Product Information
Despite their considerable presence in Hollywood, extras and working actors have received scant attention within film and media studies as significant contributors to the history of the industry. Looking not to the stars but to these supporting players in film, television, and, recently, streaming programming, Below the Stars highlights such actors as precarious laborers whose work as freelancers has critically shaped the entertainment industry throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. By addressing ordinary actors as a labor force, Kate Fortmueller proposes a media industry history that positions underrepresented and quotidian experiences as the structural elements of the culture and business of Hollywood. Resisting a top-down assessment, Fortmueller explores the wrangling of labor unions and guilds that advocated for collective action for everyday actors and helped shape professional norms. She pulls from archival research, in-person interviews, and firsthand observation to examine a history that cuts across industry boundaries and situates actors as a labor group at the center of industrial and technological upheavals, with lasting implications for race, gender, and labor relations in Hollywood.Product Identifiers
PublisherUniversity of Texas Press
ISBN-139781477323076
eBay Product ID (ePID)5049065060
Product Key Features
Publication Year2021
FormatHardcover
LanguageEnglish
Book TitleBelow the Stars: How the Labor of Working Actors and Extras Shapes Media Production
AuthorKate Fortmueller
Number of Pages216 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height229 mm
Item Width152 mm
Additional Product Features
Country/Region of ManufactureUnited States
Title_AuthorKate Fortmueller