Celebrities exaggerating to reclaim fame

Posted on 21. Sep, 2008 by Archivist in A&E, In Focus, Life

Dila Velazquez
Photo Editor

The Muscles from Brussels and Dr. Doogie Howser now have          something else in common besides being famous in the early ‘90s. Jean-Claude Van Damme and Neil Patrick Harris first became       household names by portraying characters, but lately they have played themselves and people are taking notice.
As former Hollywood stars turn to reality television in search of the limelight these two actors have found a way to recapture our    attention without making us feel dirty.  Harris was the first to do this brilliantly in 2004’s Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. He played Neil Patrick Harris, the   womanizing    former child actor that wreaks havoc in Harold and Kumar’s life. Up to that point Harris had not had a leading role on          television or in movies since Doogie Howser M.D. In 2005 he got the role of Barney Stinson, the  womanizing bachelor on How I Met Your Mother, because of his part in White Castle.
“They initially wanted a John Belushi, Jack Black — a big, portly cigar-smoking kind of guy,” Harris said on Good Morning America. “And I had just done this movie where I play this extraordinarily extreme version of myself, and the creators had seen it and thought it would be funny.”
For his role as Barney, he was   nominated multiple times for Emmys, Golden Globes and People’s Choice awards.
J.C.V.D is the latest movie from Van Damme, in which he plays himself as an aging action hero who battles drug addictions, divorces and fading fame. It has received critical acclaim, both at Cannes and the Toronto International Film Festival and although the film is not a      documentary, the story is close to the truth.
Acting is defined as pretending to be a character, but both Harris and Van Damme have found a way to get recognition by playing themselves. That’s what’s so smart about it. They have managed to tap into our      nostalgia without demeaning    themselves. The trend continues in the new comedy Hamlet 2, where Elizabeth Shue, better known as the prostitute with the heart of gold in Leaving Las Vegas, plays herself. Only time will tell if she too will   parlay this role into bigger  things.