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ShimmerFaux t1_j1zhrlh wrote

Playing a role like these takes years, sometimes it’s literally never possible to take up another role. People will inherently cast you in that role for their own reasons.

Look at Kit Harington, the guy who played Jon Snow in the often maligned HBO series. He goes up on stage during a panel at a convention people wanna talk about Jon Snow, not what he has coming up regardless of the actual intent of the panel which was to talk about what’s next.

William Shatner, is literally the one who put it best when he was bashing on fans: “I've spoken to many of you, and some of you have traveled, you know, hundreds of miles to be here, I'd just like to say … get a life, will you, people?! I mean, for crying out loud, it's just a TV show!”

As sucky as it is, this also really doesn’t respect the wishes of the actor. There’s many who want to continue acting but can’t because people “fans” loved those characters specifically.

Bryan Cranston is by all regard an incredibly talented and amazing actor, i challenge you to name one thing he did better than his role in Breaking Bad.

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Tce_ t1_j20bsev wrote

God, Shatner is such an ass... But it does seem frustrating to only be associated with one role if that's not what you want (still not the fault of the fans).

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ShimmerFaux t1_j20e3pu wrote

I’m not in disagreement at all about shatner, the guy by and large is completely unaware how narcissistic, narrow minded, and unattractive he actually is. But lets be honest, his hey day was in the 60’s. It was a different world.

I’m all for actors putting themselves in a lead role and continually being known for it, if that’s their wish.

Look at Adam Sandler, his most iconic role was Happy Gilmore or The Waterboy, the man is debatably a genius whose fully capable of doing amazing dramatic roles see Reign Over Me - 2007 but would rather be known for crazy comedy.

But, as we’ve seen countless other times, there are TV actors who want to move on, do other things, and can’t because they’re forever placed in the roll they played for sometimes as many as 15 years.

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Tce_ t1_j20eqys wrote

Absolutely, there are! That's the risk of playing a single role for so many years, while I assume the reward (apart from liking the show and the role) is stability and a steady income. Most professions have different risks like that and you have to weigh them against each other. I just don't like the idea of blaming fans who love a certain role for the actor's association with it. People are allowed to enjoy pop culture and it's the actor who chose that role and chose to stay with it so long after all (I know there are contracts that span several years, but few people sign 15-year contracts for a role - they choose sign new ones after a while).

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ShimmerFaux t1_j20hrmg wrote

That’s it isnt it? That distinction. You don’t like blaming the fans because they simply consume the media, buy the soundtracks, play the shows on their streaming service of choice…

But they drive the sales too? The actor is partially only great because they have great behind the scenes stuff… writers, music, props teams, countless others. But the actor becomes known for playing that character for such a long time simply because the company was allowed to continue to cast them for such a long time, because revenue streams continued for such a long time.

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Tce_ t1_j20zlq4 wrote

But they can choose to drop out (once their first contract is over). You can't assign responsibility to the audience and none to the person actually putting themselves in that position. They're the only one who knows what they want, after all.

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ShimmerFaux t1_j212p0n wrote

I wonder at that, past a certain point there’s no going back.

You’re too well known for one role, one type. I still cannot look at Patrick Stewart and not see Picard. Recently he’s reprised that role and brought it back. But before he did that he went big screen in multiple different IP’s including X-Men. I will forever hear his voice and hear “make it so”.

I am partly to blame for this very thing. I recognize that and i’m blaming myself. As a life long fan of his distinguished acting career, i will forever put him as Captain Picard.

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Tce_ t1_j2164y5 wrote

I was gonna say, I associate him pretty strongly with Professor X! But then I haven't watched Star Trek either, so that might help. It's a little like David Boreanaz though - he got two iconic roles and they're the only ones I can ever imagine him in. At least one of the roles spanned two different shows. :P

There definitely seems to be a point of no return with these things... Although in very rare occasions I believe some actors have broken out and started getting other roles and changed the view of them. Must be hard though, and rely a lot on luck as well.

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