The only reasons artists have high status today is because of absurdly bloated copyright laws. If we would adjust them to a reasonable level being an artist would go back to being a low status job, which it is what it should be. While entertainment and inspiration is important, on Maslows hierarchy of needs, it's the least important. Every other function in society should be valued accordingly and given the respect it deserves. The market would sort itself out if we let it. These long copyrights is basically subsidese for societies least productive sector. They certainly don't need these absurd levels of subsidise.
If actors had low status in society they wouldn't get away with rape any longer. Yay. Everybody wins
The value of art and the status of artists is and always has been completely subjective. It has the respect (or lack thereof) based entirely on how much people decide to respect them.
You may as well say that chefs don't merit all that much respect because a nutritional sludge is actually all that's required to sustain us and having things which taste good isn't an important need.
More, it would take so much cultural loading to divorce being seen (in a film) from being venerated (as an individual), particularly among a species strongly geared to wanting to feel
important, that it is pointless to approach the problem from that direction. In reality, the text is always joined by context.
Also, I think it's a really shitty thing to allow the potential for placing an image of a woman's rapist in front of her. I could only imagine how much of a hell it would be to see the face of your rapist every day because of a culture venerating the rapist for their art completely agnostic to the hell this creates for her. I can only imagine this was the motivating factor behind Ford coming out. Or for that matter subjecting any woman to the face of any rapist, in their knowledge that they raped, given the empathetic reaction that would trigger in most people. Whenever I see Kavanaugh I get sick and angry and sad all at once for Ford's sake. And knowing he will take that "rape is OK if you can get away with it" attitude to the bench makes it worse still