Off-Stage vs Off-Page
So I realized something interesting lately. Sometimes when you know an actor off-stage/off-screen, it can be very difficult to watch them perform because you can see the performance. Do you know what I mean? If I don’t know an actor at all, I have no clue what is their personality and what is the character; it all feels seamless. But if I know them, I can see how they’re acting as if they’re angry or acting as if they’re sad. Does this make sense — have you experienced this? Anyway, what this means is that I don’t really love meeting actors or knowing too much about them because I like to keep the illusion that they are the character.
The opposite is true when it comes to books. I seek out books by people I know. I am ten times more likely to give a new author a chance if the book was written by a friend, a friend of a friend, or a former classmate. Even though I can see how they differ from their narrator (or, the opposite: how they’re the same), it doesn’t bother me. It’s the opposite of the actor; I marvel at how they can construct a character so unlike themselves.
If I don’t know the author at all, once I’m a few pages into the book and I’ve absorbed the characters’ voices, I flip to the thank you page to see whom we know in common. I sometimes look up the author online if I don’t know them personally to glean where they went to school or where they’re living now. Gathering a mental picture of the author makes me like the book more. Or… I guess sometimes less. But usually more.
Is it just me? Do you like to know actors off-stage/screen and then see them perform? Do you like to know authors off-page when you read their books?
8 comments
I have never known an actor so I have never experienced this. And I don’t travel in author circles so I don’t ever know the people on the thank you pages. Both of these worlds are very far removed from my own.
It does make sense if you think about the role each has in a story. The author’s job is to create the world and set the stage. Hence I can see why you gravitate to someone you know as there is a strong likelihood that they would be focusing on stories you would be interested in. But actors’ roles are to portray the character. You associate them with the character they are suppose to be playing and, if they are really talented, they become that character. Seeming them outside that role would be like witnessing someone with multiple personalities.
I don’t go to many plays or know many actors, but I can totally see that part resonating with me. Can’t say I personally know any authors either.
In regards to actors, it is completely the opposite with me (maybe because I am an actor myself, albeit an amateur one). I love to see people I know personally perform, because I can see how good they are when they are able to transform themselves completely.
I don’t know enough actors now, but when I was in college and knew a lot of them I didn’t find this to be as true. Just my experience.
Like noemi, I don’t know any actors, and you are the only published author whose books I’ve read (I have read proposed manuscripts by others but nothing published), so I have never experienced this. I can totally understand, though, how the performance would be more obvious if you knew the actor’s underlying, real personality.
With respect to reading books by authors one knows, I actually feel the opposite: I prefer to read books by authors I don’t know because if I read something by someone I know, and I don’t like something about the book — the writing style, how plot points were resolved, etc. — I feel bad about it when I know the person who wrote it, and that interferes with my ability to “digest” the book as I normally would.
I think you travel in more prominent circles than I do. I believe you were the first author I actually knew (except for my dad).
I can’t think of anyone I know who acts on stage or in films. Other than comedy improv, that is.
But yes, when I know the author, it does take me a little longer to hear the intended voice (of the book) because I have the preconceived voice there first.
Like, the others I don’t know many actors or authors. I know a few non-fiction writers, and that’s fine, as they tend to be writing their stories. But a couple of them (including you) have turned to fiction. I like reading their books, but I do find it hard to separate them, and so find the fiction a bit artificial. So I guess I have the same reaction as you do too actors.
Though now I think of it, I knew one of NZ’s more prominent actors many years ago. I knew him first though, as an actor, so meeting him and getting to know him, was the artifice, not the other way round. I was used to seeing him in different roles. Maybe “real human and fellow tutor at university” was just another role he played.