Watch actors playing actors acting
Birdman, Lost in Translation, Synecdoche, New York and more
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Your support makes all the difference.There’s something endlessly fascinating about plays within plays and films within films, and seeing actors try and authentically give an inauthentic performance as their character’s character - often an intentionally bad one.
Hollywood is prone to self-indulgence and self-reference, so they crop up pretty often in cinema, as evidenced by this nicely-edited supercut of some of the most famous ‘actors playing actors’ scenes.
Creator Phil Whitehead was inspired by a Sight and Sound piece by Nick James on the meta quirk, who wrote that “no film could be more focused on the intimacy of acting than Iñárritu’s riveting Birdman (…) you’ve got an actor (briefly) playing bad acting, a superhero movie star reaching towards a high-tone stage performance, and a Method actor who’s brilliant and an asshole; they’re all switching between playing themselves and playing their stage roles. When you think of how complicated the registers at play here are, it’s astonishing anyone tried to pull it off.”
Birdman, which did it so skillfully and earned a Best Picture Oscar in the process, features heavily, alongside Mill Murray in Lost in Translation and several scenes from Ricky Gervais’ Extras.
One particularly interesting case is Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
“We have Jerry Seinfeld playing Jerry Seinfeld playing Jerry Seinfeld in the Seinfeld clip,” Whitehead notes, “and then during the Curb clip, Jerry Seinfeld playing a different Jerry Seinfeld playing the Jerry Seinfeld from…. Seinfeld (if that makes sense).”
The video does however omit perhaps the most staggering example, Joaquin Phoenix playing a false version of himself for the best part of a year in I'm Still Here.
Full list of actors in order of appearance:
Sienna Miller and Toby Jones (playing Hitchcock): The Girl
Julia Roberts: Notting Hill
Matt LeBlanc: Friends (The Pilot)
Richard E Grant: Withnail and I
Kenneth Connor and Hugh Paddick: Blackadder III (Sense and Senility)
Michael Keaton: Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Robin Williams: Mrs Doubtfire
Dustin Hoffman: Tootsie
Dick Shawn: The Producers
Jim Carrey: Man on the Moon
Eddie Murphy: Bowfinger
Chris Lilley: Summer Heights High: Episode 1
Larry Hankin: Seinfeld (The Pilot)
Laura Linney: The Truman Show
Gene Kelley and Donald O Connor: Singin’ in the Rain
Philip Seymour Hoffman (playing a director): Synecdoche, New York
Paul McGann: Withnail and I
Catherine Zeta Jones and John Cusack: America’s Sweethearts
Julianne Moore and Mark Wahlberg: Boogie Nights
Steve Martin (playing a director): Bowfinger
Martin Landau: Ed Wood
Ricky Gervais: Extras (Sir Ian Mckellan)
Dustin Hoffman: Tootsie
Christine Baranski and Eddie Murphy (technically not ‘acting’): Bowfinger
Michael Shannon: My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?
Kate Winslet: Extras (Kate Winslet)
Hugh Paddick: Blackadder III (Sense and Senility)
Jeremy Irons (playing a director): Inland Empire
Edward Norton: Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Richard Griffiths: About Time
Rowan Atkinson (in here for fun): Blackadder III (Sense and Senility)
Heather Graham (auditioning not rehearsing, I know): Bowfinger
John Cassavetes: Rosemary’s Baby
Miguel Ángel Silvestre: Sense* (Limbic Resonance)
Dustin Hoffman: Tootsie
Jeremy Piven, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry Hankin: Seinfeld (The Pilot)
Jerry Seinfeld and Jason Alexander: Curb Your Enthusiasm (Seinfeld)
Keith Chegwin: Extras (Orlando Bloom)
Gary Oldman and Matt Le Blanc: Friends (The One with Monica and Chandler’s Wedding)
Naomi Watts and Laura Harring: Mulholland Drive
Michael Keaton and Edward Norton: Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Kristen Stewart and Juliette Binoche: Clouds of Sils Maria
Sir Ian McKellan: Extras (Sir Ian McKellan)
Matt LeBlanc: Friends (The One with the Butt)
Richard Dreyfuss: The Goodbye Girl
Mark Whalberg, John C. Reilly and Luis Guzmán: Boogie Nights
Adrian Grenier: Entourage (Aquamom)
Gloria Swanson: Sunset Boulevard
Gene Kelly and Jean Hagen: Singin’ in the Rain
Willem Dafoe: Shadow of the Vampire
Jean Dujardin: The Artist
Beryl Reid and Susannah York: The Killing of Sister George
Robert Downey Jr.: Chaplin
Gene Kelly and Jean Hagen: Singin’ in the Rain
Johnny Depp (playing Ed Wood): Ed Wood
Vincent Price: Theatre of Blood
Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow: Shakespeare in Love
Brian Cox: Deadwood (Amateur Night)
Mark Williams: Shakespeare in Love
Alan Mowbray: My Darling Clementine
Vincent Price: Theatre of Blood
Richard Dreyfuss: The Goodbye Girl
Victor Mature (not playing an actor but still performing): My Darling Clementine
Charlton Heston: Hamlet
Gwyneth Paltrow: Shakespeare in Love
Robert De Niro: Hi Mom
Dominic West and Helena Bonham-Carter: Burton and Taylor
Orlando Bloom: Extras (Orlando Bloom)
Ellen Burstyn: The Exorcist
Chloë Grace Mortez: Clouds of Sils Maria
Heath Ledger: I’m Not There
Barbra Streisand: Funny Girl
Laura Dern: Inland Empire
Noah Emmerich: The Truman Show
Adrian Grenier: Entourage (Neighbors)
Bill Murray: Lost in Translation
Bette Davis: All About Eve
Clapping and ‘cut’ shots from:
For Your Consideration
I’m Not There
Ed Wood
Mulholland Drive
Blackadder III (Sense and Senility) w/ Hugh Laurie
Burton and Taylor
Chaplin
Shakespeare in Love
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