11 Meta Films Starring Actors Playing Extreme Versions Of Themselves

4. JCVD

"A Godardian coup de cinéma." "Shockingly truthful." "Deserves not a black belt, but an Oscar." Critics adored JCVD on its release, and with good reason. It is an ingenious send-up of action star Jean-Claude Van Damme that successfully critiques not only his career and the genre for which he is famous, but also the notions of celebrity and the Hollywood star system as a whole. JCVD plays himself, struggling to make ends meet when going through financial difficulties due to a faltering career. He turns to a life of crime in order to rectify this, and is involved in multiple action sequences that mirror his filmic roles to date. While everything in the story is completely fictional, JCVD's star text and the incredible realism generated by director Mabrouk El Mechri blur the boundaries between narrative and biography spectacularly without resorting to clichés or parodies (as with other examples of this list). The film's definitive moment is, as anyone that has seen it will know, when JCVD breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the audience in a highly personal monologue about his life and career. At over 6 minutes, in one single take, it is an uncomfortably honest and utterly powerful moment that completely catches the viewer off guard. It further distorts the boundaries between what is real and what is fake. El Mechri's JCVD may not be as celebrated as others on this list, but it's arguably the most complex and technically stunning example here.