Question:
What must a star do-- aside from act and role play for
the media-- to be in a Hollywood movie?
Answer:
A star must insurable. Cast
insurance is the sine qua non for a a movie to be financed.
A production company cannot get a completion bond, which
financing institutions insist on, unless it has insurance
coverage for the star, especially if the star is deemed
an “essential element” of the film. With
it, if the star dies, becomes disabled or ill, refuses
to perform, or abandons the film, the insurer agrees
to cover the resulting loss – which may be the
entire investment in the project. For example,
if anything had happened to Arnold Schwarzenegger in
Terminator 3, the insurers would have had to
pay in excess of $150 million. (The insurance for Terminator
3 was $2 million.)
For their part, insurers attempt
to reduce their exposure to disaster by deciding whom
not to insure. They not only evaluate the past history
and claim pattern of stars, but they require many levels
of medical examination and drug sampling before and
during shooting. They may also place restrictions on
activities–such as stunts–and assign “watchers”
on the set to make sure that stars honor those restrictions.
If stars present too great a risk, insurers can elect
either to make the premiums prohibitively high or to
refuse to insure them altogether.
Nicole Kidman is a case
in point. Kidman injured her knee during the filming
of Moulin Rouge in Australia in 2000, resulting
in a $3-million insurance loss, and then quit Panic
Room in 2001, leading to the insurer having to pay some
$7 million for the replacement actress (Jodie Foster).
As a result, her public and critical acclaim notwithstanding,
Miramax was initially unable to get insurance on her
for its film Cold Mountain, which had a budget
approaching $100 million. From the perspective of the
insurer, Fireman’s Fund, she was a definite risk.
As an insurance executive noted in an email, “While
the doctors who did her surgery and her current knee
doctor can say she is fully recovered, the fact remains
that the doctor we sent her to for her examination noted
swelling in the knee.” The executive goes on:“The
other major fact that can't be changed is our paying
three claims for this actress’s knees over the
years.”
To get the necessary
policy from Fireman’s Fund, Kidman agreed to put
$1 million of her own salary in an escrow account that
would be forfeited if she failed to maintain the production
schedule, and she agreed to use a stunt double for all
scenes that the insurer considered potentially threatening
to her knee. In addition, the coproducer, Lakeshore
Entertainment, added another $500,000 to the escrow
account. Only after the completion-bond company, International
Film Guarantors, certified that “Kidman is fully
aware that she must get through this picture without
a problem,” adding, “She fully understands
this and will not allow anything to get in the way of
her finishing this picture” did she get her insurance–
and her role in Cold Mountain. Having made
the all-important move from borderline uninsurable to
borderline insurable, she could make movies again.
No matter how great their acting skills
and box-office drawing power, stars cannot get lead
roles if they are uninsurable. Great acting skills
and box-office drawing power may make the star, but
insurance is what it takes to make the movie.
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