Actors vs. Characters

So last night we went to see Public Enemies at midnight - TOTALLY worth it - I won't do a whole movie review thing, suffice it to say that it was awesome, and, as Matt was saying last night and I can't agree with more, it was nice to take a break from the special effects-laden summer blockbusters... The thing was amazingly acted (Batman's weak southern accent aside) and I really can't even describe how phenominal Johnny Depp was... GO SEE IT...

Anyway, that bring me to today's point - you may have noticed that I used "Batman" in place of Christian Bale and actually used Johnny Depp's name...

Every movie we go to we play a little game called "Dude, that's the guy from..." Sometimes we remember the actor's name, but more often than not (unless Steph is around, the freaking walking IMDB) we just remember where we've seen him/her or the roles she's played...

So, in that vane, there are now four types of movie actors:

1. The movie actors you call by their christian names

Now this category is going to be relatively small, and it has nothing to do with how big a star they are, but more to do with personality - have they been as big in things they've done OFF screen as ON screen? Were they famous before they started doing movies? Etc...

For example, George Clooney and Brad Pitt are who they are - they are bigger than the movies they're in, and have been in so many interviews, tabloids, tv appearances, etc that when you see Brad you don't say "Hey, there's Joe Black" - you say "Dude, that's Brad Pitt" or even "Dude, that's the dude that dated (and dumped) two of the hottest women on the planet..." (the whole calling actors by terms used to describe their personal life could be a whole other category, ie "Dude, that's the guy who's holding Katie Holmes hostage..." but we won't go into that one...

The second part of this category is people who were famous before movies, such as Will Smith.  Will will (nice...) be forever known as either, simply, Will Smith, or The Fresh Prince... granted, part of this is due to his being named "Will" on his TV show, but come on... Do you even remember any other character name that he's played besides Ali? You remember the roles, sure... but what about the names?? Didn't think so...

2. Actors Who's Names You Know, But Who Have Played In Such Iconic Movies As to Immediately Conjure Up the Name of Said Iconic Character

While it should be noted that most of these people can fit into the first category, this is a thing unto itself... Three actors immediately come to mind:

Tom Cruise - he has one role for which he is so immediately identifiable that it can easily trump even his own name (I say easily because I think the two can be interchanged and no one would bat an eye) - and that, of course... is Maverick...  Ole Tommy Boy is bigger than any movie he's ever been in, so much so in fact that I have a hard time looking at him in movies and going "Oh man, that Nazi is going to overthrow Hitler..." It's more like "Dude, Maverick is going to overthrow Hitler..."

I will say this, in preparing this blog I think I may be able to remember more iconic names from Maverick's characters than any other: Cole Trickle, Ethan Hunt, Rainman's Sleazy Brother, etc... But he'll always just be Maverick, who feels the need for speed... and desperately seeks the advice of his dead navigator (who fits so into our third category it's ridiculous...)

Sean Connery - This is more an interesting one though because of all the things he's done, there are actually three roles that you can immediately come to mind, with a possible fourth: Bond (he will always be the person someone is talking about when referring to Bond, unless they say "New Bond" which is Danielle Craig, another 

third category-er...), Indy's Dad, and the old dude who got jiggy with Catherine Zeta Jones in that one movie...

Harrison Ford - Like Bond (yup...), there are two here that you can use, and if they aren't obvious to you, then you're no friend of mine...

Others would possibly be Captain Jack, Braveheart, The Terminator, John McClain, Neo, etc...

3. Actors Who Will Only Be Referred To By Character Names

This is actually the crux of what I wanted to talk about, it just took me a little while to get here... This includes the dude we saw a preview for last night "Obi Wan," "Batman," "The Dad From Family Matters," "Morpheus," etc..

Almost every actor that we've ever seen can fit into this category - I mean really, these guys and gals get paid to pretend they're other people, so why shouldn't we treat them like it?  The guys who are genuine celebrities with genuine celeb personas will fit into one other the two top categories and everyone else we can forget their names and get immersed in their acting.

It's these people who actually make a great movie - it's the bit characters who lend strong support and make you believe the bullhooey that's happening on the screen.  Not to say the guys in the first two categories aren't great actors - they truly are, but more oftentimes than not if you get a movie with too many of those guys, it doesn't work - 

Take last night's Public Enemies - it had Captain Jack and Batman as the two lead guys, who wouldn't seem to mesh well but it didn't matter because they were only one screen together for two scenes, and their characters were in bitter contrast to each other so it worked - but it wouldn't have if it wasn't for third category actors "Blue Dong from Watchmen," "Phoebe's Brother," "Hurk from the Wire," "The Dad from 16 Candles," "The Main Dancer From Step Up," (who BTW is starring in a movie called "Parkour" based on free-running that I can't wait for...), etc...  

4. Actors Who Are Terrible And Should Never Be Remembered Even If They Are In Some Amazing Movies

Population: Nick Cage...