Actors Playing Themselves

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Actors 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

Actors 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.

Actors Playing Themselves

Posted: 8/3/17 at 10:13pm

I think it might be the other way around with Ben and Evan...

Actors 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

Actors 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

Actors 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

Actors 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

Actors 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.

Actors 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.

#10

Actors 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."

#11

Actors 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.

#12

Actors 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.

#13

Actors 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?

#14

Actors 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

#15

Actors 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?

#16

Actors 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.

#17

Actors 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 !!!

#18

Actors Playing Themselves

Posted: 8/4/17 at 10:58am

Orfeh tends to play Orfeh. Doesn't matter which show.

#19

Actors 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

#20

Actors 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.

#21

Actors 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.

#22

Actors 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.

#23

Actors 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

#24

Actors 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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