7 Actors Who Were Weirdly Similar To Their Movie Characters

Find out how these stars related to their roles…

Magic Mike isn’t based on a true story or real people but it definitely reflected some of Channing Tatum’s real life experiences. The actor worked as a stripper for about eight months when he was 18 and he says the movie ended up taking inspiration from some of his real life experiences.

“I did do it for about eight months of my life, which is a relatively short period of time. It’s not like I made a career out of it or anything. This movie is really a bit of an explanation of my brief experience in that world. I represented a new generation of strippers where it was no longer about the long hair and all that, but about hip-hop and kinda doing your own thing,” he told The Aquarian.

Pamela Anderson has never been a Las Vegas showgirl, but her movie The Last Showgirl draws a lot of similarities to her real life. For Pamela, she says she couldn’t have played her character without the life experiences she’s had -- specifically being a working mom in showbusiness.

“I couldn’t have played this character if I didn’t have the life I had. And I couldn’t even look back in hindsight and think these things I may have done differently if I didn’t have the life experience to get me to this place where I feel that way,” she told Deadline. “People sometimes say, why did you make this choice? Why did you make that? So we’re all doing the best we can in the moment and with the tools that we have and the experience that we have, and we’re all fighting in this invisible bubble.”

In Tropic Thunder, Jack Black was an actor portraying an actor. In fact, Jack was quite similar to his on screen character Jeff Portnoy, in that he was a comedian who had made his living off of crude humor. The role came close to being a self parody -- even though Jack didn’t struggle with the same personal issues as Jeff. Reflecting on the film, Jack admits that it pretty accurately portrayed Hollywood.

“When I read the script I was like this is f--king hilarious because it’s so true, and people are going to see this movie and go, ‘Oh that’s really funny but it’s not like that, it’s not that bad.’ But it is, that’s exactly what happens,” Jack told Collider.

He continued, “There’s something about the industry, you get pampered in such a way the first half hour of being famous you’re like, ‘This is absurd, I don’t need all these things,’ and then you’re all of a sudden like, ‘I deserve them though, and now I demand them.’ There’s a transformation and I don’t think it’s possible to avoid. That’s why a lot of the actors you’ll hear about nowadays don’t live in Hollywood, they’ll go and live on a farm out in, you know, wherever, to try to stay grounded. They’ve got to keep themselves protected from the spoiling that happens when you live here.”

Eminem starred in 8 Mile, which was loosely based on his experiences growing up in Detroit. In the film, he portrayed Jimmy Smith Jr., who goes by the name B-Rabbit, as he tries to break through in the local hip-hop scene. The rapper said the film wasn’t based on his life story but he did influence some of the things his character went through.

“I don’t play me in the movie,” Eminem told Rolling Stone. “There are similarities because I sat down with Scott Silver, the scriptwriter, and told him instances from my life that were used in the movie, some exactly the way they happened, some a little bit different.”

Birdman isn’t based on star Michael Keaton’s life but he and his character do share a lot of similarities. Both Michael and his character Riggan Thomson had previously portrayed superheroes on the big screen -- although the future of Riggan’s career didn’t fare as well as Michael. Director Alejandro Gonzále says that casting Michael in the role because of their similarities was intentional.

“Well, Keaton, obviously he adds a lot of reality to the film, and that was great, but at the same time he had a lot of authority. He is one of the few persons that has worn that cape and is a pioneer of that superhero thing, but at the same time he has the craft and the range to play in drama and comedy and where very few actors in the world can do that,” Alejandro told Fresh Fiction.

He continued, “He played a prick in this film and I need somebody who was adorable, somebody who really you can like and he has that likeness and that lightness to that it was required, so all these things make him the perfect choice for it and obviously the fact that he has been that. He’d add a lot of fun and greatness. I think he was very bold accepting and trusting me in this role.”

Steve Buscemi went back to his roots for his supporting role in The King of Staten Island. Before he made it big, Steve was a firefighter who spent his nights working as a stand-up comedian. In the film, Steve’s character was a firefighter too. By the time he landed the role, he’d been off the job for quite a while so Steve admits he was concerned about being believable. In the end, he says he thinks he pulled it off.

“I’ve never played a firefighter,” he shared during EW’s Around the Table series. “One of the things I appreciated that [the directors] did was you paid as much attention to what the life was like in the firehouse as to going to a fire. It’s hard to get that right, and I think you guys did it.”

He continued, “Firefighters are really funny and they can be brutal with each other and I think that’s captured really well in the film. And so I felt very comfortable. The hardest thing for me is I’m so out of practice, not being around a firehouse, and then to have comedians playing firefighters and [Judd Apatow] would have us improvise and I wouldn’t know what to say, like I couldn’t keep up and you’d have to throw me a line or Pete would pull me aside and tell me what to say.”

When George Clooney took on a starring role in satirical flick Hail Cesar!, his character had a few similarities to his real life. He portrayed a huge movie star in the Golden Age of Hollywood -- much like his real-life movie star status. While he was both a major celeb both on screen and real life, that may be where the similarities stop. His character was actually based on actor Fred MacMurray but it served as an opportunity for George to play into all the stereotypes people may believe to be true about him as a movie star.