Echoing patterns in the 1930s and 1940s, contemporary actors’ multifaceted careers in film, theatre, television, and streaming media are a sign of the expanding horizontal integration of the performing arts industry, as branded products such as The Lion King appear in different venues, and its various iterations travel across the theatre, film, television, and music industries. Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard (1950) morphs into a Broadway musical running from 1994 to 1997; the big-budget musical Jersey Boys (2005–present) becomes a 2014 film drama directed by Clint Eastwood. Producer Scott Rudin develops projects for stage and screen; he has a 1983 Emmy for Best Children’s Program, a Tony for Passion (1994), an Oscar for No Country for Old Men (Coen 2007), and a 2012 Grammy (the Broadway cast recording of The Book of Mormon).1

Audiences’ eclectic interest in the various offerings of the performing arts industry suggests that the hierarchies that once gave priority to stage over screen, film over television, and theatre experience over home or mobile viewing are losing force. A performance like Julianne Moore’s in Far from Heaven (Haynes 2002) is now prized by highbrow cult connoisseurs, and James Gandolfini’s portrayal in The Sopranos (1999–2007) made him part of American culture. Performers’ diverse careers and audiences’ varied tastes lend visibility to acting in small- and big-budget films, as Jennifer Lawrence goes from Debra Granik’s indie gem Winter’s Bone (2010) to the Hunger Games franchise, and Viggo Mortensen moves from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to collaborations with cult film director David Cronenberg on dramas like A History of Violence (2005) and Eastern Promises (2007). In an era of convergence and blurred boundaries, Hugh Jackman can play the Wolverine in the X-Men films and appear in Broadway musicals such as The Boy from Oz (2003–2004). Viola Davis can have success in film, television, and theatre. She has received: Oscar nominations for The Help (Taylor 2011) and Doubt (Shanley 2009); an Emmy, an NAACP Image Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her leading role in How to Get Away with Murder (ABC 2014); and Tony awards for her performances in King Hedley II (2001) and the 2010 revival of August Wilson’s Fences. Denzel Washington, her co-star in Fences, can appear in blockbusters and black independent films, receive Oscars for his performances in Glory (Zwick 1989) and Training Day (Fuqua 2001), and win a Tony for his role in Fences.2

Actors’ wide-ranging careers and the inclusive perspective of audiences make the first decades of the twenty-first century an ideal time to study performance. Developments in reception make it legitimate to explore the acting choices made by someone like Patricia Clarkson, whose body of work encompasses television programs such as Six Feet Under (2002–2005), independent films like High Art (Cholodenko 1998), and Broadway shows such as the revival of Bernard Pomerance’s The Elephant Man (2014–2015). Mechanical (and now digital) reproduction facilitates performance analysis. For instance, the interplay between Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed in Night Crawler (Gilroy 2014) becomes more legible after several viewings; one can see more clearly how Ahmed’s expressive embodiment of the naïve assistant coordinates with details in Gyllenhaal’s portrayal that convey his character’s single-mindedness.

Today, more than half a century since the first happenings, installation art, and other unscripted performance art pieces challenged prevailing norms for theatrical production, we have multiple avenues of inquiry open to us. The hierarchical binary that pit stage against screen has also weakened as various forms of mediated performance proliferate. A surge of cultural studies examining race, ethnicity, and postcolonial dynamics has enriched research on acting and, more broadly, performance by making the politics of representation a component of all ongoing research; for instance, today there are no barriers to exploring patterns that connect Peking Opera, Hong Kong films starring Bruce Lee, and Hollywood blockbuster performances that swing from minimalism to emotionalism.3 With sociology, anthropology, and neuroscience contributing to studies of performance, we can set aside the need to assess “great acting” and instead explore ways that performers’ use of recognizable social signs conveys character and illuminates cultural values.4 We now recognize that there are many registers of performance, as TV commercials, Warhol films, and performance art pieces serve as reminders that a character type is sometimes suggested simply by a costume or gesture.5

The insights made by the Prague School (1926–1948) into the distinctions between character, actor, and performance detail have been amplified by studies that articulate differences between actor, character, social type, performance detail, star image, and more.6 Star studies now consider the aspects of performance that convey characters’ experiences and contribute to stars’ recognizable idiolect.7 Other studies in film and media analyze connections between performance choices and the demands of different genres and program types.8 Through transcription and analysis of vocal and physical behavior, various studies contrast performances by hosts, guests, and audiences in trash-talk television shows (Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake) with the social problem/personal perspective talk show format popularized by Oprah Winfrey.9

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