Core Post #4 - Chimezie Metu

For this week's post I chose to really focus in on Thomas Harris' section of SID titled, "The Building of Popular Images". I found this chapter to be very interesting mainly because of how relevant it is to so many stars today and even from the past that we might solely view under one specific light due to one or multiple roles that they have played in films over the years. Foremost, in the opening portion of Harris' writing he makes a comment that really stood out to me in which he claims that, "In building a public personality the motion picture industry has perfected the device of stereotyping its stars", and immediately this made me think of many actors today that have only seem to be involved in the same types of movies or roles every time they are encountered on the screen. For example, Chris Tucker, who is one of my favorite television personalities has the reputation of really being involved in action-comedy types of films such as Rush Hour or Money Talks. Understandably, his background before getting into acting was filled heavily with stand up comedy and things of that sort but picturing him in any other role that doesn't involve some sort of comedic relief just doesn't feel right due to his history on the film screen.

In addition to that, Harris also does a great deal in describing the way that the personalities of most film stars are very well publicized through the use of media platforms and are all based or intertwined on previous roles or movies that they have been involved in. I think it is very normal to associate characters with different roles or movies that they have been apart of especially if it's the first time seeing that particular person, and as we read last week in one of the readings, the first image of a star is critical to how we tend to analyze or view that person moving forward. I also think this idea works both ways as well, assuming that an actor or actress is playing a role that might not coincide with his or her beliefs in the real world. When a case like this comes up I think that what Harris talks about in this chapter also comes into play but in reversal, meaning that the star who may have been portrayed in a negative light during the film will use all of media availability that he or she has access to in order to reconstruct their personal image in a more positive light as opposed to having people believe that their character's actions or beliefs on screen relate to their own personal beliefs.