Just be yourself

Bruce Willis and Sean Penn are the latest in a Hollywood tradition of movie stars playing themselves. Joe Griffinlooks at the good, the smart and the indulgent

THE PRACTICE of actors playing themselves in movies is usually beneficial to both film and star. The star's appearance makes a movie more marketable and it lends authenticity to the film. For actors it's an opportunity to show what good sports they are. The cameo takes the form either of an actor entering a scene as himself, or as an appearance in a work within the film.

Often it's an opportunity to deconstruct their image. Jean-Claude Van Damme in the upcoming JCVDseems to be making a genuine, conscious efforts to deflate his actor star reputation, and Bruce Willis pokes fun at his gun-toting self in The Player.

A nice compromise is when the stars are cast as fictitious variations of their public personas. Julia Roberts played a romantically unlucky icon in Notting Hill, Michael J Fox was a spoilt, hyperactive young star in The Hard Wayand Dean Martin played a famous, hard-drinking, womanising singer called Dino in Kiss Me Stupid.

Here's an incomplete list of self-stars:

Jean-Claude Van DammeVan Damme cut his cameo teeth as part of an enviable love triangle in Friends. However, nobody could have anticipated his starring role as a washed-up, cash-strapped action star in the forthcoming comedy/drama JCVD. Festival buzz has been deafening and Varietysays it "forces you to see the star in a whole new light".

John MalkovichA courageous reinvention of his already eccentric image, Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich(about a portal into Malkovich's mind), showcased the super-serious actor's hidden talent for self-deprecation and comedy. It likely led to his goofy, high-octane role in Burn after Reading.

Bruce WillisWillis is arguably the king of cameos. He was the personification of artistic compromise in the fake film Habeas Corpus(within Robert Altman's The Player). Another Hollywood satire, What Just Happened, depicts a very unflattering version of Willis in a substantial role. His Ocean's Twelvecameo was indulgent, but did allow for a nice running gag about audiences foreseeing the twist in The Sixth Sense: "Everyone's so goddamned smart," he grumbles.

Charlton HestonWhen Wayne (Mike Myers) asks a stranger for directions in Wayne's World II, something isn't right. "I know it's a really small part, but can't we get a better actor?" Wayne complains. Cue a crew member (complete with headset) dragging the old "Bad Actor" off and replacing him with . . . Charlton Heston. The "Good Actor's" speech moves Wayne to tears.

Gillian Anderson, Rob Brydonand Steve CooganIn Michael Winterbottom's semi- Tristram Shandyadaptation, A Cock and Bull Story, the three actors play themselves as well as the characters from Laurence Sterne's eccentric novel. Rivalries and very post-modern humour abound.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Last Action Herowas a dizzying simultaneous celebration and deconstruction of the loud, expensive movies that made Arnold's name. He played both himself and action-man cop Jack Slater. The cameo was as heavy-handed and embarrassing as the film itself and audiences stayed away in droves.

Roger Moore"I have to warn you, I'm Roger Moore," says the erstwhile Bond while raising his fists in The Cannonball Run. This surprisingly big role was painfully unfunny and smelled of desperation. While other Bonds did everything in their power to avoid being typecast, the limited Moore embraced it.

Bruce CampbellThe lantern-jawed star of The Evil Deadtrilogy has cultivated an image as a witty raconteur in his autobiography and its quasi-sequel ( Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way). My Name Is Brucesaw the actor mistaken for his Evil Dead hero and roped into fighting monsters in a small town.

The PlayerSpecial mention should go to the army of stars in Robert Altman's The Player, which has literally dozens of familiar faces and 13 Oscar winners. Angelica Huston and her lunch date (John Cusack) bump into the film's characters, Jeff Goldblum plays piano at a party, and Andie McDowell helpfully clarifies that she's related to neither Malcolm (who also appears) nor Roddy. Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon and Bruce Willis then turn up in Habeas Corpus(see Willis above), while Buck Henry, screenwriter of The Graduate, can briefly be seen pitching The Graduate II. Sadly, a scene with Patrick Swayze showing off his karate moves languished on the editing room floor.