The Recognition Factor
Well, I not entirely sure for an actor you can be too recognizable, but maybe too identified with one part. We went to see the newest Harry Potter last weekend and right in the middle of the scene where Harry is greeting his friends, along comes Mr Weasley to warn Harry. No problem, except the guy who plays Mr Weasley has a recognition factor with me - I almost say it out loud - "Petersen!" I just looked him up, his name is Mark Williams and I now remember I've almost "Petersen!"-ed during The Borrowers, Gormenghast, and the last Harry Potter, as well.
For the moderately less geeky out there, a similar reaction occured to most of the audience during a showing of Willow. The brownies appear and immediately half the theatre said it out loud, "Squiggy!" Poor David Landers, he will always be "Squiggy."
The recognition factor can make watching films fun or annoying depending on how strong the reaction. For me, most actors get a small "oh, that's so and so" (like Dawn French as the fat lady in Harry Potter) but sometimes a previous role really sticks and no matter what they do, it pops into my head full blast disturbing the flow of the movie. You'll note I haven't mentioned where Mark Williams appeared as "Petersen!", that's because I figure if you don't know you aren't quite geeky enough to be reading this. Or you are at least geeky enough to know where to find out. \\wink\\
For the moderately less geeky out there, a similar reaction occured to most of the audience during a showing of Willow. The brownies appear and immediately half the theatre said it out loud, "Squiggy!" Poor David Landers, he will always be "Squiggy."
The recognition factor can make watching films fun or annoying depending on how strong the reaction. For me, most actors get a small "oh, that's so and so" (like Dawn French as the fat lady in Harry Potter) but sometimes a previous role really sticks and no matter what they do, it pops into my head full blast disturbing the flow of the movie. You'll note I haven't mentioned where Mark Williams appeared as "Petersen!", that's because I figure if you don't know you aren't quite geeky enough to be reading this. Or you are at least geeky enough to know where to find out. \\wink\\
posted by Sue at
9:47 AM
3 Comments:
Not to be picky, but according to IMDb, David L. Lander (aka David Landers) wasn't in Willow. I looked it up because I remebered commenting that he was (though I wasn't one of those people who noticed) and the person I was talking to saying it wasn't him.
By
Unknown, At
1:15 PM PDT
Heh, as Niko likes to say. I had the same experience with the late actor Glenn Quinn. I was watching an old re-run of Roseanne in which the character Mark Healy hunched around the screen. ("Doyle!" I cried.) I was floored by the resemblance between Mark and Doyle, from Angel. Cue a search of IMDb and ... Glenn Quinn played both characters.
By
Rowena Hart, At
8:25 PM PDT
What? Glenn Quinn is dead? I liked Doyle.
By
Unknown, At
11:38 AM PDT
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