The Delicate Macho Movie Brand
Hobbs & Shaw, the latest entry in the Fast & Furious movie franchise, opened this past weekend and raked in more than $180 million worldwide. The franchise is known for its brawls, including fights between characters played by Vin Diesel, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and Jason Statham.
The Wall Street Journal's Erich Schwartzel recently wrote a story revealing that none of these tough-guy actors likes it very much when the characters they play get pummeled on screen. One of them even negotiated limits on how much his character can get beat up. Another has his sister, a producer, count how many times his character gets punched, to make sure he gives as good as he gets.
Today, Erich joins us to talk about the lengths these actors have gone to preserve their ever-so-fragile reputations for macho toughness. And the incentives they have for doing so.
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