The Hollywood Reporter – August 14, 2019

MA

RTE

LL:^

LES

LIE

AL

EJA

ND

RO.

KE

EN:

JE

FF^ K

RAV

ITZ

/FIL

MM

AG

IC.^ L

ILL

IS:^ P

RES

LEY

AN

N/G

ETT

Y^ IM

AGE

S.^ M

ART

IN:^ J

EAN

BA

PTI

STE

LA

CRO

IX/G

ETT

Y^ IM

AGE

S.^ W

RIG

HT

JO

SEP

H:^ R

OY^

ROC

HLI

N/F

ILM

MA

GIC

.

DAFNE KEEN 14

Known for

Loga n,

His Dark Materials

When she wasn’t prank-

ing cast and crewmembers

on the set of HBO’s His

Dark Materials, the British-

Spanish actress was working

up the courage to belt out

Hamilton’s “My Shot” to

co-star Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The Madrid-born Keen

first rose to fame opposite

Hugh Jackman in Logan. “I

actually call him ‘Fake Dad,’ ”

says the musical theater afi-

cionada, who had a comedy

theater company with her

best friend growing up.

The movie that made

me want to act “Probably

Singin’ in the Rain and

Oklahoma! I watched them

when I was about 5 or 6 and I

was obsessed. I even bought

a yellow raincoat.”

PEYTON

ELIZABETH LEE 15

Known for Andi Mack

Starring as the title char-

acter on middle school

dramedy Andi Mack —

Disney Channel’s first show

to deal with topics like an

unplanned pregnancy — has

made Lee super famous

among a certain demo. “No,

it’s not Beatles fame,” she

says. “But it’s incredible to

see the impact the show

has had.” Up next: Disney+

movie Secret Society of the

Second Born Royals, a “con-

temporary princess story.”

Movie that made me

want to act “Silver

Linings Playbook. Jennifer

Lawrence is just brilliant.”

SOPHIA LILLIS 17

Known for It,

Sharp Objects

Lillis won her first big role

onstage in 2013 with the

Julie Taymor-directed A

Midsummer Night’s Dream,

which helped her land her It

role, which she’ll reprise in

the upcoming sequel. She

played the young version

DEATH OF THE G-RATED MOVIE

MY MOST AWKWARD FAN INTERACTION

Once applied to rom-coms and sci-fi, the ‘general audience’ label is now

barely used — even by Disney By Rebecca Keegan

YOUNG AUDIENCES

or a movie that stars a spork, Toy Story 4
is in a rarefied group. The Pixar-Disney
sequel, which has made nearly $1 billion
worldwide since it opened in June, is one of
only two G-rated wide release films so far
this year. The other — the nature documen-
tary Penguins — is also from Disney.
In fact, Disney is the last major
Hollywood studio still actively in the G, or
“general audience,” business. While still
common for documentaries, the rating
hasn’t been applied to another studio’s wide
release since Fox’s The Peanuts Movie made
$246 million in 2015 — and it hasn’t gone
to a live-action film since Fox’s live-action/
animation hybrid Alvin and the Chipmunks:
Chipwrecked made $343 million in 2011.
Studios are deliberately gearing family
films toward PG ratings, which marketers
have determined are less likely to alienate
the teens and tweens whose tastes drive
much of the box office. Companies face less

backlash from parents when films are rated

more restrictively, says former MPA A rat-

ings chief Joan Graves, who retired in May.

“Parents care more at the lower level,” adds

Graves, “when they're more involved with

what their children see and do and copy.”

Other studios have dropped G movies,

but Disney can still make a hit of one in part

because audiences expect sophistication

from its animated films, says Jon Lewis,

Oregon State University professor of film

studies. “For adults it makes no difference,

but for 13-to-16-year-olds, if it’s G, unless

it’s Pixar, it’s not cool,” he says. “Pixar mov-

ies are perfectly hip and acceptable because

they operate on multiple levels.”

Though it has fallen out of favor in the

last decade, the G rating was once com-

mon in a variety of genres — from the 1972

Barbra Streisand romantic comedy What’s

Up, Doc? to 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion

Picture. It wasn’t until the aughts that G

became Disney-only territory, though 10 out

of 10 of the highest-grossing G-rated mov-

ies of all time domestically belong to the

studio, with its 1994 animated version of

The Lion King at the top with $423 million.

(The new CGI Lion King is rated PG, as have

been all of Disney’s live-action remakes of

its animated films.)

“It’s the distributors who have driven

this, not the ratings board,” says Jason

Squire, professor of cinematic practice

at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. “The

studios prefer the PG-13 rating [over G]

because it protects them. ‘Parents strongly

cautioned’: It shifts the burden of determin-

ing what’s acceptable to the parent.”

Pamela McClintock contributed to this report.

“We were shooting in a

small town on Ghostbusters

and I signed somebody’s

Crocs. I also signed some

phones. Their parents are

going to be mad.”

Mckenna Grace

“I was

peeing and

someone

knocked on

the door on

the stall I was

in and asked

for a picture.”

Marsai Martin

“I was helping my mom pot some plants and a car ran

a stop sign on our street. As one cop went to give the guy

a ticket, his partner got out of the car and looked at me,

cocked his head and said, ‘Hey, are you in that movie It?’

Then he called over the other cop and asked if we could

take a picture together.” Jaeden Martell

“A fan once came

to our meet-and-greet

in London and fainted

when she saw us.

She had to get taken

away in an ambulance.”

Maddie Ziegler

Martell

Keen

Martin

Lillis

Joseph

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 78 AUGUST 14, 2019