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I have no idea, not knowing many of them personally and I don't watch the talk shows much, although I occasionally see one of them on a talk show briefly. They seem bright enough during an interview.
The amateur actors tend to be rather intelligent and I know a bunch of them, so the professionals probably are too. It seems to be a specific personality type that gets into acting and dumb doesn't fit in well into the culture.
But not all of them, I think Billy Bob Thornton is dumber than a box of rocks, but he is an excellent actor. There was a blond TV star on a popular show who probably couldn't tie her own shoe laces. I don't remember her name. Susan something, maybe.
Unfortunately for some of the superstars, intelligence isn't the same as self preservation and it doesn't protect you from drug addictions or bad judgement when behind the wheel.
I just read the other day that Billy Bob Thornton wrote, acted and directed that movie Sling Blade for which he won an academy award for best adapted screenplay and nominated for best actor. I had forgotten that. I did think he was really good in that. It was a really strange, rather horrific movie, bu it was well done. Not my usual cup of tea but I'd heard good reports about it. Then I remembered someone (another actor) saying that he's really smart but who knows? I do respect his stated aversion to celebrity culture.
I think you're right about amateurs. They tend to be very serious about their craft. And you alluded to dumb not being part of the culture. That's very true. What a lot of people don't realize is that actors have to keep their ear to the ground and constantly listen to the drumbeat about the industry, investments, real estate, etc. They usually pay people to do that for them but they still have to pay attention and make decisions. I remember Terri Garr (who is great) on a talk show many years ago being asked about her success and she mentioned talking to her accountant about pork bellies as an investment and how she felt ridiculous because she didn't know anything about pork bellies. It was pretty funny, as she was.
I doubt that will be proven one way or another, but I would suspect a big mix. Most celebrities with an average or low IQ would never let it be known publicly. Those with a high IQ might, but there are probably no such studies being done. If I had to guess, I would expect that the more versatile that can portray a variety of character types, such as Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, and yes, Johnny Depp are very intelligent.
Those that spend their career portraying the same character type, could be anywhere on the intelligence scale. I suppose it does take a certain amount of intelligence just to be able to memorize one's lines.
Add to that list (among others surely), John Lithgow whom has a range and while watching him have thought, "he must be brilliant". He is also an author and I think, an Artist.
There are all types whom are actors, and hard to know who they are away from the movie set, but it's why I have enjoyed seeing them on a talk show, though still in presence-mode, sometimes you will get insights into their personality.
I think they need above-average intellgence, although not Einstein level, probably.
They generally need to understand "physicality" on a lot of levels. How to be "dramatic" and move around in a way that an audience will find riveting, to start with. But they also need to be quick to catch on to the demands of blocking, locating their position on a stage, or in a movie camera frame, to capture nuances in facial expressions and gestures if they need to. Not everyone is going to look like Bette Davis or Humphrey Bogart just by taking a long drag on a cigarette. There's a type of talent there, and it takes intelligence to practice it and refine it so that they are top performers.
And comedy, as they say, it takes an intelligent person to act that stupid. It really does. They need to build the audience's expectations, then pull the rug out from under them, in a fun way. This involves a lot of moving parts. 99% of the world cannot do this.
Watch some of Marilyn Monroe's old films, she could do this very well. She'd walk into the scene with that walk, throw a sultry look around the room, then come out with a bubble headed line with perfect delivery. She had to have been pretty perceptive to understand truly brain dead people with that much insight...
I may disagree with lots of celebrities but the fact that they have done well for their families financially does hold weight for me.
Oh and Rob Schneider is a local boy done well here.
He went to high school with several of my friends.
He even went to jail with them for putting color dye into a schools pool as a senior prank.
Given that he is very humble, loyal to his friends and has made more than most of us can dream about kinda makes me think he has it going on more than most give him credit for.
Dolph Lundgren was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to MIT but dropped out to pursue an acting and modelling career.
I think a lot of actors are very intelligent, in addition to having a natural knack for body language, facial expresions, emotions, subtlety, etc.
Just because Hollywood has always been so sensationalized doesn't mean actors are stupid or shallow. Many of them are, but most of the really successful ones are intelligent. I always thought Brad Pitt was kind of duh until I saw what he did with Moneyball and Burn Before Reading (to name only a couple). I have respect for him as an actor. People judge actors too much by their personal lives, about which we really have no actual idea.
Even bit part actors are extremely well trained, and "everyone knows everyone" in the business. I knew a woman who was in a movie with Dennis Hopper years ago. What she did with that bit part, which was very small, was very good. They even used her scene with Hopper for the movie trailer. She is definitely no slouch in the brain department, in addition to an advanced degree in theater arts and is now very successful in another area of the business.
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