Maya Hawke Exposes Hollywood’s Social Media Casting Game – Lose Followers, Lose Roles

Hollywood is not just about talent anymore—it’s also about social media numbers. Actress Maya Hawke recently revealed that some directors have told her that film producers set follower count targets when casting roles. This means actors with more social media followers have a better chance of being hired.

Hawke, best known for her role as Robin Buckley in ‘Stranger Things,’ shared an example of how this affects her. She explained that if she deleted her Instagram account, a director might be forced to cast someone else to make up for the lost followers.

She said she has wanted to delete her Instagram account, but she hasn’t been able to because, unfortunately, in this day and age, it could be the reason she doesn’t get cast in a film role.

The line between actor and celebrity has gotten extremely blurry. What I always wanted to be is an actor where the work is what the draw is, not the personhood. But the industry keeps changing, and you have to change with it and understand that all of these things are getting blurred.

One of the changes in Hollywood is valuing internet fame more than talent, which Maya described as really “difficult.” She said, “It’s like, I don’t care about Instagram. Instagram sucks. ‘Right, but just so you know, if you have over this many followers you can get the movie funded.’ Well, I wanna make the movie so… it’s a really confusing line to walk.”

I’ve talked to so many smart directors about how I’m gonna delete my Instagram, and they’re like, ‘Just so you know, when I’m casting a movie with some producers, they hand me a sheet with the amount of collective followers I have to get of the cast that I cast so if you delete your Instagram, and I lose those followers, understand that these are the kinds of people I need to cast around you.

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