the opposite of people: some thoughts on superheroes as performers
I have progressed from obsessing about The Avengers as characters to also obsessing about the actors who play them. This is probably the fault of this video I found about the Iron Man special effects. Which are, of course, super shiny. And made me want to do tech for film, because watching the footage of designing the suit, or building Tony's magic computers, or just of the actors doing their jobs brought back just how much *fun* it is to work in theater, to build those crazy, beautiful dreams out of gaff tape and inspiration. And then I got to watching a bunch of interview clips of the Avengers cast (people always interview actors and directors, not tech :-P), and it seems to have been a really awesome movie to work on, and listening to them describe filming made me like all of them. In particular, Robert Downey, Jr., because Iron Man is kind of one of my favourite Avengers, and, let's face it, RDJ kind of *is* Tony Stark. Turns out besides being a pretty awesome actor and hilarious to watch, he's extremely happily married to a very nice, down-to-Earth producer named Susan. And wiki-stalking her caused me to come across this quote about why she was a little leery of the relationship at its beginning: "he's an actor; I have a real job."
Which got me thinking. Because it's kind of like the Stoppard title quote that's the title of this post. (And I have an unhealthy obsession with that quote, okay?) Actors aren't real people. They're performers, and they're performances. In some ways they're kind of like superheroes. They have these really awesome skillsets, and crazy celebrity, and they have support staff. So, yeah, actors don't save the world. But! They relate to the general public in ways that aren't completely dissimliar. They're *famous*. People know them. People know their families. People make things specifically for them. (Captain America needs Howard Stark to make his shield, Tony Stark needs Pepper to remind him to tie his shoes, Clint Barton doesn't make his own (epically awesome!) quiver and collapsible bow, ...) There are entire teams of people (or robots, if you're Tony) contributing to how every superhero looks and acts. Think about how Coulson helped re-design Captain America's armor. Then think about a movie on the night of the Oscar's. I'm sure her PA had opinions about her stylist's choice of design and designer for the dress and the shoes and the hair. For superheroes, like actors, everything they do is watched and analyzed by the world at large. They live their lives inside-out: traumatic, PSTD-inducing situations caught on film and blown up to be seen and shared with everyone.
Of actors, The Player says, "We're actors -- we're the opposite of people! Think, in you head, now think of the most... private... secret... intimate... thing you have ever done secure in the knowledge of its privacy... Are you thinking of it? Well, I saw you do it! [...] We're actors... We pledged our identities, secure in the conventions of our trade, that someone would be watching." Identity is a touchy thing for your average super hero, too. The Avengers is rare in that it's heroes don't really have these problems; the government already knows of their existence and recognizes them as a force for (at least sort of) good. Heck, the entire world knows Tony is Iron Man. But the idea of "pledging your identity" is also something superheroy. After all, the whole point of each super-identity is to fulfill a certain role. Every time a superhero "suits up" they are pledging their identity to the role that hero has created. They are letting their mundane identity fall by the wayside to subsumed into this production of a person, this idyllic figure, this performance. Iron Man, yes. Tony Stark, not recommended. They are, in many ways, like actors taking on roles, secure in the knowledge that the world needs saving, and someone will be watching (and that someone needs to know who saved it, and whoever saved it needs to be the sort of awesome person who saves worlds, not me).
Which got me thinking. Because it's kind of like the Stoppard title quote that's the title of this post. (And I have an unhealthy obsession with that quote, okay?) Actors aren't real people. They're performers, and they're performances. In some ways they're kind of like superheroes. They have these really awesome skillsets, and crazy celebrity, and they have support staff. So, yeah, actors don't save the world. But! They relate to the general public in ways that aren't completely dissimliar. They're *famous*. People know them. People know their families. People make things specifically for them. (Captain America needs Howard Stark to make his shield, Tony Stark needs Pepper to remind him to tie his shoes, Clint Barton doesn't make his own (epically awesome!) quiver and collapsible bow, ...) There are entire teams of people (or robots, if you're Tony) contributing to how every superhero looks and acts. Think about how Coulson helped re-design Captain America's armor. Then think about a movie on the night of the Oscar's. I'm sure her PA had opinions about her stylist's choice of design and designer for the dress and the shoes and the hair. For superheroes, like actors, everything they do is watched and analyzed by the world at large. They live their lives inside-out: traumatic, PSTD-inducing situations caught on film and blown up to be seen and shared with everyone.
Of actors, The Player says, "We're actors -- we're the opposite of people! Think, in you head, now think of the most... private... secret... intimate... thing you have ever done secure in the knowledge of its privacy... Are you thinking of it? Well, I saw you do it! [...] We're actors... We pledged our identities, secure in the conventions of our trade, that someone would be watching." Identity is a touchy thing for your average super hero, too. The Avengers is rare in that it's heroes don't really have these problems; the government already knows of their existence and recognizes them as a force for (at least sort of) good. Heck, the entire world knows Tony is Iron Man. But the idea of "pledging your identity" is also something superheroy. After all, the whole point of each super-identity is to fulfill a certain role. Every time a superhero "suits up" they are pledging their identity to the role that hero has created. They are letting their mundane identity fall by the wayside to subsumed into this production of a person, this idyllic figure, this performance. Iron Man, yes. Tony Stark, not recommended. They are, in many ways, like actors taking on roles, secure in the knowledge that the world needs saving, and someone will be watching (and that someone needs to know who saved it, and whoever saved it needs to be the sort of awesome person who saves worlds, not me).