History Main / NiceCharacterMeanActor

* ''VideoGame/Postal2'' features Gary Coleman AsHimself. [[AdamWesting In-game]], he’s a [[{{Jerkass}} total asshole]] who tells his fans to [[GetOut go away after he gives them his autograph]], threatens to kick [[PlayerCharacter the Postal Dude’s]] ass if he sees him selling his autographed book on eBay, and then finally [[NoodleIncident apparently has a warrant for his arrest]], leading to a shootout with the police.

* Subverted in ''Webcomic/ToonatopiaTheAnimationInitiation''. King {{WesternAnimation/SpongeBob|SquarePants}} seems like a tyrannical jerk instead of the fun-loving sponge we're used to, but he's actually [[PuppetKing being manipulated]] by Plankton to act that way. Waffle and Gordon comment on this when they are forcibly ejected from [=SpongeBob=]'s castle.

* An episode of ''Series/FamilyMatters'' has Carl forced to arrest an actor who plays a genial sitcom dad for assaulting him.

** Done with Wade Collins. [[spoiler:Turns out that he made up that whole 'my mother needs surgery' thing to gain sympathy from the audience.]] He's really an insensitive, nasty hobknocker! He's also a racist.

** Amanda Tate from "iCarly saves TV".

* Subverted in ''Webcomic/ToonatopiaTheAnimationInitiation''. King {{WesternAnimation/SpongeBob|SquarePants}} seems like a tyrannical jerk instead of the fun-loving sponge we know and love, but he's actually [[PuppetKing being manipulated]] by Plankton to act like a jerk. Waffle and Gordon comment on this when they are forcibly ejected from [=SpongeBob=]'s castle.

* Stinky Pete the Prospector from ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2''. He is actually based on the loyal friend to Sheriff Woody in an old children's show called ''Woody's Roundup'', but the toy version of him is ''very'' evil (and second only to [[spoiler:[[WesternAnimation/ToyStory3 Lotso]]]]). He hates other toys because he is constantly sealed within a cardboard box, and as a result he wants to remain in the box forever, and therefore he also wants ''other'' toys to be contained within their boxes as well.

* In episode 10 of ''LightNovel/{{Oreimo}}'', Kanako is quite upset that Ayase and Kyousuke tricked her into a cosplay contest. However, during the event, she gives it her all, and does such an outstanding job at playing an [[TastesLikeDiabetes adorably cutesy]] MagicalGirl that she wins the contest, and her friend in the audience, Kirino, didn't even realize it was her. Afterward, backstage, she gives off a very vicious attitude which causes one of the younger cosplay contestants to run out of the room crying.

* ''WesternAnimation/KappaMikey'':
** In the ShowWithinAShow ''Lilymu!'', female lead Lily is to act as a warm, caring, ImpliedLoveInterest to our titular Mikey. When the cameras stop rolling, she goes back to being her {{Jerkass}} AttentionWhore who hates the main character for stealing her thunder as Japan's most famous anime star. By the same token, Mikey Simon plays the heroic and totally competent Kappa Mikey, but is in fact a total well-meaning but inept CloudCuckoolander who's inability to effectively meld into Japanese society drives most of the show's plot.
** [[MeanCharacterNiceActor Inverted]] with Mitsuki and Gonard. On TV they portray the team's bad girl and main villain, but in real life they're good friends to Mikey, with Mitsuki serving as Lily's MoralityPet.

* Arnold Hugh from Aardman Animation's ''Stage Fright''.

* ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'': Vision may apear to be a calm, soft hearted IdolSinger, but offstage, she is a ruthless mecha driving terrorist on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge!

** [[spoiler:The Homelander]] started out as a genuinely nice person. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:the super assigned to take him down in case of a BeewareTheSuperman event so desperately wanted to fulfill his purpose that he]] started taking pictures of [[spoiler:the Homelander (actually himself, since they're clones)]] committing atrocities like eating babies alive or [[spoiler:raping Billy's wife]]. [[spoiler:Homelander,]] unable to account for the pictures, fell into ThenLetMeBeEvil very fast until [[spoiler:Black Noir could finally be ordered to take him down.]]

Related to HatesTheJobLovesTheLimelight and the DepravedKidsShowHost; subtrope of BitchInSheepsClothing and ThePrimaDonna. The opposite of MeanCharacterNiceActor. Compare FunnyCharacterBoringActor. Also compare SmallNameBigEgo.

* The final three episodes of ''Anime/BloodC'' took the trope to downright depraved levels. [[spoiler: The lead's "friends" were all actors hired by the BigBad for the purpose of an experiment to see a latent hunger for humans would be jolted awake. Every last actor turns out to be a pretty despicable person, especially the guy pretending to be a boy who had feelings for the lead.]]

* A staple of ''ComicBook/TheBoys'', where "superheroes" are about as fake as professional wrestlers, and therefore noble champions of good and justice turn sour very quickly when the camera isn't on them. A particularly cruel one is Swingwing, who depicts himself as a progressively-minded hero who supports gay rights, but is actually deeply homophobic and does it solely because the company wants an LGBTFanbase.
* ''ComicBook/Robin1993'': One of the actors to play Crocky--a costumed childrens character à la [[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney the Dinosaur]]--turns out to be a violent criminal who Robin has to track down.

* ''Series/{{Animorphs}}'' had Jeremy Jason [=McCole=] in "The Reaction". The girls were fangirling all over the place for him and then they found out he was a jerk for real, and a voluntary [[PuppeteerParasite Yeerk]] host.

There is an actor who is well-known for playing brave and courageous characters who are as good as it gets or playing characters who are sweet and easy-going. [[BeneathTheMask But off-camera]], it turns out that these people are not nearly as nice as they appear to be, when they start yelling at the rest of the cast, snapping at the director (in [[ClusterFBomb the sort of language]] their characters would never ''dare'' use) and proclaiming that [[ItsAllAboutMe they alone have the talent]]. When meeting with fans, they'll usually take on their nice character persona, but when alone they'll complain loudly about how much they hate their annoying fans. Hell, they might actually be genuinely nice, but the biz tends to bring out the worst in people pretty fast. And at the wrong time, too.

There is an actor who is well-known for playing brave and courageous characters who are as good as it gets, or an actress whose characters are sweet and easy-going. [[BeneathTheMask But off-camera]], it turns out that these people are not nearly as nice as they appear to be, when they start yelling at the rest of the cast, snapping at the director (in [[ClusterFBomb the sort of language]] their characters would never ''dare'' use) and proclaiming that [[ItsAllAboutMe they alone have the talent]]. When meeting with fans, they'll usually take on their nice character persona, but when alone they'll complain loudly about how much they hate their annoying fans. Hell, they might actually be genuinely nice, but the biz tends to bring out the worst in people pretty fast. And at the wrong time, too.

* In ''Film/KangarooJack: G'Day U.S.A.!'', "Outback Ollie", the star of a children's zoology show, is actually a smuggler of exotic animals. Furthermore, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking he actually has a New York State accent.]] He is also a ChildHater.

Since this normally involves characters showing their true colors at a climactic point of a work, expect unmarked spoilers. Also, ''''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease There are numerous gossip magazines and websites that delve into this exact thing, and celebrities are held to higher standards of "nice" than normal people; having a short temper on a stressful day of work can be spun into making one sound like [[{{Demonization}} a terrible person]].

* Alexander Dane in ''Film/GalaxyQuest''. He barely hides his contempt for his role as Dr. Lazarus, as shown when he yanks photos out of the hands of fans and begrudgingly signs them. Jason Nesmith is another one; he was a skillful and masterful Captain Kirk {{Expy}} in the show's canon, but [[TookALevelInKindness prior to the events of the film]], he was a smug {{Manchild}} who gleefully shoved his costars out of the the spotlight (such that none of them liked him).

->''"He fights his directors and he fights his fans\\
It's a problem no one understands\\
If there's two things he loves, it's fighting and\\
Fightin' round the world!"''
-->-- '''''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''''' on Creator/RussellCrowe, "[[Recap/SouthParkS6E5TheNewTerrenceAndPhillipMovieTrailer Fighting Round the World]]"

-->-- '''''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''''' on Creator/RussellCrowe, "Fighting Round the World"

* "Road to Europe" in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' involved Stewie's desire to move to Britain so he could live with the angelic Mother Maggie, the host of his favourite show "Jolly Farm Revue". But once he arrives at the BBC studio he discovers that Jolly Farm is only a set and Mother Maggie herself is a foul-mouthed fishwife who hates children.

** Gabbo says that his audience are "all [=SOBs=]." Made more amusing since he's a ''puppet'' and the ventriloquist operating him repeatedly begs him to stop, apparently having become LostInCharacter ([[WildMassGuessing else Gabbo is himself]] a [[DemonicDummy very dark case of the trope]]). The incident was based on an UrbanLegend (well, technically, there’s no direct strong evidence either way as to whether this truly occurred, but a situation like this is unimaginable to not have generated signifiant outrage, so this is a case where absence of evidence actually IS evidence of absence) wherein some certain host of some certain children's show is supposed to have said something running along the lines of "That ought to hold the little bastards for another week" without realizing that the camera was still rolling.

** Sideshow Bob, in his debut episode "Krusty Gets Busted", starts off as a silent stooge to Krusty, then once he takes over the show he is a beautifully eloquent and gracious host who actually wants to produce educational programming for children (though his ultra-highbrow style is less child-friendly than Krusty's slapstick). But of course Bart and Lisa uncover his framing of Krusty and reveal his true colors live on air. In all his subsequent appearances he has become a murderous criminal mastermind.
** Lisa's onetime idol Alaska Nebraska, a parody of Series/HannahMontana (and possibly Creator/MileyCyrus herself) voiced by Creator/ElliotPage. A wholesome teen idol on television and in her music, Alaska Nebraska is dismissive and vain when Lisa finally gets to meet her.

** Pancake Buffalo. His puppeteer may have him act sweet and kind on TV, but she is schizophrenic to the bone. An {{Expy}} of ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'s'' Ventriloquist.

* Darla Dimple, the villain of ''WesternAnimation/CatsDontDance''. On screen and to the general public, she's a sweet and adorable child actress who loves animals, but the real Darla is an EnfanteTerrible and self-centered prima donna who can't stand being upstaged, ''especially'' by animals.

** Pancake Buffalo. His puppeteer may have him act sweet and kind on TV, but she is skitzlefrantic to the bone. An {{Expy}} of ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'s'' Ventriloquist.

** Another episode features [[OnIce an Ice Show focused on Reptar]] (The main cast's iconic hero,) with the guy portraying Reptar stating to his boss, and I quote:

* Mom from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' has the public image of a sweet, kindly old grandmother, but offstage is a malevolent CorruptCorporateExecutive who [[AbusiveParent routinely beats her three sons into submission]].

** Yukie Fujikaze from the first movie is a straighter example, actually being a movie star. She gives a powerful and moving performance while on film, but is cold and bitchy everywhere else. [[DefrostingIceQueen She got better]].