Mean Character, Nice Actor/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Basic Trope: The character is mean and nasty, but the actor behind that character is not.
  • Played Straight: Evil Elliott is played by an actor that happily chats with fans and loves playing in the backyard with his kids.
  • Exaggerated: Evil Elliott is a Complete Monster, but the actor that plays him is so nice it's almost scary.
  • Justified: There's a difference between on-set and real life; just because a character is mean doesn't mean the actor is.
  • Inverted: Nice Character, Mean Actor
  • Subverted: Evil Elliott is played by an actor who is not mean, but also not very sociable.
    • Evil Elliott's actor seems nice enough... but when he makes a convention appearance, a vicious side to him comes out.
  • Double Subverted: But when that actor is with his family and/or close friends, he's very nice.
    • ...Because he's hamming it up for the fans, who love watching him be a bad guy.
  • Deconstructed: ???
  • Reconstructed: ???
  • Parodied: Evil Elliott rapes the Love Interest to The Hero and brags about it, but off the set, the actor apologizes to her and buys her a nice dinner.
  • Zig Zagged: Sometimes the actor in question is nice, sometimes he's mean.
  • Lampshaded: "He may be a villain on the set, but when the cameras are off, he's the nicest person I've ever met!"
  • Averted: Evil Elliott is a cartoon character from a silent cartoon.
    • Evil Elliott is played by an actor who is a complete Jerkass.
  • Enforced: The director wanted the betrayal of Elliot to be extra-shocking so he cast an actor who was not only typecast for pacifists but also an incredibly nice philanthropist.
  • Invoked: Hoping to shake his image as a jerk, Elliott's actor starts being extra-nice off the set.
  • Defied: In order to maintain Evil Elliott's Big Bad image, the actor becomes a complete jerk.
  • Discussed: "In real life, Bob would never act like Evil Elliott. He's just too nice."
  • Conversed: "It's really unnerving, seeing Bob change from a really nice guy to the monstrous Evil Elliott when he is being filmed. He does do the part well though."

Back to Mean Character, Nice Actor

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Mean_Character,_Nice_Actor/Playing_With?oldid=862734"