Jim Carrey’s The Number 23 might have stunk up theatres, but it wasn’t enough to knock him off the top of our third annual ranking of Canadian actors with Hollywood clout. He’s joined by four newcomers: Ryan Gosling; Winnipeg-born Anna Paquin, who will co-star with Matt Damon in the film Margaret; Michael Cera, the Brampton, Ont.–raised star of Superbad; and Cera’s co-star, Vancouver’s Seth Rogen, who also co–executive produced and co-wrote the tale of high-school friends trying to score booze for a party. We said goodbye to Hayden Christensen, Eric McCormack, Brendan Fraser and singer Avril Lavigne, whom we disqualified given her dearth of film roles since last year’s list and the fact she has no known acting work to come.
Another addition was a change to our methodology. We continued to rank the actors by estimated salary for upcoming projects, press clippings, number of hits on Google and TV mentions, but this year we added a score for domestic opening-weekend box-office performance, as reported by Box Office Mojo, for a film actor’s last movie, and Nielsen household ratings for the last season of a TV actor’s show. As always, we conservatively estimate salaries. For TV actors, salaries are estimated for what that person could command for a season; for movie actors, salaries are estimated for future big-budget films. Google hits were measured on Aug. 22; TV mentions and press clippings are for the one-year period ended Aug. 22.
1: Jim Carrey
Box office/TV-ratings rank: 1
Salary rank: 1
Web-hits rank: 3
TV-mentions rank: 4
Press-hits ranks: 1
Despite an uncharacteristically dark turn this year with the badly received thriller The Number 23, Carrey tops our list for the second time in a row. After a starring voice role in Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who! (due out March 14), Carrey will attempt to redeem his onscreen clout in 2009, when he’ll play Ebenezer Scrooge in a Robert Zemeckis–helmed adaptation of A Christmas Carol.
2: Mike Meyers
Box office/TV-ratings rank: 1
Salary rank: 2
Web-hits rank: 6
TV-mentions rank: 5
Press-hits rank: 6
Mike Myers’ big, green ogre has earned US$321 million at North American theatres since the May release of Shrek the Third, giving a significant push to DreamWorks and DreamWorks Animation as they near a combined US$1 billion in 2007 box-office earnings. He’ll earn even more cash for the studios when he reprises the role in 2010, but not before taking a comedic shot at the self-help industry, alongside Jessica Alba and Justin Timberlake, in The Love Guru, set for release next summer.
3: Kiefer Sutherland
Box office/TV-ratings rank: 9
Salary rank: 3
Web-hits rank: 4
TV-mentions rank: 1
Press-hits rank: 3
While he won’t be joining Corey Feldman and Canadian actor Corey Haim to reprise his Lost Boys role in the upcoming sequel to the 1987 hit, Sutherland has been nominated for an Emmy in the lead-actor-in-a-drama series category for his work as Jack Bauer on 24. The seventh season of the popular, and intense, Fox drama, which counts its lead as an executive producer, will première in January.
4: Ryan Gosling
Box office/TV-ratings rank: 1
Salary rank: 5
Web-hits rank: 9
TV-mentions rank: 2
Press-hits rank: 4
Ryan Gosling has come a long way from his days on such TV shows as Young Hercules and The Mickey Mouse Club. Born in London, Ont., Gosling had a breakout role as a young Jewish man who becomes attracted to the neo-Nazi movement in 2001’s The Believer—a star turn that helped audiences, and studio execs, see him as more than that jerk from TV’s Breaker High. He solidified his appeal with the teen girl market in The Notebook in 2004. But his performance as a drug-addicted teacher in Half Nelson cemented his reputation as one of Hollywood’s major talents, and garnered him a 2007 Oscar nomination. He’s since traded barbs with Anthony Hopkins in Fracture, and next plays a man who falls in love with a blow-up doll in Lars and the Real Girl—a typically quirky role for the versatile actor.
5: Pamela Anderson
Box office/TV-ratings rank: 15
Salary rank: 10
Web-hits rank: 1
TV-mentions rank: 3
Press-hits rank: 2
Pamela Anderson hasn’t had a major TV or film project since Stacked was taken off the air in 2006 (her recent Canadian-made film Blonde and Blonder passed unnoticed), but heavy press and a strong Internet presence keep the B.C. bombshell on our radar. And while she won’t be reprising her breakout role as C. J. Parker in the Baywatch movie, which is in pre-production, Anderson fans can check her out in Las Vegas alongside magician Hans Klok in his show The Beauty of Magic.
6: Keanu Reeves
Box office/TV-ratings rank: 9
Salary rank: 4
Web-hits rank: 2
TV-mentions rank: 10
Press-hits rank: 7
7: William Shatner
Box office/TV-ratings rank: 13
Salary rank: 6
Web-hits rank: 7
TV-mentions rank: 10
Press-hits rank: 5
8: Sandra Oh
Box office/TV-ratings rank: 1
Salary rank: 8
Web-hits rank: 15
TV-mentions rank: 8
Press-hits rank: 10
9: Evangeline Lilly
Box office/TV-ratings rank: 9
Salary rank: 12
Web-hits rank: 5
TV-mentions rank: 6
Press-hits rank: 11
10: Seth Rogen
Box office/TV-ratings rank: 1
Salary rank: 13
Web-hits rank: 12
TV-mentions rank: 9
Press-hits rank: 9
11: Matthew Perry
Box office/TV-ratings rank: 14
Salary rank: 9
Web-hits rank: 10
TV-mentions rank: 7
Press-hits rank: 8
12: Ryan Reynolds
Box office/TV-ratings rank: 1
Salary rank: 11
Web-hits rank: 10
TV-mentions rank: 15
Press-hits rank: 12
13: Rachel McAdams
Box office/TV-ratings rank: 9
Salary rank: 7
Web-hits rank: 8
TV-mentions rank: 13
Press-hits rank: 13
14: Anna Paquin
Box office/TV-ratings rank: 1
Salary rank: 15
Web-hits rank: 13
TV-mentions rank: 12
Press-hits rank: 15
15: Michael Cera
Box office/TV-ratings rank: 1
Salary rank: 14
Web-hits rank: 14
TV-mentions rank: 14
Press-hits rank: 14
