in American cinema is still a boy. No one wants to emulate them, and they look ridiculous trying to romance the cinema's mature, elegant women. As Chris Rock recently said during his pre-Oscar monologue, there are only a few real stars, and the rest are just popular people. No one wants to hire Tobey Maguire when they can get Tom Cruise.
The solution is simple: Stop forcing young male actors into stardom before their time.
In studio-system days, stars went through a nonspecific training period before graduating to the big time. Humphrey Bogart, the American Film Institute's No. 1 movie star of all time, suffered a humiliating series of comedies and other forgettable experiments before his handlers stumbled upon a tough-guy character in The Petrified Forest. That led to his breakout role in The Maltese Falcon and an exceptional career. John Wayne was introduced as a leading man in The Big Trail, but after its box-office collapse, he was put back into training again until Stagecoach came along nine years later.
Today, young male actors must go through the same training period, but the difference is that the hype machine touts them as stars well before their time. Just over a year ago, the machine turned the spotlight on Matthew Goode, a smoldering Brit cast opposite Mandy Moore in Chasing Liberty. A week later, no one could remember his name, or the film.
As a result, we have an army of talentless, sometimes annoying pretty boys.
After Paul Walker, 31, appeared in the hit The Fast and the Furious, he was awarded with any number of prize roles, but he failed to flesh out any of them. The same goes for: Chris Evans, 23 (The Perfect Score, Cellular), Ashton Kutcher, 26 (The Butterfly Effect), Jon Foster, 20 (The Door in the Floor), Ryan Reynolds, 28 (Blade: Trinity), James Franco, 26 (The Company), Topher Grace, 26 (Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, In Good Company) and Hayden Christensen (Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith), 23.
The real test is: Do any of these guys have a chance with Anne Hathaway, and are there any male viewers who walk out of a Paul Walker or Chris Evans picture wanting to be him? It's unlikely, though maybe some men have imagined being Ashton Kutcher—but only off-screen and in the arms of Demi Moore.
Of course, this is not to say that these actors don't have talent. Franco and Grace are the most promising, and might have a shot at a long career. A little of Franco goes a long way, though, as he seems to think quite a lot of himself in his James Dean-ish way. Grace is more of a quirky, nerdy character actor than a charismatic leading man inspiring confidence. And Christensen, while terrible in the Star Wars films, clocked in with a superb performance in the underrated Shattered Glass.
Yes, some of these actors may find their way into Bogart or Wayne-like careers, but they'll need cultivating. These days the PR machinery burns them out long before they get their chance.
Here's a solution: Let the veterans play. Leave the up-and-comers in the background, at least until they've arrived. Try them out with supporting or character roles to see what they've got. There's no excuse for some half-wit pretty boy getting the lead roles that should go to someone with genuine talent. Stop burning out the young men before they have a chance.
Case in point: Tobey Maguire, 29, was truly awful in his first several films (The Cider House Rules, Ride with the Devil), but through trial and error, has survived the hype machine and found an appealing balance in his nerdy discomfort (Wonder Boys). Now he can play off of 22-year-old Kirsten Dunst (another actress who routinely plays opposite much older men) in the Spider-Man movies and actually appears well-matched. He even managed to pull off one of the greatest and hottest kissing scenes in movie history, hanging upside down and smooching his rain-soaked leading lady.
Maguire may not be the world's greatest example as he's still seven years older than Dunst, but if Hollywood keeps its eye on that kiss and acts accordingly, movies might get a whole lot steamier.