Business As Usual

Actors. People who act. Duh.

That's sometimes the real problem, though. Some actors don't really act, but just take a role that they're very suitable for.

Jim Carrey and all of his idiotic films.

Hugh Laurie and all of his roles where he's supposedly the evil guy, but then turns out to be damn smart, not to mention good, the good guy behind the curtains, or in other words, the new type of superhero.

You look at those people and you say "Those aren't actors. They pretend to be the same guy, all over again. That ain't what acting is about."

You agree, no?

Well, if you do agree, here's what I have for you.

You're wrong. Very, very, very wrong.

Terry Pratchet's books from the Disk (which is well placed on top of four elephants, who are on top of a giant turtle) say quite frequently that faith gives birth to its own beliefs in the world of the Disk. Meaning, first comes faith and out of it is spawned its object of belief.

In our case, it means that those actors are searched for such roles mostly. That doesn't mean they aren't good at anything else. It simply means they're the best there is for this unique type of role. And the fact that they could excel at pretending to be other types of characters as well... it seems nobody cares.

You see, my misguided friend, acting is a business. Actors make a living out of it. And the rest is supply and demand. People want Jim Carrey's ways of proving all those Anatomy books (especially the parts about facial grimacing) wrong and so he does that.

People want Hugh Laurie to be the "House" type of character and voila -- he's House.

Supply and demand. That's all to it.

Alas, few notice that. All they see is the majority of roles a certain actor takes and bam! - he's labeled.

There's more to it, though. Sometimes the actor wins one round and gets to play something different.

Unfortunately, you can't have both things at the same time. Meaning most people don't notice it's exactly this actor playing this odd-for-him role, mainly because they don't expect him to be there. So they remain completely blind (shocking twist, as a friend says) to the fact that this actor they already labeled as incompetent actually can act.

Do you remember Stuart Little? The film about the talking mouse who faces the wrath of the cat mafia? Sounds lame, but it's actually a good movie. One of those for the whole family, yet 'whole family' here doesn't mean that the parents fall asleep in the middle of the movie. Seriously, it's not bad.


See the man? This is Hugh Laurie. Oh no, it ain't no lie. He's shaved and he's smiling. His clothes are very modest and he's surrounded by happy children.

So much about him being a bad actor. But people won't see that, because they won't realize it's really him, even if the Cast Credits hits them on the head... twice.

And what of Jim Carrey? Watch "The Truman Show" and then speak.

Yep. People like labeling other people with barcodes. I guess it's only natural, but...

Isn't the whole idea of civilization to overcome most of our "only natural" and yet, highly unlogical actions? I personally am tired of stuff like "Code 042203784, name: Jim Laurie, cost: 3$49c, use: Comedy."

There isn't enough time in one lifetime to get to know better everybody around you. But when it comes to judging work, please be objective.