Jessica Lange Plans to Retire from Acting Soon Because ‘Creativity Now Is Secondary to Corporate Profits’

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Jessica Lange is weighing retirement due to the current state of corporate Hollywood.

Lange told The Telegraph that she thinks she is “going to start phasing out of filmmaking” as “wonderful films by really great filmmakers, wonderful stories, great characters” are rare in modern Hollywood.

More from IndieWire

“I don’t think I’ll do this too much longer,” Lange said. “Creativity is secondary now to corporate profits.”

The frequent “American Horror Story” star explained that “the emphasis becomes not on the art or the artist or the storytelling. It becomes about satisfying your stockholders,” which in turn “diminishes the artist and the art of filmmaking.”

“These big comic book franchise films [have] sacrificed this art that we’ve been involved in for the sake of profit,” Lange said, noting that she is “not interested” in joining superhero movies.

Additionally, Lange pointed to the trend of “frenetic editing” onscreen, which she speculated was due to the new standards of media consumption.

“I don’t know if it’s because the filmmakers think that they can’t hold the attention of the audience anymore,” Lange said. “That kind of filmmaking drives me crazy.”

Oscar winner Lange previously talked retirement in 2013, telling the Los Angeles Times that she was “coming to an end of acting,” crediting Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story” anthology series for reigniting her passion for the craft and introducing her to a “new generation” of fans.

“It brought back the thrill of acting,” Lange said. “It was the perfect storm. It’s all the tired stuff everybody says — age working against you, films that made your career not being made anymore.”

Now, “The Exorcist: Believer” actress Ellen Burstyn similarly told Interview magazine that Hollywood is more focused on profitable content than art films like in the ’70s, “when the studios were still run by filmmakers, not by corporations.”

“The scripts were submitted because somebody was interested in that story and wrote it, and a producer liked it and thought it would make a good movie. Not because it had been fed into a computer and said, ‘Well, the first version made X number of millions, so the second one will make X number of millions and it has to have a big name,'” Burstyn said of her filmmaking heyday. “It was a time when it seemed like an art form more than a corporate business.”

Best of IndieWire

Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.