A possible variation: Elisabeth Shue plays herself in 2008’s Steve Coogan comedy Hamlet 2—but she’s not exactly worse than herself. You might say she’s ‘more pathetic’ than herself. In the story she’s become discouraged about her acting career and is now working as a nurse.
In reality she’d already had an Academy Award nomination (for Leaving Las Vegas) and had been appearing in one to three movies each year since, many with indie cred.
So at least this version of Shue had a “worse” career than did the actual Shue.
This never fails to make me laugh. Sometimes, it’ll get in my head and I’ll drive down the road doing my own paraphrase of the bit. It’s fun to combine the absurdity with the booming voice of a Shakespearean actor.
Heh, reminds me of the story in which, one day on the set of the movie ‘Marathon Man’ Dustin Hoffman tells Sir Laurence Olivier that he hadn’t slept for 72 hours to get ready for a scene where he was supposed to be severely exhausted. Olivier replied, “My dear boy, why don’t you just try acting? It’s so much easier”.
Technically, Moore played Seymour Goldfarb, Jr, son of Seymour Goldfarb, heir to the Goldfarb Girdle fortune. It is unclear whether Seymour sincerely believes he is Moore, or just deep play acting. Seymour does break character after he “shoots” his mother. “Where did I go wrong”, she cries. He chuckles and says “you’re too Jewish”.
There are various odd sorts of television episodes with an actor playing weird versions of themselves. One of the oddest is the 1991 “Stark Raving Dad” episode of The Simpsons with Michael Jackson doing the voice for a character. This character, who doesn’t look remotely like a cartoon version of Jackson, thinks he is Michael Jackson. You can’t watch this episode anymore, since it’s been removed from any kind of access since 2019:
I’ve was never a Friends fan but have considered giving it a go after watching Matt Leblanc in Episodes. He manages making the lowest version of himself cringeworthy, hilarious and lovable. One of my favorite comedies.
Extras is another favorite that I’m constantly trying to get others to watch and probably has the most examples of this. I think Ben Stiller played the most despicable version of a famous actor/director.
The only Sandler film I can think of that fits the OP is Funny People - and even there, he’s not playing himself, but a thinly disguised version of himself named “George Simmons.”
Adam Sandler has a specific comedic persona that he uses in a lot of his film roles, but that’s not what the OP is asking about. They’re asking for movies where an actor plays a character that is explicitly a parody of their real selves, using their actual name, and either playing up their real life reputation, or deliberately playing against their real life reputation.
A movie where Adam Sandler plays yet another over grown man-child who throws tantrums in public would not count for this thread.
A movie where Adam Sandler plays a character named “Adam Sandler,” who is known in the movie for his habit of making movie after movie where he plays an overgrown man-child who throws tantrums in public would count for this thread.
Jean Claude van Damme played a fictionalized version of himself in the 2008 film JCVD.
It is actually more dramatic than most of the examples here and he gives a very good performance. SO I am not surely it actually qualifies as a worse version of him but I thought it deserves some mention.
