# Exceptions to "actors who always play themselves" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** actor-characters\ **Created:** [January 3, 2025, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524 "2025-01-03T15:54:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/24 "2025-01-03T18:00:31Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#): > > Connery never changed his voice (except in Bond, a bit…) [Connery “plays” the Spaniard.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CIJc6lkqXY&ab_channel=NotMe) ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/25 "2025-01-03T18:04:35Z")
> [@icon](#): > > For Dwayne Johnson, much like Schwarzenegger, there is only so much you can do given your size (both are over 6 foot tall) so I would not expect them to play too far against type just because, even with modern technology, there is not a lot you can do to hide their physical attributes, and why would you? > > `//i\\` Dave Bautista (a similarly giant actor/former wrestler) seems to have a bit broader acting range. In contrast, there’s only so much John Cena can do when you look like a giant GI Joe action figure (although I do enjoy his work). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/26 "2025-01-03T18:17:43Z")
> [@Disinfectus](#): > > While Robin Williams often seemed to play himself in movies, One Hour Photo was a clear departure from his typical silliness. Robin Williams had two characters he played, not just one. All of his zany roles were alike, and all of his serious roles were alike, but Zany Robin Williams was very different from Serious Robin Williams. > [@On another topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1014334/5): > > Dwayne Johnson, aka the Rock, played a gay bodyguard in “Be Cool” > > In “Central Intelligence” he was a nerd in high school. He was also a high-school nerd in the Jumanji movies. Which, from what I understand from interviews, is actually closer to his real personality. Gary Oldman, though, I’m pretty sure that the SAG relaxed their requirements for unique names, and there are actually like five different talented actors all named “Gary Oldman”. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/27 "2025-01-03T18:23:52Z")
The first person I thought of was **Clint Eastwood**. Surprised he hasn’t been mentioned yet. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/28 "2025-01-03T18:28:43Z")
Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love and Uncut Gems shows he’s got a lot of range, he just chooses to have fun in a lot of roles. DeNiro is fun in Stardust. ---
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/29 "2025-01-03T18:29:16Z")
He probably stammered but he was uncharacteristically athletic (“ripped,” as they say) in [The Fly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fly_(1986_film)), and I don’t think he had another role like it before or after. ---
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/30 "2025-01-03T18:36:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Robin Williams had two characters he played, not just one. All of his zany roles were alike, and all of his serious roles were alike, but Zany Robin Williams was very different from Serious Robin Williams. His role in the semi-serious [Moscow on the Hudson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_on_the_Hudson) was unlike any of his others. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/31 "2025-01-03T18:47:15Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > [DeNiro] may be known for his many tough-guy roles, but he’s had some very memorable high-profile ones of other sorts, even in the '90s. ( **_Awakenings_, for example**.) Robin Williams going against his comic type in _Awakenings_, as well. Both men were nominated for major Best Actor awards for this film (DeNiro for an Oscar, Williams for a Golden Globe). ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/32 "2025-01-03T19:10:20Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love This seems to me like almost the _opposite_ of what the OP is asking for (“no matter what role they assume, they seem to be doing more or less the same character”). It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, but I remember thinking it’s what you get when you take a typical Adam Sandler character and put him into a very different sort of movie. Whereas, many of Adam Sandler’s own movies are similar sorts of movies to one another, but the characters he plays in those movies vary more than you might think. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/33 "2025-01-03T19:25:06Z")
When I found out that Dwayne Johnson was cast to be Black Adam I was highly skeptical. Then I saw him play the villain in _Doom_. He was pretty good. A friend of mine who’s familiar with his wrestling career said he played a villain several times, which makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/34 "2025-01-03T19:38:33Z")
Oh yeah - he was a heel for most of his time in the WWE. IIRC, he was often Stone Cold Steve Austin’s nemesis. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/35 "2025-01-03T19:38:39Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Though I think early performances probably don’t count. > > Like Samuel L. Jackson in Jurassic Park. That character wasn’t much different from his usual. Now, if you want Early-Sam-Jackson-Not-Like-Anything-Else-He-Did, how about [Coming to America](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094898/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_coming%2520to%2520am)? ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/36 "2025-01-03T19:45:58Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > The first person I thought of was **Clint Eastwood**. Surprised he hasn’t been mentioned yet. Well, here’s your chance to mention him. In what role did he not play his signature self? ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/37 "2025-01-03T19:49:59Z")
Paint your Wagon? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/38 "2025-01-03T20:03:31Z")
You wanna see a whole lotta Connery you never seen before? Check out **Zardoz**. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/39 "2025-01-03T20:03:47Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Whereas, many of Adam Sandler’s own movies are similar sorts of movies to one another, but the characters he plays in those movies vary more than you might think. Rogert Ebert famously dumped on Sandler’s performances in review after review. For _The Waterboy_, he notably expressed the same sort of hope that I did in my OP: > Do I have something visceral against Adam Sandler? I hope not. I try to keep an open mind and approach every movie with high hopes. It would give me enormous satisfaction (and relief) to like him in a movie. But I suggest he is making a tactical error when he creates a character whose manner and voice has the effect of fingernails on a blackboard, and then expects us to hang in there for a whole movie. Since I long ago stopped watching them, I don’t recall whether I disliked Sandler’s movies because he was playing the same character over and over again, or if it’s because in each movie he created a completely new character that happened to be inane and annoying in their own unique way. I rather suspect it’s the former—I seem to recall that every character of his was some variation of an ostensibly nice, if overly needy, man-child prone to outbursts of passive-aggressive hostility. Ebert eventually did find a movie to praise Sandler in, the aforementioned _Punch Drunk Love_. Ebert’s review notes with approval that “Sandler reveals depths and tones we may have suspected but couldn’t bring into focus”, and that the film might “liberate Sandler for a new direction in his work… Who would have guessed he had such uncharted depths?” That review still wasn’t enough to get me to watch _Punch Drunk Love_, or anything Sandler’s done since, with the exception of the _Hotel Transylvania_ series. I had no idea that he voiced the main character until reading the credits, and was pretty impressed by this. Of course, it’s a bit of a cheat in that it’s an animated film, and the physical design of the character looks nothing like Sandler. But still, I’m usually pretty good at identifying “actors playing themselves” even in voice work. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/40 "2025-01-03T20:10:34Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > He also played way against type as a quiet introvert in _Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind_. This was the one that leapt to my mind too. A very, very different role (and an excellent movie and role) from what we usually get from Jim Carrey. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/41 "2025-01-03T20:10:41Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > All of his zany roles were alike, and all of his serious roles were alike, but Zany Robin Williams was very different from Serious Robin Williams. I don’t know about that. Was Serious Robin Williams in _Awakenings_ really the same character as Serious Robin Williams in _One Hour Photo_? ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/42 "2025-01-03T20:11:27Z")
> [@Maus\_Magill](#): > > Paint your Wagon? I was also thinking of _Play Misty for Me_. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524/43 "2025-01-03T20:15:45Z")
Would the OP allow a career shift for an actor? Leslie Nielsen was an actor who played stern characters then moved to comedy and succeeded well there. Kinda why the comedy worked…we didn’t expect that from him but it worked great. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exceptions-to-actors-who-always-play-themselves/1012524.md?page=3)