Kill Your Darlings

During Studio Era Hollywood, from the 1920s to the 1960s, actors were contracted to studios like Warner Bros, MGM, and Columbia Pictures. With a few exceptions, actresses had little say in which films they starred. Studios dictated what their on screen and public images were. They were turned into sex symbols, ingenues, and hags. Personas were created for them, and the public bought it. Actresses were expected to always look pretty and behave decently in public, and they became the standards for modern women. Morality clauses were often attached to their contracts, suppressing their freedom. If they did not comply with studio demands, they were punished with suspension without pay. Often their true selves, voluntarily or involuntarily, were hidden from public view. Their personas invaded their lives, and many were unable to remember who they really were. The images of female stars permeated modern society, reinforcing unrealistic and unequal beauty and behavior standards for women. My work captures the duality, the reality and illusion, of these stars by revealing their processes of embodying their personas.