Actors Playing Themselves
Actors Playing Themselves
#1Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/3/17 at 9:00pm
are there any performers who y'all think are simply playing themselves in their roles
to me I think that's the case with Platt , he just seems like he's a naturally awkward person , his role in DEH & PP born just seem like he's portraying himself
Speed
Broadway Star Joined: 7/12/03
#2Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/3/17 at 10:02pm
Evan Hansen isn't a celebrated actor who has worked professionally most of his life. Ben Platt is nothing like Evan.
#3Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/3/17 at 10:13pm
I think it might be the other way around with Ben and Evan...
#4Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/3/17 at 10:19pm
Speed said: "Evan Hansen isn't a celebrated actor who has worked professionally most of his life. Ben Platt is nothing like Evan.
" I was saying as in their personalities . The characters he plays in both of those seems to be the same way he acts off screen/stage
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#5Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/3/17 at 10:29pm
Well, Patti LuPone played herself on a Season 3 episode of HBO's iconic series GIRLS back in 2014.
Take a look-see and yes, Andrew Rannells is in the sequence alongside Lena Dunham:
https://youtu.be/AG8UuDuMMg8
#6Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/3/17 at 10:30pm
Ben Platt is nothing like Evan Hansen in real life. Just because both the actor and the character may have anxiety doesn't mean that Platt is essentially playing himself. Rachel Bay Jones and Jennifer Laura Thompson are both mothers; that doesn't mean that they're playing themselves either just because their characters are also mothers.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#7Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/3/17 at 11:11pm
AC126748 said: "Ben Platt is nothing like Evan Hansen in real life. Just because both the actor and the character may have anxiety doesn't mean that Platt is essentially playing himself. Rachel Bay Jones and Jennifer Laura Thompson are both mothers; that doesn't mean that they're playing themselves either just because their characters are also mothers.
" PERSONALITIES is what I said . Y'all are just missing the basis of what I'm saying lol I quit
raddersons
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/14/13
#8Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/3/17 at 11:12pm
Nathan Lane is the perfect example of this. You cast Nathan Lane, you know exactly what you're getting.
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#9Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/3/17 at 11:15pm
I think most actors find things they have in common with characters as a way to connect and help make the character more real. Sharing characteristics is not quite the same thing as playing oneself.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
#10Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/3/17 at 11:45pm
Kristin Chenoweth seems to always play a variation of herself but i don't have a problem with that
"Contentment, it seems, simply happens. It appears accompanied by no bravos and no tears."
#11Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/3/17 at 11:52pm
raddersons said: "Nathan Lane is the perfect example of this. You cast Nathan Lane, you know exactly what you're getting.
"
Most stars have a certain persona that is visible in many roles they play. That's what makes them stars: their audience knows to some extent what they will get before they spend the money for a ticket. But it's still a public persona, NOT their "real selves".
I've worked with Joey (the name used by those who knew him) "Nathan" Lane. He was actually kind of shy, but compensated by being hilarious. When he was "on" in private, did he resemble what you see on stage? To some extent, yes. But he's hardly playing himself in either case. He's playing what makes people laugh.
And while I'm on the subject, I just saw the live-filmed version of Lane's Roy Cohn in the National Theatre's ANGELS IN AMERICA. Lane is excellent, even if you've seen Ron Leibman or Al Pacino in the same role. None of these men were playing themselves.
leighmiserables
Broadway Star Joined: 4/26/17
#12Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/3/17 at 11:57pm
Not a Broadway example, but I think the most obvious one I can think of is Robert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man. He's literally an exaggerated version of himself in those films.
raddersons
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/14/13
#13Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/4/17 at 12:13am
GavestonPS said: "Most stars have a certain persona that is visible in many roles they play. That's what makes them stars: their audience knows to some extent what they will get before they spend the money for a ticket. But it's still a public persona, NOT their "real selves"."
While I agree with the sentiment, by those standards, wouldn't the only people playing themselves be standup comedians, where they don't have a character to play at all BUT themselves? Do I think Nathan Lane acts that way 24/7? No. But do I think stage Nathan Lane is a "heightened" version of himself? Yes.
I also say this having never met Nathan Lane in my life, so what do I really know?
flahooley2
Understudy Joined: 6/1/08
#14Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/4/17 at 6:12am
Here's another point of view - http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/07/25/nathan lane mark rylance and why great stage actors are best onstage.html? mc cid=37ac62bf1f&mc eid=33d 801170a
#15Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/4/17 at 7:14am
BlackElleWoods said: "AC126748 said: "Ben Platt is nothing like Evan Hansen in real life. Just because both the actor and the character may have anxiety doesn't mean that Platt is essentially playing himself. Rachel Bay Jones and Jennifer Laura Thompson are both mothers; that doesn't mean that they're playing themselves either just because their characters are also mothers.
" PERSONALITIES is what I said . Y'all are just missing the basis of what I'm saying lol I quit
"
Ok...Ben Platt's personality is nothing like Evan Hansen's personality. Better?
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#17Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/4/17 at 10:05am
I briefly met Mitch Jarvis earlier this year, after seeing him as Feste in Twelfth Night. From Keith Stone to Lonny Barnett to Feste, you basically know what to expect from Jarvis... and then I met him and he wasn't that guy at all. It was surprising.
#18Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/4/17 at 10:22am
gypsy101 said: "Kristin Chenoweth seems to always play a variation of herself but i don't have a problem with that
"
Perfect example !!!
#20Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/4/17 at 10:58am
Orfeh tends to play Orfeh. Doesn't matter which show.
#21Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/4/17 at 11:16am
oncemorewithfeeling2 said: "Orfeh tends to play Orfeh. Doesn't matter which show.
"
I forgot about her ! She's a perfect example too
raddersons
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/14/13
#22Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/4/17 at 11:27am
Adding Anthony Rapp to this list. He may not be playing "himself", but he sure plays the exact same character in everything I've seen him in.
VintageSnarker
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/30/15
#23Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/4/17 at 12:24pm
flahooley2 said: "Here's another point of view - http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/07/25/nathan lane mark rylance and why great stage actors are best onstage.html? mc cid=37ac62bf1f&mc eid=33d 801170a
That was idiotic.
#24Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/4/17 at 12:54pm
BlackElleWoods said: "are there any performers who y'all think are simply playing themselves in their roles
to me I think that's the case with Platt , he just seems like he's a naturally awkward person , his role in DEH & PP born just seem like he's portraying himself
"
Kind of ****ty of you to call him an awkward person, when he has been nothing but pleasant and articulate in the public eye.
#25Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/4/17 at 2:02pm
asimplegal2 said: "BlackElleWoods said: "are there any performers who y'all think are simply playing themselves in their roles
to me I think that's the case with Platt , he just seems like he's a naturally awkward person , his role in DEH & PP born just seem like he's portraying himself
"
Kind of ****ty of you to call him an awkward person, when he has been nothing but pleasant and articulate in the public eye.
"
Awkward isn't an insult
bowtie7
Stand-by Joined: 7/27/11
#26Actors Playing Themselves
Posted: 8/4/17 at 7:14pm
In the original production of Arsenic and Old Lace, Johnathon Brewster was played by Boris Karloff and the script made a joke of people mistaking the character as being the actual the actual Boris Karloff--an unusual in-joke for a show written in 1941.
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