History Main / ActorRoleConfusion

* IAmNotSpock, which refers to an actor who's unable to get any part other than the character for which he or she is known.

* In an episode of ''Series/ForeverKnight'', the only witness to a murder is a retarded person who saw a masked wrestler do the deed. But all other evidence suggests that the man who plays the masked wrestler was innocent. Eventually the detectives realize that the witness considered anyone wearing the mask to be the wrestler in question, and thus didn't realize that someone else was wearing the costume.

** The second time was more dangerous. This time a mentally unbalanced woman who mistook her for her character (and who was apparently in love with "Troy" the male character who had been jilted by [=MJ's=] character) actually tried to shoot MJ. She missed and was subdued by a police officer, but MJ was frightened for a while, wondering if this was what Peter had to go through every day.

-->'''Actor''': L-lady, you're making a mistake! I'm Bob Dane--Duval Pesney is just a '''role''' I play on ''Calistoga''!
-->'''Ginny Gray''': DON'T PATRONIZE ME!

* In the 1970's sitcom ''[[Series/{{Alice1976}} Alice]]'', when Creator/GeorgeBurns happens to drop by the diner, ditzy waitress Vera thinks he's {{God}} (from his film ''Film/OhGod'') paying a visit. She identifies him as George Burns at the end of the show; when asked why, she replies God would never flirt with Flo.

-->'''Adam West''': I don't have to say "I'm Batman." I just walk into a room and everyone already ''knows'' I'm Batman.

--> '''O'Neill''': No. But he plays one on TV.

* Parodied on [[https://youtu.be/7VG_s2PCH_c?t=512 the Vaccine episode]] of Series/LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver

--> ''If it's all political''
--> ''and my music is literal''
--> ''and I'm a criminal''
--> ''How the [[PrecisionFStrike FUCK]] can I raise a little girl?''

-->''I was staying at the Westin;''
-->''I was playing to a draw.''
-->''In walked Creator/CharltonHeston''
-->''With [[Film/TheTenCommandments1956 the Tablets of the Law]].''

-->'''Marik''': Also joining us is celebrity voice actor Creator/DanGreen!\\
'''Dan Green''': Hi. I'm Dan Green.\\
'''Bakura''': What the bloody hell is ''he'' doing here? He's not a villain!\\
'''Dan Green''': No, but I played a villain in one of the Pokemon movies.

* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'': Every video game character seems to consider himself and his fellows to be [[AnimatedActor Animated Actors]] who are off the clock once the lights go out. Except the villains, who are actors like them but are still treated as though they weren't. Seeing a "Bad Guy" is enough to send small-fry scurrying, and things are so bad that the villains have a support group.

* ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}'' features a TV show called ''[[ChewToy Ow, My Balls!]]'' with a character constantly getting situations where he [[GroinAttack gets hit in the balls by something]]. When Joe meets the show's actor later, he finds that people commonly run up to the actor and kick him in the balls because they saw it on TV.

* Creator/LouisDeFunes and Claude Gensac were paired in several films as husband and wife. Many French people thought or still think they were married in real life, but this wasn't the case.

* People often forget that Creator/MarilynMonroe was an actress playing a DumbBlonde and not one in real life. She was much smarter than she was given credit for and made sure she studied drama. She married playwright Arthur Miller in an attempt at being taken seriously.

* Early in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'''s story mode, this is Johnny Cage's reaction when Liu Kang and Raiden try to recruit him for the fight against Shao Kahn. While Johnny does have actual superpowers, he thinks Liu and Raiden are just roleplayers who are too in-character and that the tournament is just that, a tournament. he tells them, "I'm an ACTOR. I save people in the movies. If this 'Shao Kahn' is such a threat, get the military."

* Fans of Creator/MelGibson have often assumed that in real life, he is just like the tough, fearless action heroes he has played in films like Film/MadMax and Film/LethalWeapon. Gibson has openly admitted that, while he'd like to be, he isn't. In an interview, he described receiving letters from people saying they'd like to be more like him. Gibson said, "I can understand that. I'd like to be more like me, too. I wish I was more me than I am."

* At the time of the UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper murders in Whitechapel, famous actor Richard Mansfield was starring in a theatrical adaptation of ''Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde''. According to Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}, "One frightened theatre-goer wrote to the police accusing Mansfield of the murders because he could not believe that any actor could make so convincing a stage transformation from a gentleman into a mad killer without being homicidal."

* ''Literature/AdrianMole'': In ''The Wilderness Years'', Adrian writes that he bumps into Victor Meldrew, who plays the grumpy bloke in ''Series/OneFootInTheGrave''. The grumpy bloke in question ''is'' Victor Meldrew, played by Richard Wilson.

*** Reagan is a particularly interesting example, because his detractors often claimed that his mental state lead him to think that he was a Hollywood hero fighting against the "Evil Empire" in the Soviet Union. His entire "Star Wars" defense system was inspired by [[Franchise/StarWars the eponymous film]], despite not being a very realistic depiction of space in the first place. Other people have claimed that Reagan's supposed [[CoolOldGuy "charming confused grandpa" image]] was an act in itself that fooled both his supporters and critics into thinking that he was a mere puppet in the hands of his own government. (This became HarsherInHindsight after President Reagan left office, when it was finally revealed that long-standing allegations, dating back to his Presidential campaign in 1984, that he suffered from Alzheimer's Disease were in fact true.)

* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'': Every video game character seems to consider himself and his fellows to be {{Animated Actor|s}} who are off the clock once the lights go out. Except the villains, who are actors like them but are still treated as though they weren't. Seeing a "Bad Guy" is enough to send small-fry scurrying, and things are so bad that the villains have a support group.

* Marcia Mae Jones, the child actress who played AlphaBitch Lavinia in the 1935 film of ''Literature/ALittlePrincess'' got lots of angry letters from people criticising how mean she was to Creator/ShirleyTemple.

* In ''Film/GalaxyQuest'', the washed-up actors from a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' {{Expy}} are believed to be real spacefaring heroes by a race of [[AliensStealCable cable-stealing aliens]] whose culture [[CannotTellALie has no concept of any kind of untruth, including fiction]]. Of course, they eventually [[BecomingTheMask rise to the challenge]].

* WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls go into squee mode when they hear their favorite TV heroine Tess Turbine will be appearing at Townsville Mall ("To Be Or Not TV," DC issue #38). When a monster invades and takes this Tess captive, the girls are devastated when she turns out to be an actress ''playing'' Tess for this live appearance and cannot defend herself or fight the monster. When the girls renounce their fandom of Tess, the Professor gives them a little lesson in what really matters.

* Alexander Gross [[https://kotaku.com/boyfriend-dungeon-voice-actor-responds-to-harassment-ov-1847501108 received]] harassment just because he voiced Kevin, the antagonist of ''VideoGame/BoyfriendDungeon''.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' episode "[[Recap/DuckTalesS1E4WhereNoDuckHasGoneBefore Where No Duck has Gone Before]]", the boys don't seem to recognize that [[CaptainSpaceDefenderOfEarth Major Courage]] is a TV character and the actor's stunts on the show are no less fake than the scenery. They get a hard lesson on this when they see "Major Courage" in actual action, and he's ''nothing'' like the heroic character he portrays.

*** When the character is later retooled as a bumbling PluckyComicRelief moron, the guys at Moe's torment the "real" Homer by demanding he do something stupid like his namesake character.

* In ''Manga/SuperGals'' the main children characters (Sayo & co) mistake the actor from the series of Odaiba Shark as the real character, even when they see it filmed. Every time they meet he pretends to be the character to protect their dreams. Said actor was written out of the show [[spoiler:for one episode]] and appeared in a kid's show as an exercise coach. Sayo believes it's by chance they look similar.
* ''Manga/RamenFighterMiki'': 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.

* James Michael Tyler claims that after the episode of ''{{Series/Friends}}'' aired where Ross and Rachel break up - an angry woman came up to him to yell at him for telling Rachel that Ross cheated.

* While preparing for ''Series/BandOfBrothers'', the actors had to do a two week bootcamp to live like 1940s soldiers - and be expected to stay in character (and for the Brits, not break their FakeAmerican accents), not address each other by their real names, and act like their respective positions in the military. Creator/NealMcDonagh took this extremely far when he got a mouth injury and tried to make Shane Taylor stitch it up - since he was playing TheMedic.

* After starring in ''Film/BendItLikeBeckham'', Parminder K Nagra won FIFA's International Football Personality of the Year Presidential Award. She beat out established football players like Luis Figo and Ronaldo, even though she only played a character who becomes a star player. She was even the first woman to receive the award!

* Creator/WilliamAtherton was challenged to fist fights in bars and harassed on the street because of his portrayal of Walter Peck in "Film/Ghostbusters1984".

* Creator/RudolphValentino was a 1920s Hollywood actor famous for playing a handsome sheik who abducted women to his tent. When Valentino unexpectedly died at the height of his fame, mass hysteria broke out under his fans. Some women even committed suicide, seemingly not understanding that Valentino was an actor, not a real life amourous sheik.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'' episode "The Hormone-iums" after Tina gets the lead role in a hyperbolic school play about the dangers of mono, all the students start treating her as if she's her character.

-->''With [[Film/TheTenCommandments the Tablets of the Law]].''