#actor vs character

[miriam-heddy]

Sometimes, you find out about an actor and you like them more than you like their character. They may play a shallow asshole, but then you find out they’re smart and like the same books you do, or wev. Or maybe their latest tv character isn’t well developed, but after you’ve read some actor interviews, the characters they play seems more layered, somehow. Deeper behind the eyes, maybe.

Lou Ferrigno Jr is not one of those people.

Which is to say that, having read so many, many posts 1) defending Lou from any/all aspersions cast on his character and 2) talking about what a super cool awesome ally of a guy he is… I finally looked at LFJr’s instagram for myself. And it turns out that he (the person/actor/son of a problematic competitive bodybuilder) is very much NOT someone I’d ever be interested in speaking with. If I got stuck on an overseas plane with him, I wouldn’t strike up a conversation about theatre or literature or feminism or fat acceptance or queer culture or bisexuality, etc.

Our values and interests have no points of intersection beyond pug dogs. And that’s ok. He gets excited about judging a women’s body building competition. I get angry reading about the way the “sport” hurts women.

I’m not, btw, talking about parasocial relationships. I’m just talking about basic RL interaction and the selves we curate online as indications of ourselves offline.

For the record, I don’t hate Tommy Kinard. I think I like him a lot more than I like Lou. But that’s not difficult. The bar is low. And hearing people fanning Lou Jr while arguing that, because of him, Tommy is extra great will make me say, ‘Ew” and no pretty pic will fix that.

So it will be up to the 911 writers & PTB—not Lou & his fans— to get me to cheer for Tommy & Buck.

[knifehappybastard]

EDIT: this was late at night, I was in an extreme manic episode and hyperfixating on EMH/if things had been different as far as ending/plot had she been around. I didn't mean to start drama.

Ok, so not to be vague on kinsideblog time, but it refers DIRECTLY to said sideblog and reactions.

Can we as the Everyman HYBRID fandom please stop forgetting/deliberatly excluding Steph in content? In addition, can we please remember that characters are characters even if they share the same name as their actor (like most ARG).

Two things prompted this tonight: one, I got a reply from Jeff. And two, a reply from Amanda.

Jeff wants the EMH boys to have Funko Pops made of them. I simply reply that maybe Steph should be included, because after all it's the mining town four. He replies that she's one of the more important characters but essentially wouldn't be very funk pop form friendly (possibly due to slender induced trauma).

Yes, it's acknowledgement, so I'm happy one of the other creators is atleast remembering she exists.

And then I dug into the replies - one of the other girls had made funkos via the funko yourself site.

Above we have Jeff, Evan and Vin.

Instead of replying directly to this tweet thread since it was a day later, I decided to tweet the girl who made the designs asking if she'd do one for Steph just to have the main four. This was the response.

Now, it might just be me, but the ':)' reads a little passive aggressive. At first I thought I'd crossed a boundary and maybe replied to the original actress that played Steph, but that wasn't it.

It wasn't until I found a retweet of a Co-Op twitch account twitter - ran by her and Evan.

I'm pretty sure I had just tweeted one of Evan's girlfriends about a funko design of someone his *character* (as I'm unsure if he and Steph's actress had been real offscreen) had dated in what was essentially a film project.

Was the reply because I'd hit a sore spot?

If I'm reading too far into it, I'm reading too far into it.

So I'm just asking as a fandom if we can acknowledge that it was the mining town four, and that characters are characters in ARGs, even if they share their actor's names.

Thanks.

EDIT: as of 1:20AM, Jeff's seen this, he messaged me on Twitter to explain / clarify. I want to reiterate that my post was not an attack on the creators, rather a reminder to the fans that plotwise it was the Mining Town Four. I'm sorry if this creates any further discourse.

[how-do-i-theatre]

i have so much respect for actors who play asshole characters cause i'm sure they get so much shit by the people who can't separate the character and the actor

[fuck-off-n-leave-me-alone]

Incorrectly quoting

Would people stop quoting an actor for the line the character said! If you are to quote anyone other than the character, quote it as the writer (screenwriter that is).

[anvh89]

Frustration

I have always been meticulously purposeful in my avoidance of anything where actors speak about their work, be it any kind of interview, I include cons here.

Why? because I detest shattering the illusion of them as merely characters, really I prefer my TV watching to be an immersion in the lives of well acted (or lived, I hate the word acting, good acting should be living out a character not pretending, acting conjurers up images of people pretending to be sick on the phone to their boss) characters.

Teen wolf is the first fandom I've ever broken this rule for, because social media some times makes it hard to avoid, and then because the majority of the actors seem like awesome people, and I bet it would be a pleasure to meet them, have a drink with them, or coffee, talk about what their favourite books are, how they de-stress, in short everything else than their characters!

I just don't care about how they see their characters, harsh maybe, but true, because who knows how much they are allowed by their contracts to say about anything? yeah only themselves and the ones they work for.

Now I feel I have to wait until video appears of the panel where Tyler Hoechlin said whatever it was he said, because I've been half bombarded by tweets, and dear lord lets not even start on how little 140 characters can convey, not to mention the issue of not having the ability to ask the actor for any form of clarification, communication is fucking difficult trust me I've taken way too many management courses not to understand that intent and meaning as well as interpretation can be completely out of whack.

Over all I feel like fandom BLOWS up every time there is the suggestion of something bad, often for no reason, and I think this week has been especially cruel because of the whole issue of autographs and money grubbing convention runners.

In short I think we could all do with a good deep breath and a cup of something calming.