A typical occasion of Denise and I watching television:
Denise: Hey, is that River Tam?
Me: No, that's Cameron. She's a Terminator. River Tam is a character on Firefly.
Denise: *sighs* I know. I meant is that the actress who played River Tam?
Me: Yep, that's Summer Glau. . .
This sort of conversation happens a lot, enough that it's had me noticing more and more how all of us seem to have our personal cache of actors whom we identify more as the parts they play than as the actors they are.
I do it all the time; Josh Jackson may be in Fringe now (which I find terribly not entertaining and have already stopped watching after the Jurassic Park episode) but he will always, always be Pacey (as Van Der Beek will always be Dawson to me, but oddly enough Katie Holmes is Katie Holmes). I go giddy at Veronica Mars being a cast member on Heroes now (and Weevil too!), even if I'd like a more interesting direction for her character.
Lash is so much like this that he recognizes voice actors for animation and refers to them as the various Titans, X-Men and JLA members they've played.
Is it disrespectful to the actor to not bother with their real name (a la the "Brenda" line from Ethan Suplee at Shannon Doherty in Mallrats)? Or is it more a testament to their impact on our hearts, our psyches, our whateverness that they have a character that imprints on us so strongly that we refer back to them as such?
Most of all, I'm curious: which actors are like this for you?
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Man, the Sarah Connor Chronicles is painful for me to watch. I love Terminator, and this show could be really cool, but it just so isn't. Between John being a crybaby, that dude from 90210 being a crybaby, and even River, uh, I mean Cameron being a bit of a crybaby, it's amazing anything happens. Oh wait, that's right, nothing does really happen. It's good to see Ms. Glau working again, even if she is just playing pretty much the same character. Granted she's a cyborg and not a telepath in this one, but she's still that creepy girl who acts weird and says strange things. Not much of a stretch in her range. But as bad as it is, I still check it out (and have seen every episode except the newest one) in hopes that it will get better and stop shitting on one of my fave franchises from my childhood. Of course, the whole thing started downhill with Terminator 3, and I'm scared of the next three films--even if Christian Bale is in them.
In response to your question:
Paul Gleason--the principle from the breakfast club
Lumberg from Office Space--I don't even know his real name and a few others that I cannot think of right now.
Jeff Bridges will now, and forever after, always be identified as 'The Dude' no matter what role he's playing.
But generally, I tend to identify actor's but what role I first say them in. Case in point: in Sarah Connor Chronicles (which I know isn't great, but I'm still enjoying it immensely), I won't call paramedic Charlie's (now deceased) wife 'Michelle', I've been calling her 'Penny', because she's Penny from Lost and that's where I know her from.
Paramedic Charley will always be Ryan O'Reilley from Oz...
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