From my observations, Star Wars never makes anyone's acting careers, it kills them in the cradle. Those who had already made a name for themselves tend to survive just fine, but Star Wars doesn't really boost their status either, and newcomers get grinded into pulp. One only needs to look at the actors who played Anakin in the prequel trilogy; they both disappeared completely once it wrapped up.
Heck, I can't even say the main leads of the original trilogy had amazing careers once it finished. Okay, Harrison Ford did, but he was already on Lucas and Speilberg's list of favored actors, so they had plenty of work lined up for him to better define his portfolio. Meanwhile, Hamill largely went off-camera to become a voice actor, and Fisher almost completely vanished. You'd think starring in the absolute biggest movie franchise of the century would have led to something more stellar for them, but no.
And it's happening again. Daisey Ridley is now just a puff of smoke. Boyega enjoyed a brief bump when he got the lead role in the sequel to Pacific Rim, but has since been fading into smaller side parts. And as for the guys who played as Poe and that chubby Vietnamese girl, I have no idea where the hell they went (and I don't care, and neither does anyone else). Only Adam Driver seems to have survived that disaster of a film series, though I suspect he's more or less building himself up from scratch.
To be fair, where do you go after being in the biggest franchise of the decade? Unless you go to be the lead in the biggest franchise of the next decade like Ford what are ya gonna do?
If you're willing to live in sane and rational areas like red flyover states, it's still only about a million dollars to retire and live comfortably: Grab that trilogy paycheque, and disappear from the map.
From my observations, Star Wars never makes anyone's acting careers, it kills them in the cradle. Those who had already made a name for themselves tend to survive just fine, but Star Wars doesn't really boost their status either, and newcomers get grinded into pulp. One only needs to look at the actors who played Anakin in the prequel trilogy; they both disappeared completely once it wrapped up.
Heck, I can't even say the main leads of the original trilogy had amazing careers once it finished. Okay, Harrison Ford did, but he was already on Lucas and Speilberg's list of favored actors, so they had plenty of work lined up for him to better define his portfolio. Meanwhile, Hamill largely went off-camera to become a voice actor, and Fisher almost completely vanished. You'd think starring in the absolute biggest movie franchise of the century would have led to something more stellar for them, but no.
And it's happening again. Daisey Ridley is now just a puff of smoke. Boyega enjoyed a brief bump when he got the lead role in the sequel to Pacific Rim, but has since been fading into smaller side parts. And as for the guys who played as Poe and that chubby Vietnamese girl, I have no idea where the hell they went (and I don't care, and neither does anyone else). Only Adam Driver seems to have survived that disaster of a film series, though I suspect he's more or less building himself up from scratch.
The guy who played Poe still gets roles because he can actually act.
To be fair, where do you go after being in the biggest franchise of the decade? Unless you go to be the lead in the biggest franchise of the next decade like Ford what are ya gonna do?
If you're willing to live in sane and rational areas like red flyover states, it's still only about a million dollars to retire and live comfortably: Grab that trilogy paycheque, and disappear from the map.