We discuss our favorite instances of being distracted by a character who has your name in a movie at the 1:09 mark of the Qt3 Movie Podcast of Doctor Strange.
Kelly Wand
3. The Bad News Bears
2. Wild Things
Fifty Shades of Grey
Dingus
3. The Bounty
2. Inherent Vice
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Tom Chick
3. Tommy
2. Armageddon
Miller’s Crossing
Are there movies where you got distracted, or even repulsed, by having your name included as a character name in the movie? Listen to the show to hear us talk about times that happened to us, and to hear Tom read a surprising number of listener choices.
I can’t remember a single Roberto in a movie. And characters named Robert never got me distracted, because, again, it’s not a very common name in movies. There’s Robert Langdom from the many Dan Brown books/movies, but his first name is so seldomly mentioned in the books/movies that it is not enough to get me distracted. And I only watched one of those.
It’s different with actors, though. I still feel kind of funny sharing names with Robert Redford, Robert De Niro, or Robert Downey Jr.
I listen to the Doug Loves Movies podcast, hosted by Doug Benson. If you haven’t listened, it’s got a game show format where comedians compete in games of movie trivia. Each comedian picks an audience member to compete for. People bring nametags that typically are photoshopped versions of movie posters that integrate their own names.
I struggle with it, because I never go by the abbreviated version of my name, Alexander. “Alex” would fit into movie titles pretty easily, but the full thing is a tough squeeze, if it’s also going to sound funny. The best I’ve come up with so far and “Alexander Sisters”, after Hanna and Her Sisters and “Alexanderstellar”.
But here’s the thing. If anyone ever did pick my nametag, I know that Doug would make a crack about Oliver Stone having made a movie with my name as the title. But using that just wouldn’t be funny! Nobody would pick that.
I am a little sensitive about the historical figure of Alexander. I got his appellation “The Great” used on me many times as a kid as a way to poke fun because I was anything but “Great”.
My first name is my dad’s first name, as was tradition in his family for the firstborn son. But my folks never wanted to call me Patrick. They always intended to call me Christien, and never wavered. And my mother never brooked me being called Chris.
-Can I call him Chris?
-If I wanted him to be called Chris, I would have named him Chris.
(Paging @wumpus - there is a link in this post that oneboxes Schweddy Balls. It renders in the preview but not in the post, at least on the iPad. Edit this post and you’ll see it in the preview.)
