In Hollywood why do all actors and such have fake names besides their own? How do they come up with them? If I went to hollywood could i make up something like Don Dickle Pickle Wiggler?

Comments

• JasonDJ@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  You don’t have to go to Hollywood to start calling yourself Don Dickle Pickle Wiggler. You can just do that now, without even leaving your room.

  Hell I can be Don Dickle Pickle Wiggler, his name is Don Dickle Pickle Wiggler, her name is Don Dickle Pickle Wiggler…we all are. One big Pickle Wiggler family.

  It don’t matter. Somewhere back on your lineage someone just decided their last name is now Smith, or whatever. They just said it, and set your surname, hundreds of years ago.

  Or some dude at immigration misheard your name so just gave you a new one.

  Even your first name…your mom just decided that for you one day. She said “you’re gonna be called Pat and I’m gonna have your foreskin cut off” and you just said “waaa” and accepted it.

  Either way. Names don’t matter. It’s all made up by someone. You can change your name anytime you want, but you can’t get your original foreskin back.

  source

  • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Lots of last names are occupational names, like your Smith example, so were often a qualifier that others used.

    And it seems the immigration story want really that common.

    source

    • Tujio@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      Yes, names like Smith, Schomaker and Tanner come from the family business.

      Don’t ask about the Dickinsons.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
  • Cawifre@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    original

    source
• tgirlschierke@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  It depends.

  • Sometimes it’s because of structural Anglocentrism making it harder to get an acting role with a foreign-sounding last name (e.g. “Ramon Antonio Gerard Estevez” becomes “Martin Sheen” or “Ilyena Lydia Vadilievna Mironov” becomes “[Dame] Helen Mirren”)

  • Sometimes it’s just a matter of cropping a name or two (“Philip Anthony Hopkins”)

  • Sometimes it’s just about sounding cooler (“Eric Bishop” becomes “Jamie Foxx” or “Caryn Elaine Johnson” becomes “Whoopi Goldberg”)

  • And sometimes it’s because there’s already a SAG member with your name (“Diane Hall” becomes “Diane Keaton” or “Michael Douglas” becomes… “Michael Keaton”)

  source
• Typhoon@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  The SAG forces everyone to have their own unique names, similar to a copyright. It’s their brand. So if there’s already a John Doe, you have to pick something different even if that’s your name.

  source

  • Patnou@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    I sometimes had the thought of being introduced on Colbert show and showing I am a woman but wearing a pickle t-shirt lol

    source
• slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  If I recall correctly the Acting Guild has requirements for actor names. One is no two actors can have the same name which is why Harrison Ford was credited as Harrison J Ford in his early career.

  source
• CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  1. To use Anglo-friendly name - eg “Estévez” markets worse than “Sheen”.
  2. To separate themselves from others with similar names. Nicolas Coppola, for example, wanted to distance himself from his uncle Francis.
  3. To make a memorable name - linked to 1. Thomas Mapother doesn’t stick in the brain as well.

  source
• joeljoelle@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  I’d go with Dong Dickler.

  source

  • CameronDev@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    [deleted]

    source

    • joeljoelle@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      I have no idea why everyone takes me so dreadfully seriously but it’s god damn annoying.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
• Imperious_melange@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Hollywood is a business like any other and they are concerned with making money. It’s rare that someone’s given name is marketable. People get their names different ways but it’s often their agent or some producer who picks them up who names them.

  source
• Witchfire@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  I’m a performance artist, far from Hollywood, and I have an alias. It’s called a stage name. It helps to keep my private and public lives separate, and it’s cooler than my legal name.

  source
• glimse@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Only likea thirs of actors change their name

  source