When I was 17, I was obsessed with Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park. Unbuttoned shirt? The scene where he drops water on Laura Dern’s hand and tells her about Chaos Theory while tracing its path? host .
At this point, this movie is 21 years old , but I don't care. I went straight to his Wikipedia page and then into the filmography section to find more of his films: 1978's The Man From Beyond , David Cronenberg's horror film The Fly , and The Pretentious E.T. Romantic comedy Earth Girls Are Easy. My grandmother shared my passion for Goldblum, and she kindly called me one day to tell me that his Law & Order reruns were about to begin. That’s the problem with fixations like these – you tend to make them everyone’s business.
My obsession led me to watch something I wouldn't have otherwise, and I've since learned that the movie is a fairly well-received one. Without the fascination, I myself wouldn't be willing to watch a genre called "body horror" - which revolves around physical, disfiguring horror. But just as a dog would be tricked into eating a peanut butter pill, I gladly accepted the fly . I like it.
As one X (formerly Twitter) user said, "I'm not a fan, I just pick an actor I like and watch their entire filmography."
Now, if you have enough actors, you end up with a lot of movies. Several of the editors on "Hustle" also began their own film journeys: one worked with Robert Downey Jr., another with Jake Gyllenhaal.
On TikTok, it’s virtually a guarantee that stars will be involved in big projects — think Steven Yeun in “BEEF,” Cillian Murphy in “Oppenheimer,” Idris Elba in “Hijack” — will appear in dizzying montages of their past roles, proving that their work is being looked at by fresh, hungry eyes. The platform democratizes the movie-obsessed experience, with viral videos of supporting actors ensuring household names aren't the only ones being fanned.
The subject of this crash course—a “crash course,” if you will—doesn’t need to make headlines just yet.
"With the classic movies that I love, sometimes I think , this feels like it's 80 years old. I don't want to keep watching this movie ," "The Mary Sue" writer Rachel Leishman ) said. "But if there was a guy like Jimmy Stewart... I would watch anything with Jimmy Stewart. Or Frank Sinatra."
By structuring your screen time in such a personalized way, you might accidentally piece together quite a viewing log—a cross-section of genres, histories, and filmmakers that might become your favorites. (My fondness for Greta Gerwig's work, for example, began after Adam Driver's in-depth study of Frances Ha .)
It's great if the person you like has an extensive film resume (Leishman likes Harrison Ford, whose career spans nearly 60 years), but you don't need to choose someone with an extensive resume. Barry Keoghan only had a few major roles, but they were a visionary mix of quirky stories from an innovative filmmaker. So what if your obsession with Saltburn is why you discovered them?
That's part of the beauty of being obsessed with actors: finding projects that get you out of a comfortable viewing rut. It encourages you to be curious, respect your inner teen, and trust that even if you think you've seen all the good movies (and all the cutest stars), there's always another one that will hook you.
