Thursday, June 11, 2015

Tobey Maguire - The Paul Levesque of Hollywood?

For those of you who do not know who Paul Levesque is, he is a bodybuilder and wrestler who plays the character Hunter Hearst Helmsley, or Triple H, on the billion dollar corporation known as WWE. A succesful character, Max Landis parodied Levesque's wrestling career and did a fairly good job of it as well. Along the way, Levesque married Stephanie McMahon, the daughter of fluctuating billionaire Vince McMahon. Now, he is more of a corporate person as well, creating NXT into what it is now and slowly taking over the business himself. Now, there is a similar story playing out in Hollywood regarding the actor Tobey Maguire.

A child star, Tobey Maguire was always outshone by his best friend Leonardo DiCaprio. This was just like Triple H to Shawn Michaels. While Leo never faded from the picture like Michaels did, Maguire managed to acquire roles in such films like Pleasantville, The Cider House Rules and Wonder Boys. Only the second of those three films was a box office hit, the others failed miserably. What did they all have in common? Critical success. While Triple H's matches did not always get the credit they deserved due to other more important feuds like Steve Austin-The Rock or Kane-Undertaker, they were always pleasing.

When Steve Austin was injured, Triple H got his big break. When Leo decided to start hunting for that Oscar, Tobey got cast as the titular character in Spider-Man and was suddenly the biggest star in Hollywood. Just like Triple H reigned supreme over Raw during the early days of the Ruthless Aggression era, did Maguire rule Hollywood. During his Spider-Man days, Tobey released relatively few other movies but between films did star in Seabiscuit and the Good German. While the former of those two was a critical and commercial success, the latter was neither? Just like when Randy Orton, Edge and John Cena began to be become the faces of Raw, Tobey Maguire and Triple H's time had begun to come to an end. Spider-Man 3 came out and Maguire went out with a hurrah. While critical reception was positive, fan reception was divided but commercial success was through the roof. Triple H had his time as record breaking WWE Champion, had his feud with the Legacy but it was pretty much over for him then. After that, he started to transition into corporate.

Yet Triple H had his amazing feud with the Undertaker, just like Tobey Maguire starred in Brothers. Triple H had his horrible feud with Kevin Nash, just like Tobey Maguire starred in The Details. Triple H had his feud with Brock Lesnar and Tobey Maguire led the cast of The Spoils of Babylon. Yet for both the actor and the wrestler, they were both kind of in the background now for the roles they were both known for. While Triple H was focusing on his job backstage, Tobey Maguire was busy producing films with his company, Material Pictures. Producing Country Strong, Maguire's film got an Oscar nomination for a song, yet his next film, Seeking Justice, was bad, just like Triple H's decision to sign Sin Cara. Rock of Ages was fun because Tom Cruise and there isn't an analogue to this film in Triple H's career. Triple H focused less on wrestling and Maguire less on acting.

Then it came, though, Triple H became the Authority and his feuds with various superstars seemed to be like Tobey Maguire when he finally took the lead role again as Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby. The film was a critical success and a commercial one with Maguire's performance praised. Now, Triple H's feud against Sting will likely parallel Maguire's turn in Pawn Sacrifice. Yet, we cannot help but feel that while both will continue to act and wrestle, they have reached their max. I mean, Maguire married the daughter of the vice-president of Universal Pictures. I have no doubt that with all the producing he is doing, he is doing it to try and get that role from Ronald Meyer. Tobey Maguire and Triple H, both at the top of their game, now they have transcended the game.

No comments:

Post a Comment