Geezer wrote:A "Star's" job is to sell tickets. To put butts in the seats. To get the viewers to turn on their TVs to the star's program, regardless of what the show is about.
They do their job by being likable, compelling, sexy, beautiful, or funny. And 99% of their work is done before the show even starts. That last 1% is simply a question of delivering on what the audience expects to see from them in that performance.
But don't underestimate that final 1%. Once the Star fails to deliver on being sexy, or likable, or funny... they cease to be a star. (And when the audience drops a star, they do it with a vengeance.)
The "Actor's" job is to create a character within a particular story. They bring the character from the writer's imagination... to the screen or the stage. And they drive the story.
The audience's preconceived notions about who the actor is, or what he or she should look like, or behave like, have little or nothing to do with anything. Because "actors" are different every time. They are not being "themselves". They are not being the carefully crafted character that they play time after time.
They are different, but one isn't really any more important than the other. If the "Star" doesn't have decent actors around him people are just going to get bored and wander off. If the "actors" don't have a draw to get the people into the seats... it really doesn't matter how artful or talented they are. A show without an audience is like that tree falling in the forest with no one to hear it.
And it pretty much goes without saying that most "Top" lists (like the ones here at J-D) are comprised of Stars, not Actors.