Ever have a character that you actually lose yourself in?

[Doc Bernard]

I have........ and to this day, I consider him my "alter-ego".

He was the "Squirrel". A radio voice character that I created many years back. To talk to me in person......you would never know that I was that crass, foul-mouthed, rodent that would always try to get in the pants of every female guest we had on the show.

He was the "Disney reject"........and was extremely bitter about not getting a role beside the Chipmunks in any of their movies. Went so far as to mock them on the radio show by singing and modifying Disney Showtunes....until we got a cease and desist order.........Then I knew we had gotten some decent attention.

I still revive that character every now and then, when I need a stress reliever.

Am I weird?

 

[Egg Born Son]

Yes, but not because of that

 

[kylevant]

I'd say yes. In fact, I'd say it's especially helpful if you're writing something. If I'm left long enough in a dark room with a screenplay I find myself becoming the darkest most sadistic character that I'm writing about - I begin to think like him/her, plan like him/her, eat and talk like him/her. Besides actually committing the hideous acts he's/she's deemed to carry out, I find myself becoming that person. Then, as soon as it started, it disappears - leaving me to contemplate my own sanity.

Yes, but not because of that

:cheesy:

 

[greymog]

My goodness what if we were actors...

to answer question, Yes. Several, but the thing in common is that they're always powerful and subtle. I'm the opposite of that, I am little and nervous. All the characters I lose myself in (not necessarily when I'm writing, maybe just dwelling or digging something) it tends to be a gap-filler. All these characteristics I wanted all my life.

It took me away from actually doing anything about it, which changed last year, but still, I'd be nowhere without the daydreams.

 

[NVentive]

We ah, well.. had a little problem here... We started a project over a year ago exploring the difference between inspiration and madness, and we never intended it to become anything huge. The point of the project was to challenge ourselves to develop a quick and efficient workflow for indie film. We had been producing video projects for decades, the people on our team with cinema experience retired, we wanted to develop some film skills on our own.
The idea was to set up a simple story with some rather blank, two-dimensional characters that revolved around a potentially crazy situation. We wanted to release it in short episodes and then take viewer's comments and turn it into the dialogue that drove the story. The idea got a huge amount of attention, but was totally unsuccessful in implementation -- everyone liked the idea, but no one really had anything to say.
So we shut things down and started re-working the idea as a scripted narrative. We really immersed ourselves into research, my wife even got herself into a respected grad school to study psychology. I won't go into the messy details, but what we discovered is that if you push yourself to the edge, and then some 'real' things happen to clobber you (family tragedy, etc) you can end up loosing your grip. You think it could never happen to you or someone you know, trust me it can. Even with no history of mental illness, a complete break can still happen, and coming back is hard.
Once we are clear of this, we will return to our creative, day-dreamy, life on the creative edge. We will probably even pick up that project, play with it some more. We're not telling people not to dream, just....(I'm not sure how to say this) be careful....

 

[Ted Spencer]

Actors with long-time roles in TV shows often have difficulty with losing themselves into the character in real life. If you think about the well-publicized misbehaviors of Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland, they're completely in character with their then-TV show selves ("Two And A Half Men", "24"). If I remember correctly, Larry Hagman adopted the personality of JR Ewing full-time at some point during the run of "Dallas". Cowboy hat, accent, the works. When he starred in "I Dream Of Jeannie" a few years earlier, he had neither (he was born in Texas, and did spend some of his childhood there, but mostly in CA and NY).

From my own experience, even in the much shorter-term immersion of the roles I've played, they definitely tend to 'leak into my real self' to a noticeable extent (at least by me). I particularly notice after playing a comedic character that my own wit and joking repartee skyrocket, then come back to normal after the role is finished (this also happens when I'm writing comedy, perhaps even more vividly). Dramatic roles have a similarly related effect, especially when the character is particularly strong-willed.

It's a little creepy actually, when I think about it. The definition of 'me' turns out to be not quite so cast in stone...