How we perceive Stories

Lately I’ve been thinking about how an acquaintance and I perceive things. We seem to be opposite. Whenever we watch a TV show or a movie or a Broadway show, I root for the character while she roots for the actor. For example, we usually end up watching Grey’s Anatomy together and when Callie Torres’ father and her priest show up to try to get her to renounce her lesbianism, she stands up for herself/tells them off in her usual way. While I was very touched, She just yelled out “Yeah Sara! (Ramírez) She does that a lot for actors she knows very well…

I finally realized why we’re so different when it comes to watching TV: I grew up immersed in the world of books first. The characters in there were always characters to me. I could picture them in my head as I read and when I was done with the story, I could still picture them, doing other things. Movies (and TV shows) were the same thing, as there never were any deleted scenes on the VHS tapes I watched. I only saw the characters.

She on the other hand grew up differently. She grew up going to Broadway and seeing shows. She probably recognized pretty quickly the actor first and the character second. Because they leave the character on the stage and are themselves once they come out into the street. When we went to shows together we would rush the stage door and try to get autographs. I was never as thrilled as she was to get so and so’s autograph. I realized it was because I “fell in love” with the character on stage, not the actor. It’s the same way for me with movies. I judge how well an actor is doing if I can completely forget that is an actor. Like, “that’s not Matt Damon, that’s Will Hunting.” If I can see the actor coming through, then I am taken out of the story/movie. When I saw Public Enemies, half way through I realized the FBI agent in charge of getting Dillinger was Christian Bale, I didn’t enjoy it as much. Every time he came on screen, I just thought, look, it’s Christian Bale.