Can an actor become the character he is playing ( within reason)

[HoneyBadgerDC]

I have always been fascinated by how we derive at our own identity. I know our families and friends influence this a lot when we are young. I have witnessed many men and woman seem to grow into an identity where others seem to put a sign on their back and live with it. I like the idea of being able to modify my identity beyond the normal maturing and growth we go through. Our physical being seldom reflects who we really feel like we are or should be but too often that’s how we get pegged

[temp user]

No cites, but I remember reading about Jerry Lewis carrying his Buddy Love personae home with him outside the studio. I have also read about Bill Murray continuing to act like Hunter S. Thompson, showing up at SNL sessions with the cigarette holder, etc. Both cases the effect was temporary, of course. Once Charlie Weaver discovered his "hayseed" personae, he never appeared out of character again. I'm sure there are other similar stories involving method actors.

[engineer_comp_geek]

That's the whole point behind method acting, isn't it?

Sometimes it causes problems. Actors get a little too into their characters and kinda lose themselves in the process. If the character isn't necessarily a "good" character it can really cause problems. I believe Heath Ledger had a lot of difficulties as a result of his role as the Joker, though I don't know how much of that was just Hollywood gossip.

It's not just actors. David Bowie lost himself in the character of Ziggy Stardust, and similarly Vincent Furnier had a problem with the Alice Cooper character. Vincent has said in many interviews that he now takes "Alice" out for concerts and such and mentally puts him away when he's done. The rest of the time he is just Vincent.

[Colibri]

Moved to Cafe Society from GQ.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

[HoneyBadgerDC]

I know that people with borderline personality syndrome will often take on the identity of their new friends or sometimes a TV character.

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

Would Andy Kaufman/Tony Clifton be an example?

[HoneyBadgerDC]

Johnny Dep I think is another. My buddy does the renaissance fairs and has taken on a Scottish accent as well as much of the dialect.

[astro]

There's also the aspect that the "character" becomes the actor in many cases and reflects pre-existing aspects of the actor's personality, it's not a one way street.

Some of the reasons actors are chosen is that they already embody aspects of the character's traits. There is feedback loop where an actor getting respect or admiration for certain aspects of a character may emphasize those personality traits in themselves, but it's rarely completely immersive unless it's done deliberately.

One example of this is Daniel Lawrence Whitney AKA Larry the Cable Guy who was a pretty terrible stand up comic in his early career until he hit solid gold with the "Larry" character and it has become (AFAICT) the default 24/7 personality he presents to the public.

[HoneyBadgerDC]

Good points Astro, as you said they feed off the admiration and positive feedback the public has for the character they play. I think to some extent we do this life and it assists in shaping us into who we become.

[Bosstone]

Can you tell the difference between Robert Downey Jr. and Tony Stark these days?

[RealityChuck]

Originally Posted by temp user

No cites, but I remember reading about Jerry Lewis carrying his Buddy Love personae home with him outside the studio.

I've seen him say the opposite: he was Buddy Love before the movie was even begun. He basically took all his unpleasant traits and put them into the character.

[SCSimmons]

Paul Reubens/Pee-Wee Herman is another good example. For a number of years, he was 'in character' pretty much whenever he was in public.

[Feyrat]

As I understand it, Daniel Day-Lewis method acts to the point where, depending on the character he's playing, he can be quite scary to be around. He doesn't break character when the cameras stop, until the film is finished.

[Alan Smithee]

Peter Sellers claimed that he had no real personality, and that he only knew how to be other people. Given that whatever personality he did have was apparently a tremendous jerk (see Wikipedia) he could have been speaking wishfully, but he apparently did have real difficulty appearing in public without a character to play.

[Boyo Jim]

Four actors, a couple of them minor league musicians, got hired for a TV series and essentially became the characters they were hired to play.

The Monkees.

[Crime Scene]

I don't have a cite off the top of my head, but I know Chistian Bale immersed himself in the role of the main character in American Psycho. I believe wikipedia may mention it.

[Freakenstein]

I think Johnny Weissmuller did act like Tarzan in his old days, yells and all that ( but is this within reason ? ).
Don't know about Bela Lugosi, but he was buried in his Dracula outfit.

[don't mind me]

During the run of 24, Kiefer Sutherland ran down a would-be burglar at a friend's house, pursuing him across the lawn and tackling him. Not terribly smart, really; alcohol may have been involved.

[Lochdale]

No. At the end of the day, absent a profound psychological issue, they are pretending. That is all they are doing. The amount of attention we give actors astonishes me. Each to their own.

[HoneyBadgerDC]

Originally Posted by Lochdale

No. At the end of the day, absent a profound psychological issue, they are pretending. That is all they are doing. The amount of attention we give actors astonishes me. Each to their own.

That was exactly my point, when a profound psycholgical issue is present the identity of the actor may be compromised. I believe in life we have those that are basicaly actors doing life and at any moment they may find the new roll they will begin living.

[Krokodil]

Jonathan Winters is said to have gotten stuck as his "Maude" character and needed professional help to get back.

[Unintentionally Blank]

I've occasionally wondered how much Kung-Fu Keanu Reeves knows.

And what Larry the Cable Guy is like out of character.

[Onomatopoeia]

Originally Posted by Crime Scene

I don't have a cite off the top of my head, but I know Chistian Bale immersed himself in the role of the main character in American Psycho. I believe wikipedia may mention it.

Speaking of Christian Bale, he uses an American accent when he does interviews for American audiences, which surprised the heck out of Terry Gross during an interview with him on Fresh Air as she had no idea he was "putting on" an American accent, nor that his real accent was English until he admitted it on-air. She seemed somewhat affronted by the ostensible deception.

[HoneyBadgerDC]

Madonna gave an interview in a full blown English accent a few years after her marriage and setting up house in London.

[TreacherousCretin]

Originally Posted by Krokodil

Jonathan Winters is said to have gotten stuck as his "Maude" character and needed professional help to get back.

I've heard this one too, from a psychologist (friend).
Also, Jeremy Brett (Sherlock Holmes) may have had a similar problem.

[Sam A. Robrin]

Mel Blanc, who supplied the voices for Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and most of the other Warner Bros. cartoon characters, was involved in a car wreck, and went into a coma for weeks. One day, the doctor was examining him while some of his cartoons were on TV, and got an idea. He asked, "How are you, Bugs Bunny?" Blanc, who hadn't spoken at all to that point, came right back with "Fine, Doc, how are you?" The doctor tried a few more characters, and there they were. From that moment, they had a foundation on which to build Blanc's recovery.

[Annie-Xmas]

Everyone on the show agreed that Hugh Laurie did not play House, Hugh Laurie became House.

[WordMan]

I recall that Sean Penn maintained his Jeff Spicoli surfer/burnout character from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, to the point once where someone asked a question to Sean, not his Jeff character, and when Penn answered as Sean, he caught himself by putting out his cigarette in his palm. (I did a quick search and couldn't find a reference to it, but recall the story being told by one of the co-stars, like Judge Reinhold or JJLeigh, so assuming it was true...)

That's one way to enforce staying in character...

[Bryan Ekers]

Just make sure you never go full retard.

[temp user]

Originally Posted by RealityChuck

I've seen him say the opposite: he was Buddy Love before the movie was even begun. He basically took all his unpleasant traits and put them into the character.

the account i read talked about him coming home in full costume, still in the Love personae, and how he scared the hell out of his kids. can't find a reference, tho.

Clayton Moore would be another, he assumed the personae of the Lone Ranger and always appeared in public with the mask, or sunglasses after the court case.

[notfrommensa]

First one I thought of was Andy Kaufman/Tony Clifton.

Does Charlie Sheen/Charlie Harper count?

How about Teller of Penn and Teller?

[Enderw24]

I found the title role of Being John Malkovich to be portrayed quite convincingly.

[zamboniracer]

Leonard Nimoy has written 2 autobiographies, twenty years apart, the first claiming that he wasn't Spock, and the second one admitting that he was in fact Spock.

Leonard Nimoy is very cool.

[ftg]

Alan Hale, Jr. started wearing his "Skipper" hat a lot after the Gilligan's Island nostalgia stuff hit.

Another example of a previous non-musician turning a TV character into a career is David Cassidy.

I don't think Teller counts, he regularly talks to people off stage and has made appearances as himself and as an actor when not joined with Penn.

[Alan Smithee]

Originally Posted by ftg

I don't think Teller counts, he regularly talks to people off stage and has made appearances as himself and as an actor when not joined with Penn.

Or even with Penn, though he does tend to let Penn do most of the talking. I asked them a question at a recent Q&A, and Penn gave a fairly long and detailed response. Then Teller said, "I agree with Penn."

[BigT]

Originally Posted by zamboniracer

Leonard Nimoy has written 2 autobiographies, twenty years apart, the first claiming that he wasn't Spock, and the second one admitting that he was in fact Spock.

Leonard Nimoy is very cool.

I have the second book. In it, he expounds on this: Spock is more of an alternate persona, someone who comments on everything he does, telling him whether what he is doing is logical, or when he's getting too emotional. He explains that the first book was somewhat marketing and somewhat a protestation towards being typecast, combined with frustration about people thinking of him as Spock first.

I've yet to actually read the first book, as I've never encountered it. I got the second at a 99 cent store--I guess it didn't sell well. Too bad--it's the best of the Star Trek biographies, at least, of those I've read. (If Takei has one, I haven't read it yet.)

[Kamino Neko]

There's a couple different but related concepts being spoken of, and conflated a bit in this thread.

People like Paul Rubens of Dan Whitney who make their character their public persona, and thus don't break character when doing public appearances.

Extreme method actors like Sean Penn, or Daniel Day-Lewis who stay in character at all times while playing the character, because they feel it helps their craft.

Shy or socially awkward celebrities like Peter Sellers who use their characters to allow themselves to be in public at all.

And, finally, arguable mental cases like Jonathan Winters or Andy Kaufman who actually lose their real selves to the characters.

(Then there's cases where the character is built around the actor, but I don't think they're anywhere near the same thing.)

[singular1]

Originally Posted by Alan Smithee

Or even with Penn, though he does tend to let Penn do most of the talking. I asked them a question at a recent Q&A, and Penn gave a fairly long and detailed response. Then Teller said, "I agree with Penn."

We went to see Penn and Teller here in Seattle, and the kid sitting next to my husband was chosen to participate in one of their tricks. Imagine our delight when Teller jogged down to the kid as Penn continued the setup and gave him a book and told him what his duties were, loud enough for us to overhear. (Imagine how easily delighted we are .)

[Lasciel]

Originally Posted by BigT

I have the second book. In it, he expounds on this: Spock is more of an alternate persona, someone who comments on everything he does, telling him whether what he is doing is logical, or when he's getting too emotional. He explains that the first book was somewhat marketing and somewhat a protestation towards being typecast, combined with frustration about people thinking of him as Spock first.

I've yet to actually read the first book, as I've never encountered it. I got the second at a 99 cent store--I guess it didn't sell well. Too bad--it's the best of the Star Trek biographies, at least, of those I've read. (If Takei has one, I haven't read it yet.)

The first book is pretty much what you'd imagine it to be. I found it to be mainly an outpouring of frustrations that the craft of acting and directing that he took so seriously, and the other facets of his personality and life that he feels are so important to understanding HIM, were totally ignored or even worse, smushed into, one character that he played for a very short period of time.

I got to meet him briefly, just a few years ago, and he has mellowed considerably on the topic. I, like you, found his second biography first, at a thrift-store I think, and I very much enjoyed it. So much that I hunted down the first one, just to find out how mad he was. That said, I can totally sympathize with his feelings from the first book. It can't be any fun to be told repeatedly by thousands that your only importance to them is as a fictional character.

I think that Patrick Stewart has expressed very similar feelings regarding Captain Picard, although he's always been either more tactful or more resigned about it.

/hijack

[Skald the Rhymer]

Originally Posted by Bosstone

Can you tell the difference between Robert Downey Jr. and Tony Stark these days?

Let me get back to you after I trap Downey in a cave with a box of scraps.

[Justin_Bailey]

Originally Posted by Lasciel

I think that Patrick Stewart has expressed very similar feelings regarding Captain Picard, although he's always been either more tactful or more resigned about it.

I don't know if "proud" is the right word, but everything I've heard from Stewart in interviews over the years makes it sound like he is VERY aware of how many jobs he never would have gotten if it weren't for Picard.

[Siam Sam]

I'm not sure if this is the same thing, but I read an interview with Cary Grant once in which he said that early on, he had thought about how a well-mannered, upper-class Brit would appear and modeled himself accordingly on that. So the Cary Grant persona of each of his characters was what he was like in real life.

[Chronos]

What, all these posts, and no mention of Heinlein's Hugo-winning novel Double Star, about an actor who does just that?

[Loach]

Originally Posted by astro

One example of this is Daniel Lawrence Whitney AKA Larry the Cable Guy who was a pretty terrible stand up comic in his early career until he hit solid gold with the "Larry" character and it has become (AFAICT) the default 24/7 personality he presents to the public.

Presents to the public but not in real life. In real life he is still Dan Whitney. Lives in Nebraska. Has a Mid-West accent. Is Dan to his friends. In the Friars Club roast they had some backstage footage and his Blue Collar Comedy buddies were all calling him Dan. He has not become the character, its just an ongoing role.

Originally Posted by notfrommensa

How about Teller of Penn and Teller?

I will third or fouth. I met him after a show and someone said, "You really talk?" He looked at her like she was a small child and said, "Of course I talk."