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10/21/2004 Archived Entry: "Other Characters"

It's really strange when your other characters get more online time than your own persona. LoL! What happened was simple, I've been Starluck and known for a certain thing for so long that when I try to do something new they go "That's not your style." In cases such as role playing, I personally have no qualms with writing and storytelling from a male or female role's point of view. Hell, all good writers do that, but for some reason it's difficult for online board related communities to understand that unless you're the game leader.

A lot of the time people are role playing as extensions of their own personality, it's more like persona play than true character acting. So people sometimes want to get real-life romantically involved with my characters and not even realise that may not be the other player's intentions, at all.

In any case, to alieviate this problem I created a -male- fictional character that I play now more frequently than my persona on a message board that's not my own to detach my "Starluck" persona from what I play. Even in the understanding that what I'm writing is purely fiction, people in the back of their heads still like to attach my persona to it. Despite this, however, people STILL insist in private messaging asking about personal information when even in my character's account -description- I mention that he is permanently stuck in character. This is kind of like private messaging Mickey Mouse and asking where he lives and then acting suprised when you hear "An animation studio in Burbank".

A lot of the time I have to gently reject flirtation when I play my male character, it's kind of unsettling to have to explain to someone that you're a total figment of someone's imagination and it's kind of difficult to hop out of someone's brain to go out for dinner and a movie. "I'm sorry, I'm totally tied to JK Rowling's greymatter, so going out for a milkshake and fries is out of the question. Signed, Harry Potter."

You don't realise the power of someone's belief in a fictitious character until you come to know that some people -still- send letters to Sherlock Holmes.

I can understand now how difficult it must have been for David Bowie to shake off Ziggy Stardust, you build up a character so well and people discover you first by that name that it takes years for them to understand "Okay, I'm tired of this, guys. Can I try something else now?" Of course, that was on a much, MUCH grander scale but it's the same deal. Actors who get type-cast, popular musicians who try a new style, painters who try a new method... All the same thing. People are so eager to stick a label on you and file you on the shelf and when you try to pick the label off you're met with mixed emotion. At that point, you gotta say "Screw you all!" and keep going or you'll never find out if it works for you or not.

In Hollywood there are only a few actors that I can say are excellent character actors. The majority of them recently are tied to the era, the look, and the glamour instead of the art. A lot of them are condemned to being type-cast, as well, against their own will and often called by their character's name and not their own. Bruce Campbell and Mark Hamil, to name two of them.

True that you can't forget reality, you can't forget who you are, but sometimes it's nice not to be attached to all that for a little while. That's the whole point of assuming another character or trying a new method of expression.