MovieChat Forums > Mermaids: The Body Found (2012) Discussion > One thing I think should be straightened...

One thing I think should be straightened out about the 'actors'

posted 10 years ago by Apatow-Fan
4 replies | jump to latest

I'm seeing a lot of people claim that obviously none of the scientists in the documentary were real, so I did a little investigating. I looked up Andre Weideman on a quick google search. He is credited as portraying Dr. Paul Robertson. Well, just as I had suspected, the actors that everyone is talking about were seemingly portraying the people in the reenactments, not the actual scientists being interviewed. Therefore, Andre Weideman played Paul Robertson in the reenactment scenes, not the interview with Dr. Robertson scenes.

Here is a link to a photo of Andre Weideman from a quick google search. It is clearly the man portraying Dr. Robertson in the reenactment segments, not the actual interview segments:

http://api.ning.com/files/rG5buVqLcgY1SGLjbgeyMbfBt9VFJhjf--zyPTTG4Pt-NXvh3kSnRKX56RYdMqAB15FjKfGuMBX5XOwQpQH8zOxGJgA90INI/WEESAndreWeideman.jpg

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that I am. I just saw the documentaries tonight and my mind has been blown, whether real or fake. I am just confused. I am a big believer in government cover-ups as it is.

[–] chas437 10 years ago

Its an elaborate hoax. Its just like the bigfoot phenomenon, there are too many reasons why it can't possibly be true. There are many obvious contradictions and impossibilities in the story.

Its a sad day when networks like Animal Planet have to resort to these tactics to get ratings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mermaids:_The_Body_Found Its a "docufiction"

I'm a civilian, I'm not a trout

[–] Apatow-Fan 10 years ago

I don't understand though. The entire thing is fake? The interviewed Scientists are all actors as well? The interviewed Navy guy was an actor? The host of the show was an actor? All the footage shown was made up? I don't understand. How can that be possible?

If there is any article out there explaining specifically these issues, then I would like to read it. But I can't find anything on it.

I tried finding out about Dr. Robertson but I can't find anything anywhere. Does he go by an alias? If he's an actor, why can't I find the actor's name anywhere?

So many questions.

[–] chas437 10 years ago

The entire thing is fiction, although they don't make it clear. All the scientists are actors. All the 'claimed footage' was CGI.

As it indicates on Wikipedia, this is a new form of media called 'docufiction'. Animal Planet is going too far with this type of nonsense.

Think about it, if they really found an actual body, it would be front page news world wide. Other things don't match up, like the fact that the US government is not experimenting with 'sonar weapons'.

I'm a civilian, I'm not a trout

[–] bufster3 10 years ago

Hi Apatow-Fan,

It's not a hoax, the show is a "mockumentary" or mock documentary. There is a very small, very quick disclaimer in the end credits of the mermaids shows saying that it is fictional and solely for entertainment purposes.

There are no aquatic humanoids. The producers have said in interviews that the shows are not real.

What IS real is that the Navy uses sonar that causes whales and dolphins to beach themselves. It can deafen them. It kills many cetaceans every time they do these sonar tests.

The producers and Animal Planet have been widely criticized for not making it clearer that the shows were scripted fiction done in a documentary style for the fun of it.

They said that it was done that way to add to the fun of the shows.

Huge numbers of viewers were confused and contacted the U.S. Navy, NOAA, and even the Office of Homeland Security, it was actually kind of funny. If you're interested, here's a link to an article I just published about it.

http://www.examiner.com/article/mermaids-on-monster-week-3-on-animal-p lanet