A current thread notes that Julia Roberts’ character in Oceans Twelve is told that she looks like Julia Roberts, and goes on to “impersonate” her.
This brings to mind Arsenic and Old Lace, in which Jonathan Brewster was said to look “like Boris Karloff”, the gag being that, of course, Karloff did play the character onstage (and, later, on TV). They couldn’t get him for the movie (he was playing the role on Broadway at the time, and unreleasable), but they would’ve (Raymond Massey did a creditable turn in the role).
I just learned that Ralph Bellamy’s character was described as “looking like Ralph Bellamy” in His Girl Friday, something I hadnm’t been aware of.
And, while it’s not exactly the same thing, I couldn’t help noticing that in the novel “Moonraker”, the villain, hugo Drax, is described as “a Lonsdale-type figure”. When they made the movie Moonraker, Hugo Drax was played by … Michel Lonsdale. I can’t help but think that he got the part because of that line in the book.
In the movie “Rosemary’s Baby,” Rosemary meets a neighbor, Terry Gionoffrio, in the laundry room. She stares at her and then apologizes saying, “I thought you were Victoria Vetri, the actress.” Terry responds by saying, “a lot of people think I’m Victoria, but I don’t see the resemblance.” In fact, the actress who played Terry is Victoria Vetri (credited as Angela Dorian), the actress and 1968 Playmate of the Year.
In Scream Neve Campbell’s character bemoans the fact that in the movie of her life, they’ll probably get Tori Spelling.
The events from Scream are made into a movie in Scream 2 and sure enough, the characters of Scream 2 see Tori Spelling in a TV interview talking about her role in the movie-within-a-movie Stab.
Walter Burns (Cary Grant) describes Bruce (Bellamy) thus on the telephone as he’s conspiring to have him delayed on his trip.
In the same film, Walter says, “Listen, the last man that said that to me was Archie Leach just a week before he cut his throat!” Grant’s real name was Archibald Leach.
Not quite self-referential but apparently close enough for this thread. In the novel Get Shorty there’s a line about the character Harry Zimm to the effect of the perfect person to play him in a movie would be Gene Hackman. Hackman played Zimm in the film adaptation.
Another case of the actor getting the role because of the book: In Jurassic Park the novel, Crichton says that the narration for the “Jurassic Park” explanatory ride was by “actor Richard Kiley”. For the Steven Spielberg film JP, they DID get Kiley to do that narration.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back has a few scenes like that’’.
At the end, after the Bluntman & Chronic movie screening:
Tricia Jones: Well, that was just another paean to male adolescence and it’s refusal to grow up.
Alyssa Jones: Yeah, sis. But it was better than “Mallrats”. At least Holden had the good sense to leave his name off of it.
Tricia Jones: Why didn’t Miramax option his other comic instead. You know, the one about you and him and your “relationship”?
Alyssa Jones: Oh, “Chasing Amy”? That would never work as a movie.
Tricia was in Mall Rats, and Alyssa was in Chasing Amy.
And there was a scene between Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (playing themselves) discussing why actors make certain movies.
Top Secret!
*Nick Rivers: Listen to me Hillary. I’m not the first guy who fell in love with a woman that he met at a restaurant who turned out to be the daughter of a kidnapped scientist only to lose her to her childhood lover who she last saw on a deserted island who then turned out fifteen years later to be the leader of the French underground.
Hillary Flammond: I know. It all sounds like some bad movie. *
Airplane, when the kid keeps telling the co-pilot he’s Kareem Abdul Jabbar, but he keeps denying it, claiming to be Roger Murdock. This keeps up until the kid tells him his father thinks he doesn’t try hard enough:
Murdock: The hell I don’t. LISTEN KID. I’ve been hearing that crap ever since I was at UCLA. I’m out there busting my buns every night. Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes.
And of course, when they drag Murdock out of the cockpit after he’s been poisoned, he’s wearing Lakers shorts and sneakers.
Not a movie, but in Scrubs, J.D. discovers his nemesis, the Janitor was once an actor when he sees him in The Fugitive on tv. The Transit Cop in the scene from The Fugitive is actually the same actor as the Janitor - Neil Flynn.
Spaceballs, where they put in a video of Spaceballs to see what’s happening.
Brooks also goes in to see Blazing Saddles in Grauman’s Chinese Theater in the movie Blazing Saddled.
On TV, George Burns would often turn on the TV to see what Gracie was doing.
In The King of Comedy, Tony Randall, as a guest star on the fictional Jerry Langford show, turns to the TV director and says, “You’re the director. Tell me what to do.” The TV director was played by the film’s director, Martin Scorsese.
In the Doris Day film Caprice, the character played by Doris Day goes to see a Doris Day movie entitled Caprice, which costars Richard Harris, her real co-star in Caprice.
Along the same lines, The Simpsons Movie begins with an Itchy & Scratchy segment, which turns out to be a movie that Homer interrupts, to heckle the audience for paying to see something they could see on TV for free.
(Hmmm, “The Simpsons already did it” in reverse…)
In Love Actually, the character Daniel several times refers to the possibility of dating Claudia Schiffer. Claudia Schiffer plays the part of Carol, who turns out to apparently have become Daniel’s girlfriend in the final scenes of the movie.
In the animated movie Meet the RobinsonsWilbur is describing his family to Lewis. When Lewis asks what his father looks like Wilbur says “Tom Selleck” (since the true answer is a plot point), and they even put up a picture of Tom Selleck on the screen. When Wilbur’s father show up at the end of the movie, he’s voiced by (but bears no visual resemblance to) Tom Selleck.
And then there’s the scene in Coming To America with Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche reprising their “Randolph and Mortimer Duke” roles from Trading Places. “We’re back!”
In the remake of Maverick, Danny Glover plays a bank robber whom Mel Gibson appears to recognize. They play a little of the Lethal Weapon theme song, and Glover says “I’m getting too old for this shit.”
And in Doc Hollywood, Woody Harrelson’s character visits LA with the Bridgett Fonda character. When she says she thinks she sees a movie star, Harrelson says, “Nah. That’s just Ted Danson.”
The absolutely best television reference was on 3rd Rock from the sun, a scene between William Shatner as The Big Giant Head and John Lithgow as Dick Solomon:
Dick: So how was your flight?
TBGH: Terrible. I kept seeing something on the wing of the plane.
Dick, in a Lithgow squeal: The same thing happened to meeeeeeeeeee.
Shatner played the role in the Twlight Zone TV episode, Lithgow in the movie remake.
On NCIS, the medical examiner “Ducky”, played by David McCallum, is said to have looked like Illya Kuryakin in his younger days. “Illya Kuryakin” is the Russian agent character from The Man From U.N.C.L.E., played by David McCallum.