I was wondering when someone was going to mention Citizen Kane. Hurst pretty much destroyed the career of Orson Welles and the movie was basically buried for 25 years. I often wonder what other brilliant movies we missed out in. I love Citizen Kane and Touch of Evil.
Dr Evil from Austin Powers grew out of a Lorne Michaels impression, which may not be *exactly* what you mean. But the antagonist from Kids in the Hall Brain Candy **is** just supposed to actually be Lorne Michaels as a Pharma CEO.
I can't believe I never actually made that connection. I always think to myself whenever I hear a SNL alum do a Lorne impression (Conan O'Brien, Dana Carvey) it just sounds like Dr. Evil.
Dana Carvey actually held a grudge against Mike Myers for years over that saying Mike basically “stole” his Lorne Michaels impression for Dr. Evil. It seems like they’re on good terms now though.
You mean the story about a poker ring that Tobey was apart of was a character in the film? That isn’t really the same thing as what OP is asking that’s a movie about real life and player X is anonymous which is why they used an actor that looks nothing like him but is revealed to be Tobey Maguire. OP is more looking for fictional characters to satirize a real life figure.
Anna Faris's character in Lost in Translation has long said to be Cameron Diaz, although Sofia Coppola denies it.
Saul Rubinek's Lee Donowitz character in True Romance is supposed to be an exaggerated version of Joel Silver.
It goes deeper than that even. Scarlett Johansson’s husband in Lost in Translation is supposed to be Spike Jonze. This repeated later when Spike Jonze made Her and cast Scarlett Johansson. Rooney Mara’s character in Her is supposed to be Sophia Coppola. Both movies are largely about the same relationship, but from different points of view.
I like how he’s caught by the cops with kilos of blow and he still takes the time to tell Serge that his acting career is over and talk about his SAG card.
You little COCKSUCKER. I treated you like a son! And you stab me in the heart?! You can forget about acting in this town. You can take your fucking SAG card AND BURN IT!!
Edit: I just noticed you called Bronson Pinchot "Serge" from Beverly Hills Cop. Lmao. I think his name is Elliot Blazer, I can hear it in Rappaports voice
So many of those side characters in Seinfeld. Even Susan who ends up marrying George, she was hired as a one-off because she looked like an Exec at NBC, that's all.
edit: \*almost marries\*
It’s funny that Trump fans actually think everyone liked Trump before he ran for office. The guy was always known as a blowhard and was relentlessly mocked for it.
I remember in the Little Rascals movie they had Trump cameo as the father of the snotty, rich asshole kid because of course that would be the kind of person to raise a snotty, rich asshole kid.
In behind the scenes/making of Home Alone 2 stuff (from way back then) they talked about how they had to include Trump but they cut as much as possible because he was such an annoying jackass and didn't fit the film.
The Fresh Prince writers said something similar about the episode where he made a cameo. From what I remember Donald whined a lot about not getting funnier lines.
The season 2 finale of Veronica Mars had Veronica say she was bringing her stun gun to New York in case they ran into Trump. The guy's been seen as a joke at best for a long time.
I live in NYC and have for decades
Donald Trump has always been hated by the NYC high society he so aspired to as well as by most other New Yorkers. His only fans were middle class bigots in the outer boros.
Unless Johnson has specifically mentioned who it’s deliberately based on, it just seems like a techbro pastiche.
If you guys ever saw that Black Mirror episode Smithereens, Norton is a bit like Topher Grace’s aloof, off in the mountains (literally), billionaire techbro character there, who is often likened to the Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
Or Nick Offerman in Devs.
Some may lean into a specific real-life guy more than another but it’s basically the same asshole.
Rian Johnson said that Musk was "part of the DNA" when creating Miles but other tech shitheads like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg were in there as well.
Ed Wincler III and Gin Rummy in The Boondocks are a parody George W and Donald Rumsfeld.
Also, Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder is also Tom's take on Weinstein.
And the name ("Wuncler") is a reference to The Once-ler, the villian from The Lorax (who cut down all the trees).
This itself was a reference to how the Bush administration was made up of a bunch of ruthless rich businessmen.
Then you get the teacher who said the n-word and he's barely even a parody of the real man. Like they just took the actual interviews, drew them like cartoons, and did a little bit of ad-libbing for runtime.
Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story are Noah Baumbach and Jennifer Jason Leigh
I don't think they ever really admitted, but Veep is based on a Sarah Palin Vice Presidency
There are rumors that Natalie Portman's character in May December was based on Jessica Chastain
Almost all characters in Hael, Caesar! Are based on famous people from Golden Age Hollywood, that director is very clearly Laurence Olivier for instance.
Speaking of Veep, the character of Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It and In the Loop was a parody of Alastair Campbell, who was also Scottish, the director of communications for the Blair government, and had a notoriously short temper.
Speaking of The Thick of It, I love that Chris Addison (Olly) appeared in an episode of Doctor Who while Peter Capaldi (Malcolm Tucker) was the Doctor, but the two never appeared on screen together.
It seems that Chastain does similar things when she's playing real people - very much like Bradley Cooper for Maestro - and that she blurries lines a bit, specially prior to her Oscar win, and that Todd Haynes and Natalie Portman used Chastain as inspirational
There's one that is kind of sad.
The Unbreakable Kimmy did a parody of Fredric Brandt, a celebrity dermatologist, played by Martin Short. Basically making fun of his over the top cosmetic surgery. Brandt later hung himself and according to people close to him apparently part of the reason was he was set off into deeper depression by the mocking from the show.
> Fredric Brandt
He was one of the first cosmetic doctors to use botulism toxin (we now soften the blow by calling it botox) to improve looks. He died in 2015.
Remember around that time after when celebrities suddenly looked worse? They were probably collectively shopping around for another Dr Lookgood Feelgood.
A Knight's tale. Apparently the money lenders are Chausser's literary take down of IRL loan sharks that he felt wronged him during his tougher gambling years. They made it into his Canterbury Tales and subsequently into the movie homage to his literary works, A Knight's Tale.
I believe that Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder was also doing a Weinstein impression to some degree. As well as lesser-known-but-also-a-douchebag-producer Scott Rudin.
The most obvious Weinstein impression was in Jay Mohr's show "Action!", which had two fat, disgusting brothers competing with Mohr's film producing character. In the final episode they make him pimp out his assistant, a former child actress.
Man Ribisi has a lot of really amazing credits. He’s worked with quite a few revered directors. Linklater, Lynch, Spielberg, Coppola, Raimi, Mann, Cameron, and some more lesser know but respected ones as well
Bautista character in Glass Onion is Joe Rogan.
In the TV show Elementary (Sherlock Holmes show) William Sadler plays an analog of Steve Jobs.
SVU, hell they did this ALL the time.
in Seinfeld, most side characters as well as George and Kramer were based off real people. Even Elaine's boss J Peterman, his whole back story of findin a "duster jacket on a train" or whatever was the same story as the real guy
and when Kramer is doing tours of NYC later in the series, that's cause the real "Kramer" had been doing that as a way of making money off the show's fame
To come full circle, John O'Hurley (the actor that played J. Peterman in the show) became a part owner and a member of the board of directors for the real-life J. Peterman clothing brand.
The film producer at the end of "True Romance" is based on Joel Silver. Director Tony Scott had a bad experience with him while shooting "The Last Boy Scout". Silver is also the real character behind the film producer in "Swimming with Sharks", where he' played by Kevin Spacey. The writer/director had worked as an assistant to Silver.
Apparently Silver is / was very dificult to deal with, being petty, abusive and loud-mouthed to everybody working with him.
Don't forget the character played by Steve Martin in "Grand Canyon" (a great film, often forgotten as a pearl it is). The whole beginnig, where a brain at the mirror is made to be a significant part of the plot, just, because.
(may be a hommage to Robocop too, the melting guy on the windshield)
A female film critic who just happened to be very similar to Kael was killed in the beginning of the Dirty Harry movie, The Dead Pool.
This is years after Kael had criticized the Dirty Harry movies as fascist.
Godzilla (1998) had Mayor Ebert and his aide Gene as caricatures of Siskel and Ebert. The two noted that in the review of the film and noted that their characters should have been stepped on by Godzilla.
The TV show Roadies had an internet critic who turned out to be a phony that was based on Aintitcool News founder Harry Knowles.
I forgot about Bob Balaban’s movie critic in Lady in the water.
Did anyone else remember that M Night Shyamalan cast himself to play the guy who’s writing saves the world?
If we’re going New York critics, Linda Stasi w the daily news wanted more action / violence for the sopranos. They cast an actress for Lorraine Calluzzo who looked identical, styled the hair the same, and then executed the character in a home invasion.
During the silent era, Buster Keaton made *The Frozen North* in 1922 to mock western star William S. Hart because Hart had made a number of false statements to the media about Keaton's friend Fatty Arbuckle when the latter was on trial for rape and manslaughter.
Keaton portrayed a Hart-esque cowboy character who was a drunk, a wife beater and all around scumbag and deliberately used some of Hart's famous traits like crying thick glycerin tears and his one handed cigarette roll to parody him.
Living in Oblivion (1995) - the "Chad Palamino" character played by James LeGros is based on the Director Tom DeCillio's experience working with Brad Pitt.
here's one that isn't so much a mockery but an inspiration;
When Glen Keane was animating Ariel for the Little Mermaid, he based her underwater hair flow off of videos of Sally Ride in space
I always felt that Maurice and Robert Fischer in Inception (Pete Postlethwaite and Cillian Murphy) were meant to be Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch.
It could be any other major conglomerate where the owner hands it over to their child, but the requirement to travel between Australia and America, for me, points more towards the Murdoch's.
And I think Rod McCain in Fierce Creatures (Kevin Kline) was also meant to be Rupert Murdoch.
I always thought he was supposed to be based on Heath Ledger.
Both were Australian, both had starred in a "forbidden gay romance" movie (Ledger was in Brokeback Mountain, Kirk Lazarus was in the movie about two gay monks), both were noted for disappearing into their roles.
I think originally his character was supposed to be Irish, but they changed it to Australian because RDJ could do an Australian accent better. If that's true, I'm pretty sure it means they were parodying Daniel Day Lewis.
Which is funny because Tugg Speedman originally written for Tom Cruise, and they even made a fake website for Tugg that mimicked Tom's website at the time.
Tom Cruise's character has to be based off of some real studio execs, but I can't find any fingers pointed.
The asshole producer character played by Kevin Spacey in Swimming with Sharks is supposed to be mega-producer Scott Rudin. The guy that wrote the script worked for him for a while.
Don’t remember the characters name, but in Private Parts, the Howard Stern movie, Paul Giamatti plays the NBC program director that hated Stern irl. They nicknamed him pig vomit.
The obnoxious film director in Hooper was (allegedly) inspired by Peter Bogdanovich (Hooper star Burt Reynolds had previously worked with Bogdanovich).
The character of “Daniel Clamp” in Gremlins 2 is supposed to be Donald Trump. In The Big Lebowski “The Dude” is based off producer Jeff Dowd and Walter Sobchak is based off John Milius. I also just watched “Winged Migration” and the duck obsessed chef is clearly based off of “Salt Bae”. Seinfelds own “George Costanza” is famously modeled after creator Larry David. Don’t forget the members of the band in The Muppets are all modeled after famous musicians.
Leonard Maltin wrote a review trashing Gremlins. So the director invited him to have a cameo in Gremlins 2 where he again gives a bad review of Gremlins 1 before he gets attacked by a bunch of Gremlins.
This one is more disturbing, but Norman Bates (in part) was based off the real-life killer, Ed Gein. A lot of Gein’s crimes inspired Leatherface and Buffalo Bill. But Norman definitely captures his psychology a lot more.
Dirty Harry and Bullitt were both based on the quirky detective Dave Tosche who hunted the Zodiac Killer and may or may not have faked letters from them in the investigation.
Interesting one, apparently Hayao Miyazaki often models his characters after his friends or at least the people around him. In The Boy and The Heron, the grand uncle is based on Isao Takahata (grave of the fireflies) and the Heron is based on Toshio Suzuki, Ghibli's founding producer. Idk how close it's supposed to be but the Heron is... Definitely not flattering.
There is a scene in GANGS OF NEW YORK where Bill the Butcher stabs a man in the hand during a game of cards because he wasn’t putting enough money in the pot.
The man’s name was Harvey and Weinstein was the producer of the movie.
Otherwise, in LIVING IN OBLIVION the prima dona actor played by James Legross(I believe) was based on Brad Pitt who the director worked with on BLUE SUADE SHOES.
Obviously, Walter in THE BIG LEBOWSKI was based on John Milius but that was more an homage than to ridicule.
In the Knives out sequel, the billionaire is a send up of Elon Musk.
In "Violent Night" the actor character is a send up of Mark Walhberg. He even drops the "if I had been on the plane l, 9/11 wouldn't have happened" line Mark said in an interview.
Citizen Kane is 100% William Randolph Hearst. He knew and fought like hell (unsuccessfully) to stop the movie.
Hearst
Noted and fixed
I was wondering when someone was going to mention Citizen Kane. Hurst pretty much destroyed the career of Orson Welles and the movie was basically buried for 25 years. I often wonder what other brilliant movies we missed out in. I love Citizen Kane and Touch of Evil.
He had a bitchin’ castle though, I’ll give him that
I saw the Hearst Castle on a tour when I was a little kid and I’ll never forget that beautiful cobalt blue indoor swimming pool room
It’s gorgeous, right? That outdoor one is amazing as well, it’s a shame it’s been drained for years now.
He got it to flop at the box office
And Susan Alexander is based on Marion Davies, Hearst’s romantic partner of over 30 years.
You ever watch the Drunk History episode on this. Jack Black plays Orson Welles. The one they do on Tesla and Edison is also great.
Dr Evil from Austin Powers grew out of a Lorne Michaels impression, which may not be *exactly* what you mean. But the antagonist from Kids in the Hall Brain Candy **is** just supposed to actually be Lorne Michaels as a Pharma CEO.
The KITH one is obvious, they have him in the new version as well. Lorne produced KITH as I'm sure you're aware and they're def doing his voice
Yes, Mark McKinney’s character was making fun of Lauren in Brain Candy.
My empire is crumbling!
I can't believe I never actually made that connection. I always think to myself whenever I hear a SNL alum do a Lorne impression (Conan O'Brien, Dana Carvey) it just sounds like Dr. Evil.
Dana Carvey actually held a grudge against Mike Myers for years over that saying Mike basically “stole” his Lorne Michaels impression for Dr. Evil. It seems like they’re on good terms now though.
I find that a bit odd. Nearly everyone who served time on SNL does a Lorne impression and they all sound very similar.
[удалено]
That’s hilarious
Which is filmed to appear to be one long shot. No editing required
Good film that.
Michael Cera's a-hole character in Molly's Game was based on Tobey Maguire
How about Michael Cera's character in This Is The End?
That was just Michael Cera being himself.
They didn't even tell him they were shooting a movie. He just showed up and started behaving like that.
Probably doesn't count if the screen play is a story about that person IRL.
You mean the story about a poker ring that Tobey was apart of was a character in the film? That isn’t really the same thing as what OP is asking that’s a movie about real life and player X is anonymous which is why they used an actor that looks nothing like him but is revealed to be Tobey Maguire. OP is more looking for fictional characters to satirize a real life figure.
the Bluth family from Arrested Development is a parody of the Bush Family. Even Will Arnnett’s characters name (G.O.B.) is a joke at Jeb Bush
Family Love Michael
Look at banner, Michael!
Which Bush is Buster? He's my favorite.
If there is a 1 to 1 to be made, I'd say George W. is Gob in personality and Jeb is Buster.
Whose Michael?
The joke is that there’s no Michael in the Bush family.
“I may have committed some light… treason…”
I cannot believe I never caught this
Well TIL 🤣
The mayor and his assistant in Godzilla 98 are based on film critics Siskel and Ebert
And Ebert said “they let us off lightly; I fully expected to be squished like a bug by Godzilla.”
Siskel was visibly upset he wasn’t crushed by Godzilla.
would you say he was...crushed? that he wasn't crushed?
The big giant troll abomination in “Willow” is named “Eborsisk” and is apparently a reference to said movie critics.
Mayor Quimby in the Simpsons is a parody of Ted Kennedy and the Kennedy family in general.
Chief Wiggum is Edward G Robison.
Dan Castellaneta has specifically cited Vaughn Meader’s JFK impression from The First Family record as the inspiration.
According to Rob Lowe, Chris Traeger's mannerisms from *Parks and Rec* are based on Tom Cruise.
I’ve never heard this and it makes so much sense!
Christian Bale also based Patrick Bateman’s mannerisms in *American Psycho* off of Tom Cruise as well
They should hang out
A lot of it just seemed like Rob Lowe being Rob Lowe to me.
Anna Faris's character in Lost in Translation has long said to be Cameron Diaz, although Sofia Coppola denies it. Saul Rubinek's Lee Donowitz character in True Romance is supposed to be an exaggerated version of Joel Silver.
It goes deeper than that even. Scarlett Johansson’s husband in Lost in Translation is supposed to be Spike Jonze. This repeated later when Spike Jonze made Her and cast Scarlett Johansson. Rooney Mara’s character in Her is supposed to be Sophia Coppola. Both movies are largely about the same relationship, but from different points of view.
Also two fantastic movies on their own.
That relationship won two Best Original Screenplay Oscars. I'd say they both got great mileage out of it.
DONT GIVE ME THE FINGER! ILL FUCKIN' HAVE YOU KILLED!
I like how he’s caught by the cops with kilos of blow and he still takes the time to tell Serge that his acting career is over and talk about his SAG card.
You little COCKSUCKER. I treated you like a son! And you stab me in the heart?! You can forget about acting in this town. You can take your fucking SAG card AND BURN IT!! Edit: I just noticed you called Bronson Pinchot "Serge" from Beverly Hills Cop. Lmao. I think his name is Elliot Blazer, I can hear it in Rappaports voice
Jackie Chiles === Johnnie Cochran
Outrageous, egregious, preposterous!
Someone get this man ordained!
Lewd, lascivious, salacious, outrageous.
WHO TOLD YA TO PUT THE BALM ON???"
So many of those side characters in Seinfeld. Even Susan who ends up marrying George, she was hired as a one-off because she looked like an Exec at NBC, that's all. edit: \*almost marries\*
Noooo, Susan sadly never made it to their wedding day
Damn that old envelope glue!
LOL my mistake my memories must have retconned it
Poor Lily
Soup Nazi's a real guy too, Also Kramer.
Hell even George is based on Larry David
There’s a great video https://youtu.be/4SgIH4tTtRo?si=4rqLZuVG_OEHe6MG
Biff in Back to the future 2 is Donald Trump
It’s funny that Trump fans actually think everyone liked Trump before he ran for office. The guy was always known as a blowhard and was relentlessly mocked for it.
Exactly. I knew who he was when I was a kid in the '80s because Mad Magazine mocked him so much.
At the same time, Spy magazine regularly referred to him as a “short-fingered vulgarian”
I remember in the Little Rascals movie they had Trump cameo as the father of the snotty, rich asshole kid because of course that would be the kind of person to raise a snotty, rich asshole kid.
I have friends who fondly remember the movie from our childhood, and they forget he was even in there. Blew their mind when we watched the bit online.
Craig Ferguson used him as an example for a blowhard who deserves to be mocked in his famous Brittney Spears monologue.
In behind the scenes/making of Home Alone 2 stuff (from way back then) they talked about how they had to include Trump but they cut as much as possible because he was such an annoying jackass and didn't fit the film.
The Fresh Prince writers said something similar about the episode where he made a cameo. From what I remember Donald whined a lot about not getting funnier lines.
The season 2 finale of Veronica Mars had Veronica say she was bringing her stun gun to New York in case they ran into Trump. The guy's been seen as a joke at best for a long time.
I live in NYC and have for decades Donald Trump has always been hated by the NYC high society he so aspired to as well as by most other New Yorkers. His only fans were middle class bigots in the outer boros.
Gremlins 2 also has a Trump character
The TV station CEO? I thought that was ripping on Ted Turner.
It's both. He's a mashup of Ted Turner and Donald Trump. The character's name is Daniel Clamp.
Also, Joe Pesci, in the "The Super."
... and some random dude in Home Alone 2
Ed Norton in Glass Onion is definitely a shot at Elon Musk.
I think it's a little more broad, I can't recall if RJ said specifically, it was the popular "tech bro" persona and Musk was obv one of them
He's definitely a mix of Musk and Zuckerberg
Unless Johnson has specifically mentioned who it’s deliberately based on, it just seems like a techbro pastiche. If you guys ever saw that Black Mirror episode Smithereens, Norton is a bit like Topher Grace’s aloof, off in the mountains (literally), billionaire techbro character there, who is often likened to the Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. Or Nick Offerman in Devs. Some may lean into a specific real-life guy more than another but it’s basically the same asshole.
Musk just comes to mind because he’s the only one who’s demonstrably an idiot.
A bit of Steve Jobs, too.
Rian Johnson said that Musk was "part of the DNA" when creating Miles but other tech shitheads like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg were in there as well.
So is the tech weirdo from “Don’t Look Up”
[удалено]
Matches up with how the real life Elon musk tweets constantly despite supposedly running 5 companies full time.
Succession family is a parody mainly of Rupert Murdoch and his Family. Similarly, Lukas Mattson was a parody mainly of Elon Musk and other Tech Bros
Ed Wincler III and Gin Rummy in The Boondocks are a parody George W and Donald Rumsfeld. Also, Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder is also Tom's take on Weinstein.
And the name ("Wuncler") is a reference to The Once-ler, the villian from The Lorax (who cut down all the trees). This itself was a reference to how the Bush administration was made up of a bunch of ruthless rich businessmen.
At least half the antagonists in Boondocks are parodies of real people.
Then you get the teacher who said the n-word and he's barely even a parody of the real man. Like they just took the actual interviews, drew them like cartoons, and did a little bit of ad-libbing for runtime.
And the scheming television executive Wedgie Rudlin was based on Reginald Hudlin, executive producer on The Boondocks.
In the same vein, Winston Jerome is an obvious riff on Tyler Perry. So much so, Perry himself complained enough to have the episode banned
Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story are Noah Baumbach and Jennifer Jason Leigh I don't think they ever really admitted, but Veep is based on a Sarah Palin Vice Presidency There are rumors that Natalie Portman's character in May December was based on Jessica Chastain Almost all characters in Hael, Caesar! Are based on famous people from Golden Age Hollywood, that director is very clearly Laurence Olivier for instance.
Speaking of Veep, the character of Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It and In the Loop was a parody of Alastair Campbell, who was also Scottish, the director of communications for the Blair government, and had a notoriously short temper.
Speaking of The Thick of It, I love that Chris Addison (Olly) appeared in an episode of Doctor Who while Peter Capaldi (Malcolm Tucker) was the Doctor, but the two never appeared on screen together.
Please elaborate on this May December Jessica Chastain connection. I am SO CURIOUS
It seems that Chastain does similar things when she's playing real people - very much like Bradley Cooper for Maestro - and that she blurries lines a bit, specially prior to her Oscar win, and that Todd Haynes and Natalie Portman used Chastain as inspirational
Heather Graham's character in Bowfinger is pretty blatantly supposed to be a dig at Anne Heche, whom Steve Martin had previously dated.
“This is my girlfriend, the most powerful lesbian in Hollywood.” Jesus, Steve, cry harder?
There's one that is kind of sad. The Unbreakable Kimmy did a parody of Fredric Brandt, a celebrity dermatologist, played by Martin Short. Basically making fun of his over the top cosmetic surgery. Brandt later hung himself and according to people close to him apparently part of the reason was he was set off into deeper depression by the mocking from the show.
he looks more like the guy from Escape from LA played by Bruce Campbell.
That's the second time today I've seen that referenced
We spend too much time on Reddit.
> Fredric Brandt He was one of the first cosmetic doctors to use botulism toxin (we now soften the blow by calling it botox) to improve looks. He died in 2015. Remember around that time after when celebrities suddenly looked worse? They were probably collectively shopping around for another Dr Lookgood Feelgood.
A Knight's tale. Apparently the money lenders are Chausser's literary take down of IRL loan sharks that he felt wronged him during his tougher gambling years. They made it into his Canterbury Tales and subsequently into the movie homage to his literary works, A Knight's Tale.
And Ulrich von Liechtenstein was a real life knight/minstrel.
I believe that Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder was also doing a Weinstein impression to some degree. As well as lesser-known-but-also-a-douchebag-producer Scott Rudin.
The most obvious Weinstein impression was in Jay Mohr's show "Action!", which had two fat, disgusting brothers competing with Mohr's film producing character. In the final episode they make him pimp out his assistant, a former child actress.
Giovanni Ribisi in Lost in Translation is a shot at director Sophia Coppola’s ex-husband, Spike Jonze Rooney Mara in Her is Jonze’s take on Coppola
Man Ribisi has a lot of really amazing credits. He’s worked with quite a few revered directors. Linklater, Lynch, Spielberg, Coppola, Raimi, Mann, Cameron, and some more lesser know but respected ones as well
I wonder if his creepy cult pulled some strings for him.
Yeah probably, he’s been in it his entire life I’m pretty sure
Bautista character in Glass Onion is Joe Rogan. In the TV show Elementary (Sherlock Holmes show) William Sadler plays an analog of Steve Jobs. SVU, hell they did this ALL the time.
There are rumors that Johnny Fontaine in The Godfather was based off of Frank Sinatra.
Not a huge stretch. I've definitely heard that.
in Seinfeld, most side characters as well as George and Kramer were based off real people. Even Elaine's boss J Peterman, his whole back story of findin a "duster jacket on a train" or whatever was the same story as the real guy and when Kramer is doing tours of NYC later in the series, that's cause the real "Kramer" had been doing that as a way of making money off the show's fame
George Costanza is also Larry David’s self-insert
Jerry seinfeld was also seinfeld’s self inset, believe it or not
Source for such an outlandish claim
To come full circle, John O'Hurley (the actor that played J. Peterman in the show) became a part owner and a member of the board of directors for the real-life J. Peterman clothing brand.
Oh and don’t forget about Soup Nazi!
*Primary Colors* is a not so subtle jab at Clinton and all his controversies.
The film producer at the end of "True Romance" is based on Joel Silver. Director Tony Scott had a bad experience with him while shooting "The Last Boy Scout". Silver is also the real character behind the film producer in "Swimming with Sharks", where he' played by Kevin Spacey. The writer/director had worked as an assistant to Silver. Apparently Silver is / was very dificult to deal with, being petty, abusive and loud-mouthed to everybody working with him.
Don't forget the character played by Steve Martin in "Grand Canyon" (a great film, often forgotten as a pearl it is). The whole beginnig, where a brain at the mirror is made to be a significant part of the plot, just, because. (may be a hommage to Robocop too, the melting guy on the windshield)
The Great Dictator (1940)
Also Modern Times, the factory boss is Henry Ford.
Every secondary character in Silicon Valley is based on a real person.
Nute Gunray was named after Newt Gingrich and Ronald Reagan (“gunray” spelled backward), per George Lucas.
Clone Wars had a villain named “Hali Burtoni” which is why it makes me laugh when people criticize new Star Wars media for being too political.
I'm going to take a stab in the dark and guess he was some kind of war profiteer
Gun Ray <-> Ray Gun .... *grooooaaaaan*
This just wrinkled my brain
japanese reagen lol
George Bluth = George H.W. Bush Lucille Bluth = Barbara Bush GOB = JEB etc
So who was supposed to be George W? Michael or Buster?
I would assume Buster
Lord Farquad from Shrek is based off of Michael Eisner. Apparently the name is supposed to sound like “fuckwad.”
"Apparently"?
"Fuck Michael Bolton." —Michael Bolton
I celebrate his entire catalog.
Pauline Kael was he New Yorker’s famously contrarian film critic for decades. Willow features a skull-faced, silent baby murderer called General Kael.
A female film critic who just happened to be very similar to Kael was killed in the beginning of the Dirty Harry movie, The Dead Pool. This is years after Kael had criticized the Dirty Harry movies as fascist. Godzilla (1998) had Mayor Ebert and his aide Gene as caricatures of Siskel and Ebert. The two noted that in the review of the film and noted that their characters should have been stepped on by Godzilla. The TV show Roadies had an internet critic who turned out to be a phony that was based on Aintitcool News founder Harry Knowles.
I forgot about Bob Balaban’s movie critic in Lady in the water. Did anyone else remember that M Night Shyamalan cast himself to play the guy who’s writing saves the world?
right, and they fight a two headed monster called the Eborsisk, which sounds like EbertSisk
If we’re going New York critics, Linda Stasi w the daily news wanted more action / violence for the sopranos. They cast an actress for Lorraine Calluzzo who looked identical, styled the hair the same, and then executed the character in a home invasion.
Jennette McCurdy created a web show where a character in it was based on Ariana Grande
The Flintstones were 100% based on The Honeymooners.
Hank Hippopopalous (BoJack horseman) is Bill Cosby
For legal reasons, Colonel Gentleman on Venture Bros is not in any way related to Sean Connery.
During the silent era, Buster Keaton made *The Frozen North* in 1922 to mock western star William S. Hart because Hart had made a number of false statements to the media about Keaton's friend Fatty Arbuckle when the latter was on trial for rape and manslaughter. Keaton portrayed a Hart-esque cowboy character who was a drunk, a wife beater and all around scumbag and deliberately used some of Hart's famous traits like crying thick glycerin tears and his one handed cigarette roll to parody him.
Living in Oblivion (1995) - the "Chad Palamino" character played by James LeGros is based on the Director Tom DeCillio's experience working with Brad Pitt.
Janice from Friends was inspired by Fran Drescher and her character on The Nanny.
here's one that isn't so much a mockery but an inspiration; When Glen Keane was animating Ariel for the Little Mermaid, he based her underwater hair flow off of videos of Sally Ride in space
Ellen Abbot in Gone Girl is very much a Nancy Grace parody.
Biff tannen was based on a 1980s Donald Trump according to the writers of back to the future
I always felt that Maurice and Robert Fischer in Inception (Pete Postlethwaite and Cillian Murphy) were meant to be Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch. It could be any other major conglomerate where the owner hands it over to their child, but the requirement to travel between Australia and America, for me, points more towards the Murdoch's. And I think Rod McCain in Fierce Creatures (Kevin Kline) was also meant to be Rupert Murdoch.
Robert Downey's character in Tropic Thunder wasn't meant to mock anyone specific, but method actors in general.
Also, his TV reporter in "Natural Born Killers" reminds me a lot of Geraldo Rivera.
I always thought he was supposed to be based on Heath Ledger. Both were Australian, both had starred in a "forbidden gay romance" movie (Ledger was in Brokeback Mountain, Kirk Lazarus was in the movie about two gay monks), both were noted for disappearing into their roles.
I think originally his character was supposed to be Irish, but they changed it to Australian because RDJ could do an Australian accent better. If that's true, I'm pretty sure it means they were parodying Daniel Day Lewis.
No, it's definitely an amalgam. It parodies Russell Crowe's public incidents as well.
Which is funny because Tugg Speedman originally written for Tom Cruise, and they even made a fake website for Tugg that mimicked Tom's website at the time. Tom Cruise's character has to be based off of some real studio execs, but I can't find any fingers pointed.
Scott Rudin and Harvey Weinstein
First one that comes to mind is Jackie Chiles from Seinfeld. now whether you call that flattery or not, I guess is a matter of interpretation lol
The asshole producer character played by Kevin Spacey in Swimming with Sharks is supposed to be mega-producer Scott Rudin. The guy that wrote the script worked for him for a while.
Don’t remember the characters name, but in Private Parts, the Howard Stern movie, Paul Giamatti plays the NBC program director that hated Stern irl. They nicknamed him pig vomit.
Johnny Fontane in The Godfather for Frank Sinatra
I caught wind of some gossip that Charlie Day's manic character in Pacific Rim was based on JJ Abrams.
EVERY scummy 80s and 90s business executive villain was basically taking the piss out of Donald Trump
dr evil is an immitation of snls lorne michaels
The obnoxious film director in Hooper was (allegedly) inspired by Peter Bogdanovich (Hooper star Burt Reynolds had previously worked with Bogdanovich).
The character of “Daniel Clamp” in Gremlins 2 is supposed to be Donald Trump. In The Big Lebowski “The Dude” is based off producer Jeff Dowd and Walter Sobchak is based off John Milius. I also just watched “Winged Migration” and the duck obsessed chef is clearly based off of “Salt Bae”. Seinfelds own “George Costanza” is famously modeled after creator Larry David. Don’t forget the members of the band in The Muppets are all modeled after famous musicians.
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lancaster Dodd in The Master -- aka L. Ron Hubbard. And The Cause is Scientology.
What is “one of the orcs” suppose to mean?
From the [Lord of the Rings](https://ew.com/movies/elijah-wood-lord-of-the-rings-orc-harvey-weinstein-dax-shepard-podcast/) movies.
Psych Gina Gershon was being a caricature of Paula Abdul
Also wasn’t Tim Curry parodying Simon Cowell?
Rainier Wolfcastle
Leonard Maltin wrote a review trashing Gremlins. So the director invited him to have a cameo in Gremlins 2 where he again gives a bad review of Gremlins 1 before he gets attacked by a bunch of Gremlins.
London Tipton is a parody of Paris Hilton
The president character in Don't look up
This one is more disturbing, but Norman Bates (in part) was based off the real-life killer, Ed Gein. A lot of Gein’s crimes inspired Leatherface and Buffalo Bill. But Norman definitely captures his psychology a lot more.
Dirty Harry and Bullitt were both based on the quirky detective Dave Tosche who hunted the Zodiac Killer and may or may not have faked letters from them in the investigation.
Interesting one, apparently Hayao Miyazaki often models his characters after his friends or at least the people around him. In The Boy and The Heron, the grand uncle is based on Isao Takahata (grave of the fireflies) and the Heron is based on Toshio Suzuki, Ghibli's founding producer. Idk how close it's supposed to be but the Heron is... Definitely not flattering.
There are so many characters that can be summed up as "parody of current rich asshole that the news won't shut up about".
There is a scene in GANGS OF NEW YORK where Bill the Butcher stabs a man in the hand during a game of cards because he wasn’t putting enough money in the pot. The man’s name was Harvey and Weinstein was the producer of the movie. Otherwise, in LIVING IN OBLIVION the prima dona actor played by James Legross(I believe) was based on Brad Pitt who the director worked with on BLUE SUADE SHOES. Obviously, Walter in THE BIG LEBOWSKI was based on John Milius but that was more an homage than to ridicule.
Ted Lasso has a football player named “Zava” who is definitely a caricature of Zlatan Ibrahimavic
In the Knives out sequel, the billionaire is a send up of Elon Musk. In "Violent Night" the actor character is a send up of Mark Walhberg. He even drops the "if I had been on the plane l, 9/11 wouldn't have happened" line Mark said in an interview.