Are You.....?

“I know who you are!” I was at a social gathering this week, and a woman approached me with excitement. “You’re....uh......”
“Kelly,” I answered, trying to be helpful.
“No, that’s not it,” she said with concentration. Huh??
“You’re.......Kathy.”
“No, I really am Kelly,” I persisted.
“No, that’s not right. “ This was interesting. She believed I was wrong about knowing my own name. I wanted to see where the conversation was going.
“Oh, I know!” she snapped her fingers as the light dawned across her face. “You’re Cindy! I knew I recognized you!!”
Ahhhh. The name of a character I played in a drama at church. Cindy. Not Kelly. She wasn’t interested in me. She preferred Cindy, my wacky, funny alter-ego. And she seemed a bit disappointed that I wasn’t eccentric and hair-brained in real life. (Well, I am to a degree. But I’m a lot normal-er than the woman I played on stage. Although, admittedly, it does take a certain amount of Real-Life Crazy to play High-Caliber Crazy.)

This has happened to me before. I’ve had other people approach me in public and think I’m really a character in a performance. One time I played a Marriage Therapist, and a few people actually wanted some quick freebie counseling. Another time I performed in a drama where the subject was Body Image, and strangers told me I did not need to lose any weight. Weird. It’s called acting, people!

It’s happened to fellow actors on my Drama Team as well. We all have stories about this. So it’s led me to ponder what it’s like for the professional actors on screen. Do people assume Matthew Perry is as as funny and witty as Chandler on “Friends"? Oh, the pressure! He had writers, folks! And do they ask Patrick Dempsey to look at their rash? Or expect Tobey Maguire to feel a Spidey Sense and scale buildings and fight crime?

Hmm....my experience has given me some empathy for them. It must be an odd kind of existence.