Peripheral Stardom, Ethnicity, and Nationality: The Rise of the Argentinian Ricardo Darin From Local Celebrity to Transnational Recognition

Since the late 1990s, actor Ricardo Darin has been a key figure in the Argentinian film industry, and its most recognizable face abroad. With an impressive career that began with “lowbrow” national television and made the leap to prestigious transnational coproductions, Darin's unique journey to international stardom allows us to address important questions regarding current processes of star formation in globalized cultural industries. This article uses the case study as the basis for a broader argument about the main discursive devices and marketing strategies that encourage or impede the reception and consumption of peripheral stars in different geopolitical regions. Stardom beyond the Hollywood system is a multilayered construction of sometimes contradictory discourses regarding national, regional, ethnic, and cultural–historical identities.