“Hollywood” Hulk Hogan: Stardom, Synergy and Field Migration

During the late 1980s, World Wrestling Federation star Hulk Hogan embarked on a career as a Hollywood movie star, through roles in several modestly-budgeted films produced by New Line Cinema. Building on recent examinations of “celebrity migration” between fields and studies of “promotional culture”, we explore how Hogan’s celebrity persona adapted to various economies and structures of fame in a changing media marketplace. This article explores how Hogan negotiated of codes and conventions of different popular cultural fields and media subfields. By doing so, we identify key tensions in the wrestler’s celebrity image during the late 1980s and early 1990s and reflect on the difficulties celebrities face when trying to become film stars.