Stranger Things star Maya Hawke says actors are now judged on their Instagram followers

Maya Hawke, known for her roles in Stranger Things and Inside Out 2, has revealed how Hollywood stars struggle with the need to remain popular on social media. In an age where having followers is extremely important to producers, Hawke revealed there is pressure from producers to have a higher follower count.

"If you have over this many followers you can get the movie funded," Hawke said on a recent episode of the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast. "I'm talking with [some directors] about how I'm going to delete my Instagram and they're like, 'Just so you know when I'm casting a movie with some producers, they hand me a sheet with the amount of collective followers I have to get of the cast that I cast,'" she continued. "'So if you delete your Instagram and I lose those followers, understand that these are the kinds of people I need to cast around you.'"

This isn't the case for all directors, and there are a few where their reputation is simply enough to allow them to cast whoever they please. But, it seems if you want to get on a majority of the film sets nowadays, you'd best be gaining a lot of social media followers.