hold on tight

Although I feel the "I'm on a boat" bus parody ("I'm on a bus" boat parody?) was a justified post (I find that thing STILL in my head), I do also feel the need to move that profanity-laden puppy lower down on the blog page. Probably not the best first impression I could possibly make. Even so, I didn't want to post needlessly.

Then I found a draft in my blog posts folder wherein I instructed my future self to expound on a thesis regarding movies and recycled actors. Sure, past self. I can do that.

A few weeks ago, I was strolling down Huntington Ave on a work break for... uhm... maybe coffee (ugh, I'm a predictable addict now), thinking regular random thoughts and pondering life. For a reason unbeknownst to me, it popped in my head that I should write a story where a side detail (maybe not the main focus, but somehow incorporated in the quirky world therein) was that films would only ever cast "unknown" actors. Or rather, in less complicated parenthetical mumbo jumbo, an actor could only be in one film. Ever. Act one character once in a film and you're done.

You might be wondering why this is relevant or how it could even be necessary in a story. Well, for what it implies, I suppose. Imagine going to a movie and not being presented with an ensemble of actors you've already seen in countless other roles. Instead, you go to see a film with a bunch of strangers acting out their parts. The whole element of having to forget who the actor is as a person and the other roles they've done would be gone, and you could go straight into the process of being absorbed in the film. There'd be a whole new realm of realism.

The choice of whether or not to see a movie would be based on how interesting the plot is to you, and not as strictly determined by a previously-conceived opinion about the leading or minor actors. Would celebrity worship be all but naught?

But despite potential benefits, there would be definite losses. It would be less of a challenge for actors. They'd need only be completely invested in one character ever and then they'd be done. And how then would the audience pick out the really good actors? After all, isn't the sign of a great actor in our present reality their versatility and the variety of films they're in and roles they take?

I don't need to list off actors who I feel are always the same from film to film. Or, those sad typecast folks who it seems haven't done anything to (or haven't been able to) break out into something new. You all know plenty, I'm sure. Limiting those actors to one role would eliminate that issue. Maybe the idea that it's their one and only time to shine and give it their all would mean extra-earnest acting. Or maybe it would lead to overacted, soppy jobs.

This is a bleak alternate reality. No one with a passion for acting could ever make a career out of it. Maybe it's our future and some creepy governmental rule has, in an oppressive and unthoughtful move, made this jurisdiction in a so-called attempt to even out the classes. How perfect for a science-fictiony dystopia!

That's all I've got. Pros? Cons? Irrelevant? Weak?

x Andrle x