When I sat in the movie theater last week and the last advertisement faded out, I expected “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” to begin playing. Instead, the actors making up the protagonist group in the film filled the screen to thank the audience for seeing the movie in theaters. 

The awkwardness of the video reminded me of the interviews celebrities do in order to promote their movies. The interviews where roughly 10 percent is about the characters they portray and backstories only the actors would know and the other 90 percent about celebrity gossip, stories from set or just playing games through the talk. 

Why don’t we interview the directors, set designers or editors of the movies? 

Stop only interviewing the people who act and start interviewing the people who spend months, and sometimes years, pouring over the tiniest details in order to tell a story on the big screen. 

Yes, the talent that actors must have to convince audiences that a fictional character on a screen has a story worth investing in is exceptional. That shouldn’t be ignored. However, there are hundreds of people involved in making a movie and without every single one of those people, the actors couldn’t do what they do. 

When Dorothy first walked into Oz, audiences saw a stunning shot that looks like Dorothy was stepping out on a monochrome world into a land of color. The reality of those few frames is actually far more complicated. 

The Dorothy that is seen at the beginning is actually a body double in a costume and set that is painted to look like it is colorless. Then, when the Dorothy double opens the door and leaves the frame, the camera moves through the open door into Oz, allowing for the real Dorothy in a full-color costume to step back into frame. This tricks the viewers into thinking that the camera was able to flip between black and white and color all in a few seconds of footage. 

Now, imagine how different the interviews about this moment would be if Judy Garland, the actress playing Dorothy, was speaking versus the costume designer, set designer and director. Sure, Garland could explain that she was not in the beginning of the shot, but she couldn’t voice the vision and the work that went into those few iconic seconds of film. 

It can be easy to get sucked into celebrity idolization and only be interested in hearing the fun stories between actors on set. While that is a perfectly acceptable way to enjoy the film industry, don’t forget about the people who really make movies into what they are. 

Dorothy may have been the main character in Oz, but she is not the part of the movie history remembers.