Oscar Winner Jessica Lange Confirms Plans to Retire From Acting

Jessica Lange cites Hollywood making “creativity secondary to corporate profits” as her reason for retiring.

Legendary actor and Oscar winner Jessica Lange is planning to retire from acting. In an interview with The Telegraph (via The Hollywood Reporter), Lange revealed that she was going to “start phasing out of filmmaking” and explained that her reasoning for the decision — which she clarified to confirm means she’s considering retiring — is that franchise films and a focus on corporate profits have diminished the art form. Lange specifically pointed to “big comic-book franchise films” as part of the issue.

“I don’t think I’ll do this too much longer,” Lange said. “Creativity is secondary now to corporate profits. The emphasis becomes not on the art or the artist or the storytelling. It becomes about satisfying your stockholders. It diminishes the artist and the art of filmmaking.”

“I’m not interested in these big comic-book franchise films,” Lange continued. “I think that they’ve sacrificed this art that we’ve been involved in … for the sake of profit.

Lange also cited what she called “frantic editing” in film production as something else she dislikes about the current state of the industry.

“I don’t know if it’s because the filmmakers think that they can’t hold the attention of the audience anymore,” she said. “That kind of filmmaking drives me crazy.”

Lange has had an impressive career in Hollywood, making her film debut in 1976s’s King Kong before going on to win to Oscars, one for Best Supporting Actress in Tootsie (1982) and then one for Best Actress in Blue Sky (1994). She’s one of only a handful of actors to won what’s referred to as the Triple Crown of Acting: an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony Award. More recently, Lange may be best known for her work on multiple seasons of American Horror Story, though she revealed in 2019 that she didn’t plan to return and had only come back for American Horror Story: Apocalypse because she was able to play Constance Langdon, her character from Murder House, one more time.

“I don’t think so,” Lange said at the time. “I did this because it was recreating Constance, which was – for me, it was a very important time when I did that first season, Murder House. But I don’t think I would want to start from scratch and create a character. And also, I think a lot of the actors that I was working with, people that I really love working with, like Sarah [Paulson] or Frances [Conroy] or Kathy [Bates] – I don’t know who’s in this new season, but I don’t think it would be the same.”

Lange Isn’t the Only Person With Critique of Franchise Films

Lange isn’t alone in her concerns about franchise films — and comic book movies. Filmmaker Martin Scorsese has also notably made comments about comic book and franchise films not being “cinema”.

“The danger there is what it’s doing to our culture,” Scorsese said of the franchise films that tend to take up movie theater screens. “Because there are going to be generations now that think movies are only those – that’s what movies are. [Audiences] already think that. Which means that we have to then fight back stronger. And it’s got to come from the grassroots level. It’s gotta come from the filmmakers themselves.”

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