# "Real" human actors
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 20, 2017, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071 "2017-05-20T11:21:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@2Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2Bits)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2017, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071/1 "2017-05-20T11:21:07Z")
Would you enjoy your favorite movies if the cast looked, sounded and behaved more like you and I?\*
\*Slightly over-weight, acne on nose, scratching itches as they occur, often speaking in incomplete sentences peppered with “uh” and “um.” etc. etc.
---
### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2017, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071/2 "2017-05-20T11:42:55Z")
No. Real people are not as articulate as a movie script z nor as witty and clever in their conversations.
That’s the deal killer. The results would be dull.
---
### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2017, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071/3 "2017-05-20T11:49:10Z")
Plus their dialog overlaps making it harder to follow. Some directors have tried this (I’m looking at _you_, Robert Altman) with mixed success.
---
### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2017, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071/4 "2017-05-20T12:00:37Z")
I don’t want to see “real” people talking like “real” people in my entertainment. I get enough of that for free, when I pay for a film I want something better looking and more interesting.
---
### Author:  [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2017, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071/5 "2017-05-20T12:15:38Z")
I’m with Oscar Wilde; Life should imitate art, not the other way around.
---
### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2017, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071/6 "2017-05-20T13:12:29Z")
Naturalism has its place, but it only goes so far. Even improv auteurs like Mike Leigh don’t go that far. Real life talking is like the shaky-cam of dialogue, it may be realistic, but it would distract and interfere with the flow of the story.
---
### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2017, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071/7 "2017-05-20T13:16:32Z")
No. Fiction should be more interesting and/or pleasant than real life, or there’s no point. I can get plenty of\* actual \*real life for free any time I want, after all.
---
### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2017, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071/8 "2017-05-20T13:31:11Z")
I would like actors to be a little more ‘real’ in appearance. I don’t want dialogue to be the dull kind of everyday speech though.
---
### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2017, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071/9 "2017-05-20T13:49:14Z")
On the other hand, I’d get such a kick out of a character acting, or rather reacting like a real person.
For instance, on a sitcom one character (let’s call him Jerry) says something hilarious. The other character (George) might laugh, but Jerry never does.
In real life, Jerry would crack himself up, both would be laughing, and when the next character entered, they’d replay the whole conversation.
Virtually everyone I know would grab the next person and say “Elaine, you’ve got to hear this… let me catch my breath… George was complaining about how long Russian novels were…”
“And I said I gave up on War and Peace… and Jerry says… tell her what you said!”
“I can’t… you tell her.”
“So Jerry just looks up from his cereal and says real casual-like like it’s a real fact, ‘Did you know that the original title for War and Peace was _War, What Is It Good For?_’ And then he tries to act like it wasn’t funny and go back to eating but a second later he spits Lucky Charms all over the table.”
“We’ve been laughing about it ever since…”
“Ever since?”
“Yeah, that was an hour ago…”
---
### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2017, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071/10 "2017-05-20T14:26:44Z")
Action movies should not look like [_Beverly Hills Ninja_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverly_Hills_Ninja).
---
### Author:  [@2Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2Bits)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2017, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071/11 "2017-05-20T15:14:32Z")
Perhaps it would turn every genre into comedy?
---
### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2017, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071/12 "2017-05-20T15:20:20Z")
I can get “real people” any time I want, by stepping out the door. I go to movies for the fantasy element, for things I can’t get IRL.
(I, personally, never watch movies from the “drama” category – movies essentially framed about real people in real life. Gimme a superhero epic, a costume comedy, maybe a blazing war flick. When it comes to, say, Sophie’s Choice, my choice is no.)
---
### Author:  [@MostlyClueless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyClueless)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2017, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071/13 "2017-05-20T21:06:46Z")
Eb
---
### Author:  [@MostlyClueless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyClueless)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2017, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071/14 "2017-05-20T21:09:55Z")
I’m a sucker for amazing, witty, fast-paced dialogue, so let’s keep that.
However, I think having more variety in body types and attractiveness would add a lot in movies. (Of course the chancellor/stepmother/pawnbroker was evil, didn’t you see that ugly mug?)
---
### Author:  [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2017, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071/15 "2017-05-20T22:18:34Z")
> [@2Bits](#):
>
> Perhaps it would turn every genre into comedy?
… or a Tragedy…?
---
### Author:  [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2017, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-human-actors/787071/16 "2017-05-20T23:02:04Z")
Happy for more variety in people, but I don’t want warts and all type dialogue.