Mean Character, Nice Actor/Real Life: Difference between revisions

In [[Real Life]], this is more the rule than the exception with actors who've played villains. People are, [[Rousseau Was Right|on the whole, pleasant to each other]], and this holds true for performers as well -- awell—a performer who's pleasant on set improves the experience for everyone. Actors are always talking about how nice their co-workers were on set, while stories of being a genuine bastard are much rarer. Many performers will actively cultivate a [[Jerkass]] persona, feeling this makes them more marketable. This is especially true with comedians, because it can be easier to get away with saying shocking or controversial things for the sake of laughs if the public sees them as a jerk to begin with.

* [[Daisuke Ono]] plays [[Durarara!!|Shizuo Heiwajima]], who despite not really being a villain (more [[Does Not Know His Own Strength]] and [[Hero with an F In Good]]) and according to [[Hiroshi Kamiya]], his arch rival in the series, is actually a "huge pile of non-violence." Likewise, Kamiya is nowhere close to [[Troll|Izaya]] in terms of personality. Or his other [[Complete Monster|nasty piece]] of a role [[Fate/stay night|Shinji Matou]] either.

* [[Bryan Massey]], who provides the voice of [[Ax Crazy|Ladd]] [[Psychopathic Manchild|Russo]] from the English dub of ''[[Baccano!]]'' is pretty sweet and mellow in interviews, and the casts he works on really like him.

** And now [[Durarara!!|Izaya Orihara.]]

* [[Troy Baker]], the guy you go to when you need someone to voice a [[Jerkass]] or villain, is quite [[Adorkable]] in real life. [[Literal -Minded|Just don't]] [[The Scream|ask him]] for a [[Shout-Out]] if you meet him at a convention.

* [[Paul Dobson]], who voices [[Inuyasha|Naraku]], [[Ranma One Half½|Happosai]], [[Transformers Armada|Sideways]], and of course [[Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes|Dr. Doom]] is one cool guy to get to know of.

* [[Yuuichi Nakamura]]'s roles are mostly peppered with [[Jerkass|Jerkassery]]ery, and in case of [[Blaz BlueBlazBlue|Hazama/Terumi Yuuki]], it's a [[Complete Monster]] so blatant it hurts. The person himself? An actually nice and playful dude, who often hangs around and goofs offs with his buddy [[Tomokazu Sugita]] (who played [[Blaz BlueBlazBlue|Ragna]], the number 1 [[Troll]] victim of Hazama).

* [[David Vincent]], who voices [[Bleach|Grimmjow]] and [[Blaz BlueBlazBlue|Jin]] [[Jerkass|Kisaragi]], is a kind man who always tries to take the time to talk to fans and goof off at conventions.

* Warner Richmond, who plays the disgusting villain with a [[Lolicon|hankering for eleven-and-a-half-year-old]] Jennie in the [[Exploitation Film]] ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029989/ Child Bride]'', was so nice to her actress--twelveactress—twelve-year-old Shirley Mills--betweenMills—between takes that she had a hard time pretending to hate him while the cameras were rolling.

* [[Ernest Borgnine]] doesn't always play a bad guy, but someone who only knows him from, say, ''[[The Wild Bunch]]'', ''[[From Here to Eternity]]'', or ''[[Bad Day Atat Black Rock]]'' will be amazed at what a sweet, warm teddy bear of a man he is.

** In fact, it was thanks to Moe that Larry Fine was able to retire later in life. He persuaded both Larry and Curley (both of whom were notoriously bad with money -- Curleymoney—Curley spent his on nightlife and Larry gambled compulsively) to turn over a part of their salaries to him to invest for retirement. Although Curley died young (of a stroke in 1952), Larry was able to live comfortably on the proceeds from this arrangement until his death in 1975.

** Ironically, Robinson got fired from [[RyansRyan's Hope]] because of his portrayal of Scorpio.

* Similar to his entry in [[Funny Character, Boring Actor]], [[Robert De Niro]] is known for playing hard-as-nails cops, mobsters, criminals etc. In interviews he speaks softly and is about as threatening as a week old kitten soaked in milk.

** [[Anna Shaffer]] (Romilda Vane) and [[Jessie Cave]] (Lavender Brown) both played [[Abhorrent Admirer|Abhorrent Admirers]]s, but in real life both are friendly fashionable young ladies.

* [[Vincent Price]] was a great friend, apparently, and a really personable guy. And yet he's most famous for playing [[Mad Scientist|Mad Scientists]]s in William Castle movies.

* [[Boris Karloff]], famous for his roles as horror villains like [[The Mummy (film)|Imhotep]], the [[Frankenstein (1931 film)|Frankenstein Monster]], [[Fu Manchu]], [[How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (animation)|The Voice Of The Grinch]] and a wide variety of mad scientists and serial killers, was in real life a kind man who donated to charity, fought to improve working conditions for his fellow actors, and dressed up as Santa Claus to deliver presents to a hospital for disabled children.

* [[Neil Patrick Harris]], the character from ''[[Harold and& Kumar Go to White Castle]]'', is a crude, loud, jerk of a womanizer. [[Neil Patrick Harris]], the ''person'', is low-key, nice, and ''gay''.

* William Atherton--whoAtherton—who played Walter Peck in ''[[Ghostbusters]]'', and equally hateable characters in ''[[Real Genius]]'' and the first two ''[[Die Hard]]'' films--isfilms—is nowhere near the bastard he appears on screen. He may come off as a little stuffy and pretentious, but that's probably due to his origins in the theatre. Most importantly, unlike other actors, he is happy to talk about the time filming the movies that made him infamous, and has shared many funny stories of on-set occurrences.

* The late Kevin McCarthy played the evil [[Large Ham|scenery chewing]] television station owner RJ Fletcher in ''[[UHF (film)|UHF]]''. On the DVD commentary, Weird Al describes how as soon as the director yelled 'cut', he would burst into uncontrollable laughter.

* Eamonn Walker, who plays the [[Complete Monster|incredibly evil]] African dictator in ''[[Lord of War]]'', comes off as a [https://web.archive.org/web/20081201164548/http://www.ugo.com/channels/filmtv/features/lordofwar/walker.asp really pretty nice person] off-set.

* During a commentary on ''[[Hard Candy]]'', [[EllenElliot Page]] laments that some people (including her friends) thought shehe was like the psychotic sadist shehe played.

* Lance Henriksen, whose characters are often deeply troubled [[Anti Heroe|Anti Heroes]]s or outright villains, is a family man and known to his fans as one of the nicest men you could hope to meet.

== Live -Action TelevisionTV ==

* Although [[Andy Griffith]] is best known for his genial "nice, folksy guy" roles (Andy Taylor on ''[[The Andy Griffith Show]]'', Ben Matlock on ''[[Matlock]]''), those who have only seen his acting in ''[[A Face in the Crowd]]'' (where he plays a [[Nice Character, Mean Actor|manipulative power hungry television star]]), ''Murder in Coweta County'' (where he played a powerful, bloodthirsty, homicidal sociopathic land barron who kills a sharecropper) or the 1995 made-for-TV ''Gramps'' (another bloodthirsty sociopath out to destroy his family, using vicious methods of physical assault that he seems to invent on the spot) would be convinced that he never was Andy Taylor or Ben Matlock... or that genial, well-respected human being he genuinely is in real life.

* Actor Larry Linville was a kind, friendly man who was very open-minded and courteous to those around him, in contrast to his character, [[Jerkass]] Major Burns in ''[[MASHM*A*S*H (television)|M*A*S*H]]''.

* Jane Kaczmarek plays Lois in ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]'', who does awful things to her kids because she thinks they need to grow up, and Judge Harm in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', a judge who... means harm. Apparently, she's really nice in real life, if her husband's, Bradley Whitford's, loving tribute to her in his Emmy award acceptance speech is any indication.

* The bulk of [[John Glover]]'s resume involves him playing jerks, [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bastards]]s, and [[Brimstone (TV series)|Satan]]. He is often described by directors and co-stars to be one of the sweetest men you'll ever meet. He finally got to play someone more like himself in ''[[Gremlins]] 2''.

* [[Joss Whedon]] was aware of this phenomenon in ''[[Firefly]]''; he apparently took great pleasure in writing Jayne as a big, dumb brute who was also the [[Butt Monkey]] because Adam Baldwin iswas such a smart, nice guy. Some would say that his extreme right-wing views have muddied the "nice" water, though.

* Jane Lynch, who plays homophobic, sardonic, [[Sadist Teacher]] Sue Sylvester on ''[[Glee]]'' (and led to her playing a similarly vicious character as Sam's Mom in [[ICarlyiCarly]]), is warm, funny, openly gay, good with teenagers, and usually has nothing but nice things to say about anybody. She also serves as something of a [[Team Mom]] for the ''Glee'' cast, referring to them with such phrases as "my babies."

* [[Stephen Fry]], a large cuddly toy, has played a violent rageaholic Duke of Wellington in ''[[Blackadder]] the Third'' (as well as General Melchett, who's not mean per se but certainly isn't someone you'd want to live with); a similarly [[Nice to the Waiter|abusive]] role in an episode of ''[[The New Statesman]]''; ''many'' similar roles in ''[[A Bit of Fry and Laurie]]''; and more understatedly, a [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist|greedy amoral bastard]] in ''[[Absolute Power (Radioradio)|Absolute Power]]''. For such a nice guy, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeVlJdS1oXU he's definitely one of the world's preeminent bellowers].

* David Hewlett. You probably know him as arrogant scientist Rodney McKay from ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', who, among other things, can't stand kids. In real life, he has a (as of October 6th6, 2009) 2-year-old son whom he adores - to the point where he merrily Twitters about his latest antics at ''least'' once a day.

* Kevin Smith (no, not [[Kevin Smith|that one]], [[wikipedia:Kevin Smith chr(28)New Zealand actorchr(29actor)|this one]]) who played Ares on ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'' was really a friendly, fun loving person with a charming Kiwi accent.

** Although it seems [https://web.archive.org/web/20131114112333/http://news.carrentals.co.uk/brian-blessed-strangles-diner-walking-out-on-speaking-engagement-34226565.html calling ''Flash Gordon'' "crap"] in his presence is something of a [[Berserk Button]]... [[Beware the Nice Ones]], indeed!

* Chris Barrie, contrary to his character of Arnold Rimmer on ''[[Red Dwarf]]'', is actually a pretty nice guy who gets along with the rest of the cast enough to participate in the commentaries. Of all the cast, he's also the one who does the most conventions and clearly loves meeting the fans.

* The Plunderbird Boys from ''[[Robot Wars (TV series)|TheRobot Plunderbird BoysWars]]'' can be seen as this on a more minor scale; their entire gimmick was that there were hard boys who wanted to see violence and carnage. In series 2, they were unanimously voted to win the good sportsmanship award, which speaks volumes about their in-the-pits behaviour. However, even their 'mean characters' were shown to have at least some degree of respect and concern for their fellow competitors, so the difference isn't as large as with most entries, although the character's reaction to the aforementioned award does show the trope in action.

* Comic Lisa Lampanelli, known as the "Lovable Queen of Mean" who makes money onstage insulting people, in real life is much more tame (check out [https://web.archive.org/web/20101017232344/http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=129779192&m=129779199 this interview] as an example.)

* Mark Pellegrino has pretty much built his career on playing assholes that include [[Dexter|abusive husbands]], [[Lost|Jacob]] and [[Supernatural (TV series)|Lucifer]]. In real life, he is a devout christian and family man who comes across as very sweet, relaxed, funny and very appreciative of fans.

{{quote| '''Wayne''': So, do you come to Milwaukee often?<br />

'''Alice''': Well, I'm a regular visitor here, but Milwaukee has certainly had its share of visitors. The French missionaries and explorers were coming here as early as the late 1600s to trade with the Native Americans.<br />

'''Pete''': In fact, isn't Milwaukee an Indian term?<br />

'''Alice''': Yes Pete, it is. Actually, it's pronounced "mill-e-wah-que", which is Algonquin for "the good land".<br />

'''Wayne''': I did not know that.<br />

'''Alice''': I think the most interesting thing about Milwaukee is it's the only American city to have had three Socialist mayors.<br />

* Typical of wrestling, but WWE superstar [[Do Not Call Me "Paul"|Mark Callaway]], a.k.a. [[The Undertaker]], is perhaps the [[Ur Example]]. When he's not acting satanic and burying his opponents alive he is a rather private person, noted as being quite gracious to fans who ask for pictures or autographs. Apparently his sole proviso is that he doesn't want to be approached if he's with his wife and kids, though he was quite civil when taped with girlfriend and future wife Michelle McCool.

* Glen Jacobs a.k.a [[Wrestler/Kane (wrestling)|Kane]] is noted as being one of the friendliest men in professional wrestling today and is considered by internet fans to be the holy grail for fans to interact with. This is a far cry from his psychopathic character. In real life, he holds a teaching degree and said he would be doing that if he wasn't a wrestler.

* Scott Levy, better known as the sadistic career-heel [[Wrestler/Raven (wrestling)|Raven]], is known for being similarly enthusiastic and friendly with his (smaller) fanbase.

** Ironically, it's the very reason that his character (which tends to be loathed amongst [[Smark|Smarks]]s) tends to be this way instead of turning darker and edgier or outright heel.

* [[Andre the Giant]] often played a monster heel. While filming ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'', whenever one of the actresses was cold, he'd put his hand on her head--saidhead—said hand was big enough to ''cover'' her head.

* Big John Studd (1948-1995) was a heel during his time in the WWE during the 80s, but he was often describe "too nice for this business" by [[Bobby Heenan| Bobby Heenan]].

* [[The Jack Benny Program|Jack Benny]]'s comic persona was famously cheap, petty, and pompous, while the real Benny was a great guy--asguy—as evidenced by the fact that he let the other actors get the better of his character all the time. He was famous for saying "I don't care who gets laughs on my show, just so long as the ''show'' gets laughs."

* ''[[Command and& Conquer]]'''s [[Big Bad]], Kane, the ruthless leader of an ancient society turned antagonist army is willing to kill thousands and sacrifice the world to [[Toxic Phlebotinum|tiberium]] infestation to achieve his goals. He's played by Joe Kucan, who's a pretty nice guy, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14jgGE2AZfY laughing at] his [[Hilarious Outtakes|fluffed lines]], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY9vxXAH3Ns larking about in interviews] and making up stories about how he got the role (he won it on a scratchcard, or through a pan-American election, narrowly beating Pauly Shore and John Malkovich.)

** Well not only in video games, but in animated series like [[Codename: Kids Next Door|Numbuh 86]], [[The Powerpuff Girls|Princess Morbucks and Sedusa]], [[Totally Spies!|Mandy]], and [[Justice League (animation)|Killer Frost]].

* Adam John Harrington, voice and [[Ink Suit Actor]] of [[Dirty Cop]] [[LAL.A. Noire|Roy Earle]], is actually a decent guy in real life.

* Randy Milholland, creator of ''[[Something *Positive]]'', is a much nicer guy than ''S*P'''s [[Sadist Show]] of [[Deadpan Snarker]] [[Jerkass|Jerkasses]]es or his own irritable appearances in ''Rhymes With Witch'' would lead you to believe. He's noted on the site that fans sometimes seem disappointed when he doesn't act like a jerk. It's something of a [[Berserk Button]] for him, however - pointing this out to him is likely to get him acting just like you'd expect.

* The person who plays [[Red Letter MediaRedLetterMedia|Mr.Plinket]] is definitely a lot nicer than the reviewer persona.

* According to people who've actually met him, [[Zero Punctuation|Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw]] is actually not as abrasive as his internet personality seems to indicate, in fact he apparently comes off as rather shy. Part of this can be seen in his [https://web.archive.org/web/20130125123522/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1060-Washington-DC trip to Washington DC]. Most of his supposed [[Small Name, Big Ego]] reputation related to [[Zero Punctuation]] seems to mostly be a poor relationship with his fans (as well as an actual history of egotism during his Adventure Game days), something he's attempting to rectify.

** One marked example of the difference between the personalities of Doug Walker and That Guy With The Glasses comes in [https://web.archive.org/web/20130925112127/http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/ask-thatguy/33077-episode-66 Episode 66] of Ask That Guy, in the stinger at the end. Doug makes a crack as That Guy that comes off as so stunningly insensitive that he ultimately breaks character to apologize to the person who'd asked the question. It's also been mentioned that he can't watch Ask That Guy episodes because he'd be ashamed at finding them funny.

** It's possible to tell which movies the real Brad doesn't like -- helike—he allows the Cinema Snob to get even more acidic than usual.

* Many Internet [[Troll|Trolls]]s would probably qualify when they can't [[GIFT|hide behind their usernames]].

* [[Grey DeLisle]] who is famous for giving her voice to such animated bitches as Vicky from [[Fairly Oddparents]], Mandy from [[The Grim Adventures of Billy and& Mandy]] and [[Daddy's Little Villain|Princess]] [[The Chessmaster|Azula]] from [[Avatar: The Last Airbender]] is constantly described as [[Genki Girl|"bubbly" and a fun person]] by those who met her.

* [[Dante Basco]], who voices [[Big Bad]] then [[Anti-Villain]] {{spoiler|and then [[The Atoner]]}} [[Avatar: The Last Airbender|Prince Zuko]], also has fans remark how nice he is compared to his character. Basco also voices the title character in ''[[American Dragon: Jake Long]]'', who, while not evil, is nevertheless quite the cocky and brash [[Anti-Hero]].

* David Warner is probably best known for voicing villains such as [[Batman: The Animated Series|Ra's Al Ghul]], [[Freakazoid!|The Lobe]], [[Toonsylvania|Dr. Vic Frankenstein]] (though Dr. Vic was more of a [[Jerkass]] -- particularly—particularly to Igor -- thanIgor—than a villain), [[The Grim Adventures of Billy and& Mandy|Nergal]] (who is also more of a [[Jerkass]] than anything), and [[Men in Black (animation)|Alpha]], as well as the Master Control Program in the movie ''[[Tron]]''. In real life, he's a sweet English gentleman.

* Christian Potenza, who voices the [[The Sociopath|sociopathic]] Chris McLean from the ''[[Total Drama Island|Total Drama]]'' series, is a friendly guy who interacts with his fans online and at conventions. His v-logs on his [http://www.youtube.com/user/TheChristianPotenza YouTube channel] also reveal that many of the people behind the series' resident [[Jerkass|Jerkasses]]es are some of the nicest people in entertainment, particularly Rachel Wilson ([[Alpha Bitch|Heather]]), [[Emilie Claire Barlow]] ([[Tsundere|Courtney]]), and Drew Nelson ([[Rebellious Spirit|Duncan]]).

[[Category:Mean Character, Nice Actor{{SUBPAGENAME}}]]