The Long Road To Stardom
What does it take to be a star – or rather to become one? It’s a long and hard road – very often a long and winding road and sometimes. in its twists and turns, many give up and say: Forget it! Not Thora Birch.
She stepped on that road when she was all of four years old. Okay, she didn’t make that decision herself, it was made for her. But she traveled that path and hung in there, making her mark first as a child model in commercials – and some of them were for highly visible brands – then on the small screen.
It needed taking a turn at the crossroads and going down the big screen highway and that is what happened. She started to make waves in the media as she gave performance after performance worthy of being given great reviews.
What does it take for am actor to become a star? Is it something one can work on or acquire? Or is it something that is inborn? Is it something that one owes to fortune? Or is it something you pursue till you grab it? For Thora Birch, it was probably a bit of all. She had it in her, one must admit. However, that was not enough for her. She picked roles where her talent could be showcased. She worked hard so that no matter which great star was present in the same movie, she got noticed too. She chose roles that were sometimes dark and edgy and she managed them to perfection.
That perhaps is what sets a star apart, what elevates an actor to a different dimension. She played that role like she was born to it. You see it in Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story. You see it in the way she put on those pounds to play the character in Ghost World. You see it in the grit and determination she has in choosing and playing different roles so she can stretch herself to the utmost. And she has done all this and come so far in her twenties.
When Thora Birch was born that Thursday – and that by the way is the day of Thor – like the Norse god she is named after, there must have been thunder and lightning and fireworks somewhere up there in the heavens while a voice sang: A Star Is Born!