The entertainment industry is known for its exclusivity and prestige, and has been dominated by men, more specifically the same few men, since its foundation. Going from Shakespearean times, when actors were limited to men, to modern times, when men outnumber women 4 to 1 in entertainment roles, men’s presence runs deep in the industry. 

Although more women have been integrated into the entertainment industry as composers for films or producers, men still occupy the highest-paying roles in the industry, and it’s always been this way. It’s easier for a man to get the resources he needs to get into a writing room, get into the director’s chair, or get on screen. 

What doesn’t make sense is that, as of 2025, Career Explorer states that “65 percent of actors are female, while only 35 percent are male.” Although these are the actual actor numbers, the interest in becoming an actor is split 50/50 between men and women, meaning more women are hired to become actors than men. The difference is that, although more women are hired in acting, their wages are far less than the men who work above them in directing or producing, who largely outnumber them. 

Vanity Fair states that men outnumber women one to twenty-four in directing. This is what happens: men direct, produce, compose, and we suddenly see their faces everywhere. 

Lin Manuel Miranda.

This man is everywhere. He’s been behind the scenes and on the stage, writing music and starring in his own work like “Hamilton” and “In the Heights.” He has voice acted in movies like Moana and Encanto, writing countless soundtracks. Lin is an example of a man who got his foot in the door and refused to leave the room. 

In no way is Miranda untalented or undeserving of his achievements, but he has been in so many roles. Actors and composers like Miranda are hired not just for their talent, but also for their name. If you hear “Lin Manuel-Miranda,” you have an idea of a style, and his fans are more likely to support the project he’s in. 

This is the problem: art stops being about the story. Now, art, music, and entertainment have fame attached to them, and corporations use that fame to capitalize on the art they “create”. When you mix greed with entertainment, it becomes formulaic.

Now it makes sense why every single Lin-Manuel Miranda project sounds the same. Investors know his art sells, so they push for the same style to be recreated to maximize their profits. Instead of profiting off of good and unique art, they profit off of something that already worked, something that sells.

Backstage, a platform for actors to promote themself states, “As low as 2 percent of actors can make a living out of acting.” This number is terrible. Actors like Lin-Manuel Miranda should not have so much featured work while 98 percent of actors are working an unlivable wage from acting alone. 

Another perpetrator is Hugh Jackman, who has been in countless projects, including Les Misérables, The Greatest Showman, Wolverine, and many more hits. Of course, the movies with the biggest budgets are going to hire the biggest actors, but the disparity of gigantic actors in every single movie versus the majority of actors barely staying afloat is saddening to say the least. New talent is waiting to be found, begging to be heard, but due to greed and fear of making less money, studios only hire actors they already know. 

This issue isn’t just about men dominating the entertainment industry; it’s about money being prized over the quality of art. These industries hire whoever brings the most money; even if everyone has already seen them, it doesn’t matter if they can’t sing. 

Although investors have been creating art that lacks meaning for decades, it’s not too late to turn it around. You can support female directors and directors of color, projects with lesser-known casts and crews, and make movies less about buying the merchandise and more about supporting what matters to you. By supporting projects that aren’t blockbusters, you are telling an industry full of greed that we are bored with the same faces, and those faces won’t give them what they crave most: money. 

Actors like Miranda and Jackman aren’t bad; they are a product. But movies, media, and art as a whole shouldn’t solely be a product; they should be a story that makes you truly feel.