Ever noticed this about film/TV credits?

[Redflash]

So in my adventures skimming through IMDB looking for who played so and so or who wrote such and such, many times I have noticed that a credit will read something like:

Actor's name column: Brad Pitt
Character's name column: 'Ben Dover' (AS BRAD PITT)

And I just straight up don't get it. If you're acting in something, you're playing the part. You can't play the part as yourself. If we're going to start crediting people like this then surely everyone should have a stupid little note in brackets next to their character name reminding us that the actor is still themselves, just in case someone was so blown away by the performance that they genuinely think Brad Pitt turned into an unimaginative dirty pun name in the course of shooting the film.

I suppose it halfway makes sense in the case of Brad Pitt because of course he is recognisable, but it happens in some pretty weird instances too. Like on the sons of anarchy page, the entry for Filthy Phil (the obese prospect) has the actor's name in brackets for it, even though the actor is as far as I can tell completely and utterly obscure.

Anyone else noticed this and been annoyed by it? Or is there something I'm missing here whereby this makes sense?

 

[Ratty]

So in my adventures skimming through IMDB looking for who played so and so or who wrote such and such, many times I have noticed that a credit will read something like:

Actor's name column: Brad Pitt
Character's name column: 'Ben Dover' (AS BRAD PITT)

And I just straight up don't get it. If you're acting in something, you're playing the part. You can't play the part as yourself. If we're going to start crediting people like this then surely everyone should have a stupid little note in brackets next to their character name reminding us that the actor is still themselves, just in case someone was so blown away by the performance that they genuinely think Brad Pitt turned into an unimaginative dirty pun name in the course of shooting the film.

I suppose it halfway makes sense in the case of Brad Pitt because of course he is recognisable, but it happens in some pretty weird instances too. Like on the sons of anarchy page, the entry for Filthy Phil (the obese prospect) has the actor's name in brackets for it, even though the actor is as far as I can tell completely and utterly obscure.

Anyone else noticed this and been annoyed by it? Or is there something I'm missing here whereby this makes sense?

Well, this is more an IMDB thing than something to do with actual movie/tv credits. At least if I'm understanding your question correctly? Sometimes actors might be credited by several different names. Sometimes they might use a stage name, or a common abbreviation of their full name, or use their middle name instead of their first name, or change their last name because of marriage or whatever.

So you might see credits saying "Actor: William Shatner" "Character: So-and-So (As Bill Shatner)". It's just saying that when the actor was credited in the actual credits scroll for the movie it said "Bill" instead of "William". And of course sometimes actors/directors etc. will be embarrassed of a movie/show and have a totally different, fake name put in the credits.

 

[Redflash]

Aah, that does make sense, thanks for clearing that up. I somewhat foolishly thought it was some sort of preference thing on the actor's part.

 

[Queen Michael]

I don't understand what you're saying. Do they claim that the character Ben Dover was playing Brad Pitt or something? I'm confused.

 

[Tygerml]

No, it's pretty simple. If you go to the Star Wars IMDB page and look at the cast, you'll see:

Drewe Henley ... Red leader (as Drewe Hemley)

What it means is that the actor's name in the credits appears different than how it's normally credited. In this case, it was probably a typo. Sometimes an actor has since changed their name, either for personal reasons, maybe they've gotten married or divorced. Others do it just to be different.