Will Cara Delevingne Be A Big Hollywood Star?

She’s won social media and is scoring some high-profile roles, but does the supermodel have what it takes to be a A-list movie star?

We looked at some of the reasons the ‘Paper Towns’ actress will or won’t be the next Angelina.

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She’s great in the room

Clearly everyone that meets Cara instantly wants her to their best friend. She’s got the kind of charisma you want to bottle and sell at Selfridge’s for £500 a pop.

But it’s one thing nailing your audition – you’ve got to back it up with box office which Delevingne hasn’t proven yet. What’s more…

Talent

…It’s not just about money. It’s easy to forget sometimes, but one of the main reasons why people are successful movie stars is because they are bloody good at their job. You know, acting. Even with so-called bad actors - it’s about choosing the right parts for their limitations (see: Keanu Reeves).

Early reviews for Delevingne’s lead role in young adult adaptation ‘Paper Towns’ have generally been good.

Variety wrote that, “with her subtly smoky voice and piercing gaze, [she] makes the girl of Quentin’s fantasies a singularly charismatic presence.” The Daily Telegraph concurs, saying, “her formidable self-assurance feels like a solid first stride towards stardom.” The Fort Worth Weekly simply thought the film “may have given birth to a new star.”

Not everyone agrees. The Guardian argued she “doesn’t quite nail the spontaneous, centre-of-gravity figure that the movie sells her as.” Meanwhile, the Austin Chronicle gave her a full-on panning. Its critic said, “[the] badly miscast Delevingne communicates nothing to suggest the sway she holds over her lovesick admirer. She’s an enigmatic blank page, a paper actress in a paper movie.”

So there’s not unilateral love for her first major outing, though The Guardian had previously called her supporting role in Michael Winterbottom’s Meredith Kercher-based drama ‘The Face of an Angel’ “a striking debut performance”.

Of her other most immediate upcoming screen outing, her mermaid character in ‘Pan’ looks more like it’s based on her beauty than anything else.

However, her most mainstream appearance will be in 2016’s ‘Suicide Squad’, where she’s doing the right thing by making herself part of a much more starry ensemble. So far though, we’ve only seen a few shots of her performance so it’s impossible to tell how she fares.

Big social media following

3.5 million followers on Twitter, 17.6m on Instagram – Cara is a social media phenomenon.

That’s a big attraction for modern producers who will often prefer an actor with a large Twitter following over someone else because of the marketing opportunities it brings.

If you cast Cara Delevingne in your movie and she keeps Tweeting and taking pictures of herself on set, studio publicity departments have three quarters of their work done for them.

Not only that, but with her continuing model work for big-name clothes and make-up brands, she is visible well beyond the sphere of the movie junket.

Ripe for backlash

Which has its potential pitfalls. Everyone loves Cara Delevingne now – she’s essentially the apotheosis of 2015 – but will they tomorrow?

The problem about bursting onto the scene like she has and being so tabloid-friendly is that it means you’re all over the Web every single day.

Millions of people love that, because they want to see what’s she doing and emulate what she looks like. But just ask the myriad other overnight sensations whose career burned like a comet and then flickered out just as quickly.

Being a movie star is about career progression and figuring out how to maintain longevity. We’re yet to see if Cara and her team has that sussed.

She’s a strong woman who speaks her mind

First off, let us explain that we love those kinds of women. But in a town notorious for its double standards – and let’s face it, it’s not just Hollywood – outspokenness can be a double-edged sword.

This is particularly the case with women. We crave the idea of actors being sassy and opinionated, but are quick to turn on them if we think they’re getting too big for their boots (hello Katherine Heigl).

The great Hollywood stars understand the game – ridiculous as it is – and play it accordingly.

That’s why something like Delevingne’s recent awkward TV interview can be detrimental – it can make her look churlish and ungrateful, even if it wasn’t her fault or was simply a case of miscommunication.

Ultimately though, she’s clearly got the chutzpah, connections and burgeoning skills to take her career to the next level. Only time (and a whole shedload of luck) will tell if she can make it happen.

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Photos: Warner Bros./Matt Baron/BEI/Rex_Shutterstock/Everett/Giphy