I recall somewhere…a woman saying she has hated AH’nold ever since she saw him shoot a woman in cold blood in front of her crying child in Terminator.:mad:
My wife can’t watch anything Danny Glover is in without seeing the despicable character he played in Color Purple that rapes his own daughter.
**Ever see a character an actor has played instead of the actor? **
Huh?
I’ve heard that a lot of actors who specialize in villains encounter this problem. Fans of a TV show or movie will berate them on the street, not being able to separate the actor from the character they play.
After seeing Andrew Robinson as the psycho villain in the first Dirty Harry movie, it was hard not seeing that character in every part he played for a while. Now, I’d have a hard time picturing him as anybody but Garak.
Ok, so you’re asking if people can’t see through an offensive character the actor once played. Sorry, not really. But this happens to actors who portray good guys as well. George Reeves was so typecast as Superman that people would shout ‘Superman’ when From Here to Eternity was shown. There is a fake story that his scenes were cut, but they weren’t.
This is a bit different but a few years back I saw an interview with Peter Krause, Nate from Six Feet Under. Without going into too much detail, in Six Feet Under he had a condition that meant he shouldn’t be doing too much exercise. In real life, when he’d be out running, people would stop him out on the street to express their concern and suggest that he shouldn’t be running.
Of course, that’s more on the level of Nurse Betty.
Doesn’t even have to be an offensive character. I know many people think Davis Mitchell is Mark Corrigan (British TV series, Peep Show).
The wife and I can’t watch Rowan Atkinson without thinking we’re watching Mr. Bean.
Where it gets really weird is shows like Big Bang Theory, where Wil Wheaton plays a character called Wil Whaeton.
Nitpick: He plays ‘evil Wil Wheaton’, at least he did for the first half of his run on the show.
Yeah, I watch “The Americans,” and every time John-Boy shows up as an FBI agent, it takes me out of the story.
When *Lonesome Dove *started, I had a problem with Ricky Shroder. It was hard to see past the little kid from Silver Spoons. However, it didn’t take long for me to adapt, thanks to his outstanding (IMO) portrayal of Newt.
Very similar problem; There is an excellent made-for-TVer called Crash Landing. The entire cast is superb, but it takes every fiber of my being to see past John-Boy. A really old episode of “Night Gallery” has the same sitch–Thomas is outstanding, but the J-B alert goes off, which isn’t fair to him, but whatcha gonna do?
Watching Nurse Jackie, it took me at least a full season to stop seeing Edie Falco as Carmella Soprano. Even with her new haircut, which she started growing out almost as soon as the show started.
Now, six seasons in the only time I even remember that she was ever on that other show is during the opening credits. They start off with this picture, which instantly reminds me that she had short hair, probably to distance herself from Carmella. Between the awful intro/outro music and that hair, they really need to redo that.
But she’s proven herself as an amazing actor and I’m sure she could do just about any dramatic role (no, I never saw Oz).
Even after 50 years and numerous other roles, I can’t really see William Shatner nor Leonard Nimoy as being anything other than Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. For that matter none of the main cast of the original series ever fell too far from Star Trek tree when they left.
I had a hard time seeing Nichelle Nichols as a brothel owner in Truck Turner. Nor did I see DeForrest Kelly (really stretching his acting muscles acting as a veterinarian) as anyone but Dr. McCoy in the 1970s low budget classic Night of the Lepus
Several years ago I attended a con in Oklahoma City. Richard Biggs(RIP) who played Dr. Franklin on Babylon 5, was a guest. He’d also played a doctor on a soap opera, before that.
He said he’d attended cons for both groups, soap fans and sci-fi fans. Of the two he said sci-fi fans were more grounded in reality, able to seperate the character from the actor.
He’d had soap fans try to whack him upside the head, because they were angry over how his character had treated another.
Must have been longer ago than several years. He died of an unexpected aortic dissection 10 years ago.
He now plays a character named Wil Wheaton who is a former successful child actor from Star Trek, Next Generration now playing an actor who has trouble getting acting jobs.
I have difficulty seen Paul Reiser as anyone other than Burke from Aliens.
Even though Amon Goeth was not his first role, it was the first one I saw Ralph Fiennes do, and it took me many other roles over quite a variety of types for me to quit letting his portrayal of that Nazi influence how I saw the new role.
So effective at that first effort and its coloring later portrayals has happened with any number of the better actors. To name another few: Edward Norton, Jack Palance and probably most recently Anton Chigurh.. There have to be dozens more but those are the ones whose first appearance was so powerful that they had (in my opinion) a steep hill to climb to get away from that first impression.
First time I ever noticed Meryl Streep was when Kramer vs Kramer first came out. I disliked her character so intensely that I couldn’t stand her own self either. Which of course was pretty damn silly of me. It wasn’t until Silkwood that I was finally able to appreciate her as an actress (even though Karen Silkwood was another character I found irritating and unsympathetic).
