7 How La La Land’s dealing with lockdown
‘IT FELT AS THOUGH we were rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic,’ recalls Aaron Couch, a critic for The Hollywood Reporter, who covered the last major premiere in LA – for Disney’s $200m live-action remake of Mulan on 9 March – days before coronavirus rapidly brought the entire film industry to an abrupt standstill.
Held at tourist epicenter the Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard – home to the Academy Awards, now a desolate site that’s temporarily closed – the glamorous cast were met with hand sanitising stations on the red carpet. Security guards refused their usual task of checking in iphones for fear of catching germs, and guests were too afraid to touch the sumptuous after-party banquet.
‘Basically [Disney] had this big expensive party for a movie that who knows when will come out, because two days later the release of Mulan was cancelled,’ Aaron explains. ‘Then all the movies were cancelled.’
Along with them, some 120,000 entertainment industry crew jobs were promptly scrapped, as film and television production in Hollywood ground to a screeching halt, precariously leaving A-list stars alone with their own smartphone devices, eager to communicate with the outside world.
Grappling with their new reality of self-isolation when used to being surrounded by an army of handlers, including managers, glam squads, PAS and publicists – not everyone got the response to a global pandemic quite right.
Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot was savaged for attempting to boost morale with a celeb-filled rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine, which backfired when everyone on Twitter asked why they couldn’t just donate money instead.
But if some stars appear to be going off-script with an alarmingly tone-deaf response on social media, it could be down to a lack of input from their publicity teams – many of whom are now being axed. ‘It’s tough if you’re a publicist and you’re
expensive and paid by the month, as a lot of actors are now cutting back on costs and wondering why they need those services without a movie to promote,’ one wellplaced industry insider explains to Grazia.
What they are spending money on, it appears, is bespoke to-the-door services – and anything that might help keep their careers going. ‘Most celebrities are still shelling out large sums of cash for some of the more remote services, such as gardening, security and home deliveries from their favourite top chefs. In some cases, they have their nannies with them, while others have found themselves at home looking after their children full-time for the first time,’ says an insider. ‘One celebrity who has been doing a lot of online content during lockdown has a whole team moved in with her, including a videographer, a hair and make-up person, and a few young assistants. They’re all living together in her mansion like it’s a frat house.’
She’s not alone. Lockdown is prompting Hollywood greats to start live broadcasting from their living rooms. Ellen Degeneres began Facetiming famous friends from inside her $40 million mansion in LA, including Jennifer Aniston, who revealed she was using the spare time to rearrange her walk-in closet.
But despite inventiveness, one Hollywood casting source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says the indefinite pause in movie-making is causing widespread anxiety among up-and-coming stars. ‘There’s a lot of neurosis from actors right now. With films being pushed back and young stars missing out on what they perceive to be their “moment”. Sadly, with the backlog of films already stacking up, there are some projects that simply won’t get made once studios do resume production,’ the source explains.
Antonia Blyth, deputy editor of Hollywood trade publication Deadline, agrees that scheduling and budgetary concerns will be a huge issue for many projects. ‘It’s easy to think productions that have been stopped because of coronavirus will get the green light once everything is up and running again, but that’s not the case,’ she tells Grazia of the widespread disruption this will cause the entertainment industry. ‘To get everyone together with their schedule is like a jigsaw, and stars sign on for back-to-back projects months in advance. A lot of projects will just fall into the ether, unfortunately. Like every industry affected, it will take time to recover.’
Antonia adds it has already derailed awards season – affecting both the Emmy Awards in September and next year’s Oscars. ‘There are many television shows that had just a few scenes left to film before everything stopped, and will now miss out on eligibility for the Emmys, which are before the end of May,’ she explains.
‘The build-up to next year’s Oscars began at Sundance earlier this year, and then you hit all the major festivals, like Cannes, Tribeca and Venice. The Academy is now looking at changing its eligibility rules, as it could be a disaster for a lot of movies that will be delayed.’
With a projected loss of at least $5 billion for the global film industry so far, Hollywood and its stars are understandably bracing themselves for an uncertain postpandemic reality.
As another industry source put it, ‘There are a lot of stars right now rethinking their career trajectory. No one knows how long this impact will last, months or years, before things return to “normal” again. Like the rest of us, Hollywood stars are not immune to panic.’