Yea, Eastwood was the first actor I thought of. He has been in dozens of films, and plays the same character in each. And his “real” self closely mirrors that character.
There are a couple of situations where an actor might accused of “playing themselves”. One is related to being typecast and/or choosing the same types of roles over and over again. The other would be someone who chooses a variety of roles but is very distinctive in terms of looks, voice, etc.
For instance, Michael Caine has been in a wide variety of roles, but I don’t think there has ever been a movie of his where I didn’t say to myself “Hey look, it’s Michael Caine!”
How has this thread gone so many posts without Will Smith being mentioned? He has no acting range at all, he is always Will Smith in every role he plays. And that is fine if that is the goal of the director, but damn, he can only act like Will Smith.
I am pretty sure that I don’t even need to meet him to know what he is really like, he seems a lot like Will Smith. From the Fresh Prince to Independence Day to Hancock, to the Men in Black. When you are watching a Will Smith movie it is very hard to keep track of which movie you are watching.
Knowing what to expect is probably a good thing sometimes, but when it is a Will Smith movie I know what to expect, Will Smith. He must have skipped drama class and never learned any method acting.
But if you want a reasonably fine looking man who can say "Oh, hell no! " in your movie, he is your go to guy. “Read the scrip so you can say the lines, and just be yourself.” Says every one who has ever directed this guy.
Did you see him in The Lovely Bones? That was a different Mark Wahlberg.
Same here — the first one I thought of too.
Will Smith has played a bunch of roles that sit outside the ‘Oh, hell no’ persona. Most recently King Richard. He was great.
I think a big problem for him is his voice. No matter who or what he’s playing, there’s always that slightly goofy tenor about it. You often have to get past that to appreciate the performance. Like most recently in King Richard.
Stolen from somewhere else:
The only reboot of Fresh Prince I want to see is if the guys making trouble in his neighborhood were Mac, Charlie, and Dennis.
Apparently, Robert Downey Jr. basically played himself in one movie…drug addict Julian in Less Than Zero early in his career. Yet, beyond that film, he has shown great range and has played a wide variety of characters. Intersting that he did it once, very early in his career, but really hasn’t done it since.
My mom and I were just talking about “Only Murders In the Building” and we agreed that Martin Short was playing himself. I’m not familiar with the full breadth of his work but everything I can think of he seems to be playing the same sort of character, who is akin to the guy Martin Short I see on talk shows.
That’s who I first thought of but I also think his limiting acting repertoire leads people to underestimate how versatile and inventive he is as a director. Just to take some 80s films think how different Radio Days, Crimes and Misdemeanors and Purple Rose of Cairo are.
The vast majority of roles Sterling Hayden played, along with a lot of his extracurricular IRL stuff, strongly overlap.
Heh - Ken Offerman?
Even in Play Misty for Me?
I feel exactly the same way about Meryl Streep.
Most people don’t realize that was Meryl Streep playing Charlie Croker in The Italian Job.
Perhaps I should have phrased my comment differently…
…Rhys Darby plays Rhys Darby in everything he’s ever been in. He doesn’t even bother to switch up his accent.
Here he is as HAZMAT #2 in Sweet Tooth.
And here he is as a Smartphone Sales Manager on the X-Files.
Lost on an island:
Manager of New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo:
Alyx’s helpful friend in Half Life:
Psycho Sam:
As a Werewolf. (Not a Swearwolf)
And sometimes he’s a talking cat and parakeet.
Diane Keaton - I feel like everything I see her do is the same, so I assume it’s because she’s playing herself. Granted, I haven’t seen a whole lot of her performances, but the ones I’ve seen struck me as interchangeable. Maybe I just saw the few that were similar??
Bravo.
mmm