You would be lying if you said that Glee is not one of the most popular shows in T.V. I believe the reason why it is so popular is simply due to the fact that while some of the story lines are a bit over the top, the fans still relate to the characters and the plot lines. People get connected to this idea of this certain actor or actress really being that character in real life though, which is what particularly interests me. You have these actors portraying characters that are extremely popular, that fans have this notion that that is what they are like in real life as well. This is why I feel that people feel the need to make Twitter accounts based on those characters. It gives the fans a chance to act like on their friends through Twitter, and essentially "be a part of their day to day lives," even though they are not real people.
However, this idea of actors being portrayed as the characters they play can have a very negative effect. As most of us know, the lead actor in Glee, Cory Monteith, passed away over 2 months ago, due to drug and alcohol related issues. When the news of this tragedy came out, Twitter blew up with Tweets talking about this tragic accident, and how supportive they are of him. Even when it was stated that Monteith's death may not have been a suicide, the fans still stuck by his side. The only issue with this that I have though is the Tweets stating things like, "Finn will always be in our hearts," and "we will miss our star quarterback." It's sad to me to see actors like this portrayed as the character they play, rather than the people they are in real life. I almost even believe that when popular shows have such large fandoms and cult followings, that it is hard for actors to separate themselves from who they play on Television.
This was also a large issue on Twitter with the Anti-fandoms of Glee. People posted things such as "He must have committed suicide because of choosing to be on Glee," and "I guess the star quarterback isn't as perfect as you Glee fans think." While a lot of these posts were taken down, it was still on Twitter for all to see. It is very disrespectful I believe to have thoughts about a person's life like that. This is another reason why it is hard for actors to really pull away from their character, because they are almost expected to be like that in real life. Especially if you are playing a star quarterback/singer/popular guy.
I guess my question for you guys would be, do you sometimes find it hard to see actors act differently in real life than they do as their characters in TV shows or movies?
Also,what are the negative effects of people pretending to be characters on TV on Twitter?
I think it is hard for people, especially fans, to separate characters and actors. I mean this isn’t a new phenomenon. For example, Anthony Perkins, who played Norman Bates in Psycho ,had a hard time finding a role after Psycho because people only saw him as Norman Bates and were to creped out by him to see him in anything else. I do think that this has increased with social media, specifically twitter. So many actors have twitters and their characters have twitters. When seeing this on your news feed it just sort of blends together. I think this inability to distance characters and actors comes from the fans wanting the actors to be these characters. In Glee, the character of Finn was dating the character Rachel and the fans wanted the actors to imitate art and start dating in real life. Unlike most cases, these actors did eventually start dating and did date until Cory Monteith’s death.So here is the problem, the actor tweets about a date he had with his co-star girlfriend and then the character’s twitter tweets about a date he went on with his character girlfriend. For the fans it is all one in the same. I feel that this is something that will continue to be problem with fans and will only continue to grow with social media.
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