I'm sure at least one other person has wondered this at some point, but how come the actors never interacted on the IMDB message boards with any of their fans? I understand why the A-Listers might not, but I'm curious about the lesser known actors or the ones from beloved films and TV shows who no longer act.
shareI've known of a few celebs that responded to fans on imdb. Michael Biehn, Judith Hoag, and some chick from The Manson Family '03 are some I remember. There are probably plenty of other examples from imdb. Some actors used to be on Myspace too, when that was popular.
I think a lot of it involves scope. You wouldn't find A-listers on there, but cult film and b-movie actors were much more likely.
There were a couple that did.
But I think the main reason is that to stay popular you must be distant,
mysterious. When people realize you are just an ordinary schlub who
poops, you can't really be a star. Also, make a slip and it gets out and
the whole world condemns you like they do Trump every day now with
his idiotic Tweets ... who needs or wants that?
I understand that completely. If you're too accessible you lose some of what makes you desirable to others. However what about those who don't act anymore and just lead normal lives? It seems like they would want to say hi to the fans they still have out there.
shareI cannot remember who I have seen, I think it was two actresses, but they basically were experimenting with increasing their name recognition, to be different and mentioned. I doubt it worked since I don't remember who it was. People are weird and try to be unpredictably irrational so that other people cannot scam them. The major game in humans is bait and switch, establish a brand and hope people give you an opening to exploit them. It can be illegal as in a con man's scam, or it can be completely legal as in a food company making a great product and then adulterating it over time to increase the profit. It is a seduction, a trick. That is why in psychology the "trickster" archetype is so universal.
shareThey did sometimes. I saw a thread where the director of a movie came and participated in the discussion on the movie's board. The movie was "Let Us Prey".
I once met an actress too on IMDb, just a small-time actress who did commercials and little things. She was cool.
I think it's also possible that some posted there without letting it be known who they are, to avoid hassle, to keep it cool and have anonymity. Being a public figure has to be pretty stressful. Especially for women; the actresses' boards on IMDb were just awful.
shareOkay I just thought of this a few seconds ago, and it's another odd question. Do you think a lot of these actors/actresses have family who lurked on their message boards? I know that's pretty much a given; however I wonder why they do not comment.
shareI remember that after the final chapter was released,Milla answered on some heitful comments that some angry fans did,she answered to those comments in very polite way as she usually do.
shareAs a follow up, I'm wondering why we didn't see more people pretending to be an actor and interacting on IMDB message boards.
With the level of trolling, I actually surprised we didn't see more of it.
As far as I remember, there was no sort of verification of identity on IMDB message boards. I guess everyone would just assume it was an imposter anyway.
Because IMDb would probably sue them, or the actor would. If there is such a thing as IP banning, I would not be surprised if IMDb knew the IPs of every member. It would not be a bright idea to impersonate an actor/actress.
shareSocial media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Snapchat) are FULL of celebrity impersonators.
I'm not sure it's a crime in the first place and IMDB was so ambivalent to the problems on their message boards, I seriously doubt they would take action on anything.
Also, IPs can be spoofed. And you can use TOR or VPN to get around most of that anyway.
But not all trolls are professional hackers. I am sure some of what I wrote would be intimidating.
shareI don't know about actors on message boards, but I do know that actor-turned-director Keith Gordon and actor Jim Beavers both wrote a bunch of movie reviews on IMDb, which I thought was neat because it's not like they were getting paid for it. They work in movies, but still love movies enough to spend their free time posting reviews on IMDb. Of course, neither of those dudes are A listers, so it's like others said, you would have to be lesser known to bother with something like that.
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