The Poll is coming soon.
In nearly all of Woody Allen’s movies, there is a character who is distinctly “The Woody Allen Character”. This is the character who stands in as Woody Allen’s alter ego of sorts. In movies in which Woody Allen performs as an actor, it is he himself who is obviously “The Woody Allen Character”.
In Woody Allen movies in which he does not appear as an actor, sometimes there is no “The Woody Allen Character”, e.g. Purple Rose of Cairo, Sweet and Lowdown, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and others.
In other films in which he does not appear as an actor, there is still a distinct “Woody Allen Character” performed by a different actor.
Which actor did it best?
My vote definitely goes to Owen Wilson in Midnight in Paris. The crown had been claimed, in my opinion, by John Cusack in Bullets Over Broadway but Owen Wilson stole the crown because of his unique achievement of being true to the character but also very much making it his own. John Cusack did an excellent job, but still kinda comes off like he’s “doing” Woody Allen.
I am including Jason Biggs in Anything Else in the poll despite the fact that Woody Allen acts in the movie portraying a “Woody Allen Character”. In this movie I think that both characters are “The Woody Allen Character”: the young man version and the old man version. Incidentally, though this movie certainly has its flaws, I think it is overlooked more than is fair. I think it’s quite a good film.
I voted for Owen Wilson for the same reason as bienville: he’s clearly the Woody Allen surrogate, but he brings a lot of his own personality to the role as well.
Worst has got to be Kenneth Branagh. I became embarrassed just watching him (and I’m ordinarily a total Branagh superfan).
Oooh! I remember that, that was good! They even opened the episode with plain white text credits cutting in sequence over a plain black background like all Woody Allen opening credits. And Laura SanGiacomo would break up segments talking directly into the camera with “there’s an old joke” type storytelling.
Really cool episode.
There was “Woody Allen’s Bride of Frankenstein” on The Ben Stiller Show but like everything on The Ben Stiller Show you have to watch very talented people performing a painfully unfunny sketch. It’s really bad.
I thought Owen Wilson was the worst possible casting of the Woody Allen character, until I actually saw the movie. In my opinion he managed to perfectly deliver Woody Allen without being so fucking annoying.
Michael Caine in Hannah and Her Sisters. He’s playing “the Woody character” just as sure as Woody himself is, and he even won the Oscar for it. It may not seem like it because a) Woody is still in the movie, and b) Caine is physically and vocally so different, but just watch him.
In the Seinfeld DVD extras, Jason Alexander says he originally based his characterisation of George Costanza on “The Woody Allen Character” - until he discovered that Larry David wrote George to be based on himself. He didn’t make clear when in the show that was, but I suspect it was fairly early, say series 2 or 3.
Hmmm, yeah, that’s a good point. And I didn’t think of him for exactly the reason you offer. Actually, I think I have to rewatch it. “The Woody Allen Character” is generally a good guy (there are exceptions on certain character points and Deconstructing Harry kinda throws that aspect out the window), the whole creepy pursuit of Barbara Hershey’s character is a bit out of character for “The Woody Allen Character”. Also his competence in his job- the way he can still smile and humor the buffoonish rock star client. In contrast, Woody Allen’s character is totally “The Woody Allen Character” through and through.
I haven’t watched it in a while. I’ll have to watch it again to form a fuller opinion.