# Can an actor who is a RL nerd play a cool character? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 10, 2022, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550 "2022-01-10T21:14:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/21 "2022-01-11T05:55:46Z")
Nicholas Cage, when he was a kid, was bullied by local kids. So he dressed up as his cool cousin from out of town and threatened to beat up the bullies. I’d say that counts. ---
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/22 "2022-01-11T07:12:58Z")
If you believed the interviews in Tiger Beat circa the mid-90s, every teen heartthrob of that era was really just a shy, quiet nice guy who couldn’t get up the nerve to ask a girl on a date. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/23 "2022-01-11T08:40:34Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > I’d start with the single coolest character in TV history. The Fonz. > > Here’s a quote from Henry Winkler: > > > Because, growing up, there was nothing cool about me. > > > > I was a bowl of jelly. Maybe it was my dyslexia or lack of confidence, but my self-image growing up was pretty much around my ankles." > > [Story](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/dec/19/television.theatre) > > Yeah, acting let’s those who are not cool pretend to be cool. Much like Henry Winkler isn’t cool like the Fonz is, also Ted Danson isn’t the womanizing ex-athlete that Sam Malone is in _Cheers_. > In real life, actor Ted Danson, who played Sam Malone on “Cheers,” is very unlike the character he became famous for portraying. Malone was a womanizing former athlete-turned-bartender who had a drinking problem. Danson is a sensitive character actor who is now married to actress Mary Steenburgen. > > “I thought he was sort of a slick breezy person,” Steenburgen said on “The Jess Cagle Show” of her impression of Danson before meeting him. “And, you know, Ted was raised in Arizona, his dad was an archeologist. His best friends were Hopi and Navajo. He got on a horse bareback and rode off into the desert every day. He was so not slick.” > > Steenburgen added that people who have acted with Danson “adore him” because of what a deep thinking, soulful human being he is. Article, **[‘Cheers’: Ted Danson Was Reportedly ‘Very Uncomfortable’ Playing Sam Malone](https://outsider.com/news/entertainment/cheers-ted-danson-very-uncomfortable-sam-malone/amp/)**. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/24 "2022-01-11T10:59:46Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > As is Joe Manganiello. Manganiello has a famously well appointed D&D room in the basement of his house. His wife Sofia Vergara makes (good-natured) fun of him for it every chance she gets. > **[Inside Joe Manganiello's Incredible Dungeons & Dragons Basement - Looper](https://www.looper.com/286898/inside-joe-manganiellos-incredible-dungeons-dragons-basement/)** > > Most probably know Joe Manganiello as the actor who first started breaking hearts as the werewolf Alcide in True Blood. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/25 "2022-01-11T11:08:24Z")
D&D is very popular but does that make someone a geek? ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/26 "2022-01-11T15:24:21Z")
“ **You are not a geek**!” > It’s not just having an interest! It’s not being able to tell a Harley-Davidson from a… Not-A-Harley-Davidson. It’s knowing as much as you possibly can about something and, yes, being a little bit weird about it! > Real geeks, those of us who earned our geekhood through sweat and loneliness, _and wedgies!_, will not have that title co-opted by people who think that geekhood is nothing more than wearing pink glasses and an asymmetric fringe! Particularly not when _they_ are the very people _who gave us the wedgies!_ [paraphrased] by John Finnemore and company: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/thsRk9fuIdU/hqdefault.jpg "John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme - You Are Not A Geek") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thsRk9fuIdU) ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/27 "2022-01-11T15:27:23Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Some say that to be an exceptional actor, you must have no personality of your own. Peter Sellers said something like that. I see that whenever I watch a Harrison Ford interview. He’s played some iconic characters with a lot of range and personality but watching him in interviews the guy is as dull as dishwater. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/28 "2022-01-11T15:29:57Z")
Long boring story alert… Back when I was in film school, I interned on an indie movie over the summer. One of the lead actresses was a tall, willowy former model and total knockout. At the cast/crew wrap party, she introduced me to her then-boyfriend. This guy was about my height (said actress towered over me), wore geeky glasses, had a big thick cowlick sticking up, and was dressed like he’d done it with his eyes closed, with an ugly vest over a tacky shirt. Seemed like a nice guy, though. And I thought to myself, wow, if a guy this geeky can score someone like (name redacted), all hope isn’t lost for me. Within a couple of years, Alan Cumming had won a Tony for starring in Cabaret on Broadway, had appeared in films by Julie Taymor and Stanley Kubrick, and was well on his way to being a sterling actor who attracted awards like a magnet. Goes to show… ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/29 "2022-01-11T15:46:09Z")
Hey, didn’t Steve Urkel, sort of a nerd, play _Stefan Urquelle,_ a pretty cool guy? . [Yeah, I know…](https://familymatters.fandom.com/wiki/Stefan_Urquelle) ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/30 "2022-01-11T15:57:37Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > One of the lead actresses was a tall, willowy former model and total knockout. Saffron Burrows? ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/31 "2022-01-11T16:03:06Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Some say that to be an exceptional actor, you must have no personality of your own. Peter Sellers said something like that. Who Am I This Time? ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/32 "2022-01-11T16:21:59Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Harrison Ford is known for being quite shy and afraid of a big audience. I don’t have any reason to believe that he’s a nerd, just that he’s not the cool, outgoing guy that he is in his movies. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ford in a movie where he didn’t have a little awkard, a little panicky feel about him (socially) most of the time. I can totally see that he’s not a people person IRL, and can only fake it some. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/33 "2022-01-11T16:36:16Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Some say that to be an exceptional actor, you must have no personality of your own. Peter Sellers said something like that. As he put it on The Muppet Show: > There used to be a me…but I had it surgically removed. ---
**Author:** ![NetTrekker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nettrekker/32/2909_2.png) [@NetTrekker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NetTrekker)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/34 "2022-01-11T16:45:03Z")
Wow. Sounds like we came close to having John Travolta as Fonzie. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/35 "2022-01-11T17:05:41Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ford in a movie where he didn’t have a little awkard, a little panicky feel about him (socially) most of the time. I can totally see that he’s not a people person IRL, and can only fake it some. I believe that I first saw Dustin Hoffman in movies like Dick Tracy and Hook, and got the impression that he was an actor in the vein of Martin Short. Suffice it to say, that was not accurate. I’ve seen The Fugitive, which matches your description. I haven’t seen Sabrina nor Regarding Henry, both of which might also match. But, in general, Ford played cocky, arrogant cool guys until about 1990 and then moved over into more stately and respectable guys after that point (going back to cocky only when playing one of his older characters). Shy isn’t a staple of his output. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/36 "2022-01-11T17:38:27Z")
In my opinion (as someone who rarely watches movies/TV), no. Usually when a character in a movie/show is cool, it comes across as a poor imitation rather than the effortless confidence, social skills, and athleticism/good looks of a truly cool person by high school popularity standards. The one actor I can think of who has come across as a believable cool kid is Channing Tatum. When I Googled him, his Wikipedia page said that he was voted Most Athletic in high school and was awarded a football scholarship to go to college, so he probably really was a cool kid. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/37 "2022-01-11T19:41:54Z")
> [@NetTrekker](#): > > Wow. Sounds like we came close to having John Travolta as Fonzie. Or maybe Sylvester Stallone. 😃 Winkler and Stallone co-starred in a 1974 film, _The Lords of Flatbush_ (the same year that _Happy Days_ premiered, but two years before Stallone’s breakout role in _Rocky_), and Winkler’s look in that film was very reminiscent of Fonzie: [https://www.irishnews.com/picturesarchive/irishnews/irishnews/2020/05/26/154629349-a7de7432-9dae-47e8-a875-369675ef6554.jpg](https://www.irishnews.com/picturesarchive/irishnews/irishnews/2020/05/26/154629349-a7de7432-9dae-47e8-a875-369675ef6554.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/38 "2022-01-11T21:50:07Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Winkler’s look in that film was very reminiscent of Fonzie The network thought Fonzie’s leather jacket was too edgy for the show, so they changed it to a windbreaker. They allowed him to wear a leather jacket if he was near his motorcycle so the first season has some abrupt and awkward wardrobe transitions. By the second season the network relented and the leather jacket became his standard garb. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/39 "2022-01-11T22:03:33Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > > [@NetTrekker](#): > > > > Sounds like we came close to having John Travolta as Fonzie. > > Or maybe Sylvester Stallone. 😃 > > Winkler and Stallone co-starred in a 1974 film, _The Lords of Flatbush_ (the same year that _Happy Days_ premiered, but two years before Stallone’s breakout role in _Rocky_ ), and Winkler’s look in that film was very reminiscent of Fonzie Rather, Stallone’s look in that film was very reminiscent of Fonzie. ISTR Winkler saying that was his inspiration at his audition. ETA: found a cite. > **[Sylvester Stallone Was the Inspiration for The Fonz, Henry Winkler Says](https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a27135839/sylvester-stallone-fonz-henry-winkler-inspiration/)** > > “Sometimes I would think, what would Sly do here?” ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550/40 "2022-01-11T22:19:29Z")
Has anyone mentioned that Matthew Broderick played Ferris Bueller? I think Broderick is a bit of a geeky awkward guy, but he played a very smooth and cool character really well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-actor-who-is-a-rl-nerd-play-a-cool-character/957550.md?page=3)