I just popped “Tropic Thunder” into my DVD player and turned on the commentary. True to his word, Robert Downey Jr. didn’t drop character until he’d finished the commentary. What are some other DVDs that have in character commentaries? The only other one I can think of are some episodes of Futurama, which have Billy West and John DiMagio doing commentary as Fry and Bender.
Spinal Tap. Oh, god is that a good commentary. It’s in character, 10 years later.
Daniel Handler was in character as Lemony Snicket for A Series Of Unfortunate Events. It was interminable.
Luckily there was an alternative commentary where the Director spoke more honestly about the shoot.
I believe Bruce Campbell remained in character for his commentary on “Bubba Ho-Tep”.
While they’re not the characters in the movie, the Commentary!: The Musical track for Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog is definitely “in character”.
Some of the episodes of the Freaks and Geeks DVD set has the actors doing in-character commentary.
And an hilarious commentary it was!
The first two seasons of King of the Hill (the only two seasons that had bonus content) had in character commentary.
Bingo. I don’t usually watch the DVDs with the commentary on, and I had this DVD for about three years until I did. Man, it’s a friggin’ riot.
I’d be kind to think that Jason Mewes was doing some of his early commentaries for Kevin Smith’s movies in character as Jay. But the more likely explanation was that he was just stoned.
Pinky Carothers(sp?) comments on the “Buckaroo Banzai” documentary
Brian
The commentary track for the Coen brother’s Blood Simple is in character. What’s interesting is that it’s a character created solely for the purpose of the commentary track. It’s supposedly a film critic/historian giving the audience insight into the process of filming the movie, and the creative changes the script underwent during production. Very reminiscent of Nabokov’s Pale Fire, actually. Probably an intentional homage.
One of my favorite parts is where he explains that a fairly simply, over-the-shoulder shot of two people talking in a car during a rainy night drive was, in fact, filmed backwards, with the car suspended upside down from the studio ceiling, because that was the only way they could get the timing of the oncoming headlights just right.
Also, the film was originally intended to be a European costume drama, but was changed to a grubby murder mystery in a Texas backwater midway through production because of “studio meddling.”
Darkplace.
In many cases as amusing as the program itself.
Reno 911!: Miami
In Tristram Shandy the leading actors, played themselves, but a comedic version of themselves, as they filmed the movie Tristram Shandy. On the commentary track the actors kept their movie characteristics.
It was a nice try, but I think they proved that this novel really is unfilmable.
I forget which disk it was… but there is one Smith film commentary, Mewes is there, but sleeping on the floor while the rest of the guys did their thing. Occasionally Smith wakes him up so he grunts out something and then goes back to sleep. As you say- I am pretty sure he was uber messed up.
Does MST3K count?
I had no idea about this at all, but now I’m going to have to check it out! Which actor was playing the “critic”?
The commentary track on Muppets From Space not only has Kermit, Gonzo, and Rizzo doing commentary, but you can actually see them, MST3K-like, on the bottom of the screen if you wish.
I remember that Mewes fell asleep during the Clerks commentary, which was recorded in Minnesota during the shoot for Mallrats. He’s slightly more with it on the Chasing Amy commentary, but does manage to pronounce “commentary” as “con-shen-tary” on one occasion. That has become our household pronunciation of the word.
Not technically “in character,” but Seth Green does the first half hour or so of the Can’t Hardly Wait commentary in a fake British accent.
I don’t recall who plays the critic. I don’t think it was an actor from the movie at all.