10 Movie Directors Who Cast Actors As Cinematic Versions Of Themselves
Some filmmakers can't help put themselves in their own work.
Directors often get a kick out of the odd cameo or acting role, either as an in-joke or because they felt it relevant. Perhaps most famously, David Cronenberg was cast as a murderous doctor by Clive Barker in Nightbreed.
It's the kind of role that takes you a second to gawk, do a double-take and utter, "Is that... David Cronenberg?" He also made random appearances in films like Jason X, The Stupids, To Die For and his own remake of The Fly. The last is the most telling, playing a gynecologist who gives birth to a human-fly fetus in a dream sequence - much like he gave birth to the frightening, paranoia-infused reality of the film itself.
John Landis regularly fills his supporting cast with other director friends as an in-joke - from George Lucas in Beverly Hills Cop III, to most of the extras in Innocent Blood.
But the master of infusing himself in his work was Alfred Hitchcock. Even in films such as Lifeboat and Rope - which feature a very limited cast of characters, he worked his way into a newspaper ad in the former his legendary frame lit on a lit billboard through the back window of the one-apartment set.
Others take it a step further, creating entire characters that represent their interest, quirks, desires or fantasies.
Let's examine them.
10. Steven Spielberg's Childhood Lives Through His Protagonists
Steven Spielberg had a difficult childhood, seeing his parents divorced at a young age, forever changing his life path.
As such, his earliest films feature fathers struggling to reform a bond with their child, or otherwise deconstruct the nuclear family. Roy Scheider's Chief Brody almost loses his son the monstrous Great White terrorizing the beaches of Amity, leading him on an obsession-fuelled hunt for the beast, rather than staying by his child's bedside.
But perhaps the most telling is Tye Sheridan's video game-obsessed Wade in Ready Player One. Beyond living in a dystopian slum, he admires and challenges the late creator of a game - mirroring note-for-note the friendly rivalry that the director had with Stanley Kubrick. While Ready Player One was written years prior by Ernest Cline, this likely drew Spielberg to direct in the first place.
Also, when Spielberg finished Kubrick's work on A.I. after his untimely passing, the last act was written off by many as a heartfelt, Spielbergian copout.
In actuality, the ending had been long in the works when Kubrick was still involved. The men were never that different - they just tended to focus their work on their pet obsessions.
If you're ever in an elevator with Spielberg, begin your pitch with the words, "So there's this kid with a single mom..."