They never had to. People would go see these marquee stars regardless of what the story was. Whether these actors were playing unintelligible Vietnam sympathizers or unintelligible androids from the future, people associated with a name brand and duly lined up. This trend made such unforgettable casting coups like Phantoms , Best Laid Plans , and Disturbing Behavior possible. You can spot most of these movies by their ads which all share the now-standard actors' disembodied upper torsos lined up in a geese formation on the poster ala the Scream poster.
Ensemble pictures are the stuff of film marketers' dreams.
In this column, we put the latest ensemble money-maker, Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday , on the hot plate and serve up the who and why the cast agreed to this noise. Counter-balances his real acting job in The Insider . Gets to yell like he has in every movie since 1972. The opportunity NOT to play the biggest prick in a movie. Let's just say L.T. wasn't paid in cash and leave it at that.