My understanding of how credits should be entered is that if a person appears and is essentially playing him/herself that the role should be credited as "Himself" or "Herself". However, it appears that many people will enter the credit with the actor/actress's name, i.e. Dan Harmon as Dan Harmon. For example, most of the cast of Community show up in the season finale of Dr. Ken (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6624052/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast). Even though the final credits show the roles as "Himself" or "Herself", someone entered the actors's and actressses's names. Which is correct? And if it should be "Himself" or "Herself", can we add a warning when someone enters a role name that is identical to the person's name?
Adrian, Champion
Posted 3 years ago
gromit82, Champion
Adrian: This has been discussed in the past, and while I used to support the position you are taking, the IMDb policy has since been definitely established (see https://contribute.imdb.com/updates/guide/characters):
Where someone is billed in the credits as Himself/Herself in a fictional piece and are playing a scripted, fictional version of themselves, we use the performer's name as the character name to avoid moving the credit to the 'Self' category even if the credits say Himself/Herself.There are examples where this has not been implemented correctly (see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0509913/, for example), but it is the established policy. So, yes, when Jay Leno appears as Jay Leno in a fictional story such as "The West Wing" or Ted 2 or "Hannah Montana" or Space Cowboys or Wag the Dog, IMDb does indeed want that to be listed as an acting role where he is playing the character Jay Leno, not as a self role where he is appearing as himself.
Adrian, Champion
This seems especially bizarre since IMDb should be reflecting actual credits. When someone is billed as "Himself" they should be listed that way and not as "Jay Leno".
Adrian, Champion
I guess I have been doing it wrong and will change but this seems so illogical. People aren't playing a character with a similar name as the actor. They are, essentially, themselves.
if Jay Leno is acting in the film, he's acting. When he's not acting, he's being "himself". To me it's quite clear.
Adrian, Champion
What if he's doing standup in a movie or appearing as if on his tv show. He's acting but acting himself. It is not clear at all. When a singer shows up on a show and sings and acts are they playing a character or himself? When the credits specifically say "Himself" why would we enter anything different?
Adrian, Champion
And given the fact that IMDb's credo is "keep it simple", this is the furthest thing from simple!
Walter
Brian C. Singleton...(written by) (as Brian Singleton)
Adrian, Champion
In the case of Jay Leno, remember that these are entered by users like us and doesn't necessarily mean they were done correctly. I think that it should be fairly rare that Jay Leno pops up in a show/movie as Jay Leno and not be credited as Himself.
Eboy
"Where someone is billed in the credits as Himself/Herself in a fictional piece and are playing a scripted, fictional version of themselves, we use the performer's name as the character name to avoid moving the credit to the 'Self' category even if the credits say Himself/Herself."
https://contribute.imdb.com/updates/g...