10 Best Times Actors Played Themselves
7. Carl Weathers - Arrested Development
One of the most acerbic comedies of the early noughties, Arrested Development takes aim at a lot of targets: the moral bankruptcy of the wealthy, the war in Iraq, the media, its own flagging ratings. For some reason, they also chose to take a wild swipe at Rocky and Predator star Carl Weathers, who is depicted as a scheming, tight fisted delinquent with an obsession for getting a stew going.
Weathers had a solid seventies and eighties, but hadn’t appeared in anything particularly major for a while before scoring a recurring part as himself in Arrested Development, becoming one of the funniest and most memorable characters the show “created”.
Why they decided to posit Weathers as a tightwad is anyone’s guest, but the actor throws himself into it with abandon. He runs a con on the airlines to get paid for being bumped from flights, he picks through food scraps for anything to form the base of one of his famous stews, and he manages to make off with the Bluth family story for his own personal use.
It must have been strange for Weathers when this particular offer came in, but we’re certainly glad he took it.