Tobey Maguire: "Movies Now Have More To Do With An Aesthetic, Than They Do With A Performance"

There has already been a lot written about the studio shift to blockbuster movies, which has made the playing field for smaller films — at least among the majors — a more rarified ground. And that of course has a direct affect on the kinds of films that audiences get to choose from, but it also means that as an actor, there are fewer parts with depth and complexity going around. And it's a situation not going unnoticed, certainly not by Tobey Maguire, who chatted with Vulture at TIFF — where his chess drama "Pawn Sacrifice" (review here) premiered — about the prospects facing actors these days.

"Movies now have more to do with an aesthetic, than they do with a performance," Maguire said. "Growing up, it was always my ambition to work with great actors and great directors, and it was Leo[nardo DiCaprio]'s ambition, too, so that's what we were focused on and aiming for. Parts like those start to shape you as an actor, and they shape people's perception of you,...