If you play an evil character it’s gotta stick a little.

And if you’re a character-actor who always gets the evil role. If you play 100 evil guys. Then 100X moreso.

You get into the evil role. See the world through evil eyes and evil motivations.

And over time it’s gotta bend your personality towards real evilness. Right?

I suppose you could google evil-character-actors. 20 years later, how many got arrested for something heinous.

What do you think?


EDIT

Put more generally : Can habits gained in one context bleed over into another context?

Yes.

Do they?

Possibly. With increasing probability as the habit becomes stronger. And there’s self-awareness to consider. And how much the habit clashes with the new context.

  • UziBobuzi@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I personally don’t think this is a thing. Acting is pretending. I used to LARP an evil character but it was all just role-playing. Being able to use one’s imagination and walk in another’s shoes (evil or not) doesn’t change who you are as a person. It just makes you a good actor.

    • froghorse@lemm.eeOP
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      1 year ago

      How about a person who isn’t “a good actor”. A normal everyday person. Would the evil stick?

      • atlasraven31@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Nope. Test it if you want. Read the lines of a villain, idk Darth Vader or Dr Evil, and see if you feel more malevolent.

        • froghorse@lemm.eeOP
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          1 year ago

          Well that would be a rather shallow assessment. Degrees of magnitude beneath “entering the skin of an evil person”.

          But this is obvious.

          Some of you people really don’t like this question. You can barely even think about it.

          That’s interesting.

          And look at those downvotes!

          • rufus@discuss.tchncs.de
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            1 year ago

            I don’t think that’s why you’re getting downvoted. You’re simply not listening to the replies and that is why most people are downvoting.

            Does owning a Bobby Car as a child prepare you for the daily commute in heavy traffic as an adult? Does watching a scifi movie make you an astronaut? No. It’s all pretend and made believe. These days actors are in front of a big green backdrop anyways and the world exploding from your mischievous acts is completely CGI.

            People have the ability to think. Have imagination and they can fantasize. The ability to try and understand whats going on in another person’s mind (evil or not) is what makes us able to have compassion, to socialize with other people.

            I’d say if you’re an exceptional good actor and roleplay the evil villain very well… The same abilities that make you succeed in that also allow you to be nice to the barista that serves you your coffee the next day or empathize with the everyday struggles of your 12 y o daughter.

            So the more in the skin of an evil person, the more nice a person.

                • froghorse@lemm.eeOP
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                  1 year ago

                  (Wow, you discovered my kryptonite. Nothing compels me to openness like an accusation of dishonesty.)

                  But no, I see no good argument in your reply there. I think that habits from one context do indeed bleed over into another. I think it happens all the time. Yes, it can inform. And it can outright influence too.

                  • rufus@discuss.tchncs.de
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                    1 year ago

                    Okay. Maybe I’ve been a bit too direct/blunt. I’m sorry if that makes you feel a certain way but I really can not tell.

                    You can look it up. There have been studies done on exact this topic. I’m not an expert though. I remember people discussing similar topics like if playing Counterstrike on a computer makes you want to kill people in real-life. As far as i remember there has been quite some effort trying to prove there is a connection. You have to really read the studies, though, to understand. And to know about correlation, causation and all the scientific stuff. AFAIK it turns out children at a certain age develop an understanding and slowly start to learn to differentiate between fiction and reality.

                    Edit: You really see no compelling argument there? So someone exceptionally empathic like a good actor would be the one who likes to harm other people? Even more so than somebody less empathic who wouldn’t care for other people suffering?