History Main / ActorRoleConfusion

* In Robert [=McCloskey=]'s ''Homer Price'' the actor who plays the "Super-Duper" in movie serials makes an appearance at the Centerburg theater and Freddy asks if he could do some horseshoe bending or flying for them. Disillusionment sets in later when the actor's car ends up in a ditch and needs to be towed to Homer's father's filling station.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Wanted}}'', the supervillains of the world basically rewrote history, not by killing off the superheroes but by turning them into {{Muggles}} via brainwashing. Two BatmanAndRobin analogues were killed by their nemesis by being lowered into an acid vat, [[Series/Batman1966 still screaming that it was only a role they had played on TV.]]

* After seeing him cheated out of winning a fixed match in ''Film/ReadyToRumble'', two unbelievably stupid wrestling fans track down (fictional) WCW wrestler "Jimmy King" and are shocked to find that he's a pathetic drunk and not a hero. Fortunately, over the course of the movie they manage to ''turn'' him into a hero.
* Played with in ''Film/{{Airplane}}'' with co-pilot Roger Murdock. A kid insists he's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar over his denials - until the kid tells how his dad thinks Kareem isn't trying on the court, then it gets personal.

** "Stan" is about a fan who writes fanmail to the violent, misogynistic rapper Slim Shady, whose music is the only place he sees someone validating his own violent, misogynistic life - "all the shit you say is real and I respect you 'cause you tell it". Unfortunately, Slim is [[AlterEgoActing an alter ego]] - though Stan commits murder-suicide before he gets to read it, we get to hear the reply from Marshall Mathers, the young rapper who plays a violent, misogynistic character on stage and thinks people with mental health problems should try therapy.

** "Stan" is about a fan who writes fanmail to the violent, misogynistic rapper Slim Shady, whose music is the only place he sees someone validating his own violent, misogynistic life - "all the shit you say is real and I respect you 'cause you tell it". Unfortunately, Slim is [[AlterEgoActing an alter ego]] - though he never gets to read it, we get to hear the reply from Marshall Mathers, the young rapper who plays a violent, misogynistic character on stage.

* Music/{{Eminem}} addresses this in his song "Sing For The Moment", from ''Music/TheEminemShow''.

** Somewhat justified in that they are both aware Clank was involved with actually saving the galaxy twice before, along with Ratchet, and assumed the guy they've seen being badass is the actual badass of the two.

** Somewhat similarly, an early ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' episode ran an AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle segment in which the actors who played the bullies Bulk and Skull explained that they were just actors and didn't actually bully or hit other people in real life when they got annoyed with them.

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Friends}}'', Joey does a print PSA for STD awareness, and then has trouble getting dates afterwards, while his own family bans him from coming home for Thanksgiving dinner for fear of getting sick.
** In another episode, Brooke Shields portrayed a LoonyFan stalking Joey, convinced that he was really the character he played in a SoapOpera. The friends got rid of her by convincing her that Joey was actually the EvilTwin instead.

* In ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'', Old Fred warns Ringo to not press a specific button. Ringo accidentally presses it anyway and gets ejected out of the sub and into the middle of the Sea of Monsters. Children would later approach Ringo himself and ask "Why did you press the button?"

* ''Manga/MutekiKanbanMusume'': Deconstructed when a little Girl confuses [[BurgerFool Kanban Musume]] Megumi with Hell Bunny, the villain from Star Rangers. To fool a little girl with that lie is treated InUniverse as a MoralEventHorizon.

* Inverted in Webcomic/SomethingPositive, where a convention is under attack by rabid catgirls. Fortunately Creator/WilWheaton is present and knows exactly what to do, though he does lose an arm to a WrongGenreSavvy fan.

* One time, the actress Colin Wilcox, who played Mayella Ewell in ''Film/ToKillAMockingbird'', attended an NAACP conference. She received "unfriendly looks" because of her character falsely accusing Tom Robinson, a black man, of raping her. An official had to remind the participants, "Collin is here at this conference because she believes in the cause. She is not the character in the film."

-->'''John:''' Let's not sully the good name of Film/DeuceBigalow just because of something his portrayer Creator/RobSchneider said. That's like implying [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/Braveheart William Wallace]] doesn't trust Jews, or [[Film/TheNakedGun Officer Nordberg]] is a murderer. So, no, try and separate the two.

-->'''John:''' Let's not sully the good name of Film/DeuceBigalow just because of something his portrayer Creator/RobSchneider said. That's like implying [[Film/Braveheart William Wallace]] doesn't trust Jews, or [[Film/TheNakedGun Officer Nordberg]] is a murderer. So, no, try and separate the two.

** One of the most common examples of this trope occurs with actors who play villains or antagonists. Some people refuse to have anything to do with them or will even criticize them, insult them or get violent when they meet them in the street. Especially if their character is an exception to EvilIsCool; a person playing a MagnificentBastard or even a horror icon won't get this as badly as a SmugSnake or HateSink does.

* Inverted in "Series/{{Supernatural}}" episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS06E15TheFrenchMistake The French Mistake]] where Sam and Dean are thrown into an alternate reality where their life is a tv show. People treat Sam and Dean like their alternate reality actors, Creator/JensenAckles and Creator/JaredPadalecki, and are confused when they insist they really '''are''' the fictional characters, Sam and Dean.

* In ''Discworld/MovingPictures'', when the Holy Wood monsters start manifesting in the real world, everyone expects clicks star Victor Maraschino to do something about it. He protests that he's never ''actually'' done any heroing, but nobody listens; they've all ''seen'' him.

* The movie ''Disney/{{Bolt}}'' is about a canine television star who mistakes ''himself'' for the superhero he plays on TV. Not that [[EnforcedMethodActing he was ever given reason to believe otherwise]]. Rhino the Hamster suffers from the same confusion.
* The first ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' sees Woody's exasperation with Buzz Lightyear who fails to realize he is, in fact, a toy, and not a Space Ranger. In the sequel, Buzz gets to convince another Buzz Lightyear figure of the same thing.