Used in: Movie, Episode
You can add cast members of a movie or episode in the cast field. Click “Add cast”. Redo for every cast member.
Reference the person you want to add as the actor/actress in the newly appearing “Person” field. If the person is credited under a different name (e.g. full name instead of stage name), you can use the “Credited as” field for that.
In the “Character” field you can add the character played by the person you just referenced. You have two fields: “Reference” and “Text”. At least one value is mandatory, but you can fill in both fields.
In the “Reference” field you have the option to reference either a person or a character (which you have to create beforehand). In the “Text” field you can simply type the role in plain text.
The idea of selecting a person as a role is, for example, in a documentary, where the person doesn’t actually play a certain role, but appears as the real-life self. The OFDb the role will simplay state “self” next to the actor, instead of a character. Or, if a character appears in multiple movies and/or TV shows, it may be easier to use the “Reference” field.
If you fill in both fields, the “Text” field is considered in the same way as the “Credited as” field for the referenced character. This can be useful, for example, if the “character” is a real-life person, but credited under a different name (e.g. a nickname). In the front-end the referenced person/character will appear as a link, but the “Text” field is used as the link text.
You can add multiple characters per person. Simply click “Add character” to add another entry. This is necessary if one actor/actress plays multiple roles in the same movie or TV show.
Adding an existing person
If a character in a movie is a real-life, existing person (alive or passed away), that “character” is not created as a Character content type, but as a Person content type instead.
Adding a fictionalised person
Sometimes, a real-life person appears as a fictionalised version of him-/herself in a movie or TV show. If that is the case, we don’t reference the the person as a character (as if in an existing person), but we add the person as a character as in credited in the end credits (text input or referenced).
Examples
- Ahsoka Tano: As a fictional character in the Star Wars universe, Ahsoka Tano is a Character content type and referenced accordingly in the TV show Ahsoka.
- Playing a fictionalised version of himself, Woody Harrelson is credited as “Woody” (and not himself as an actual person) in the movie Lost in London.
- Nelson Mandela: As a historical person, Nelson Mandela is created as a Person content type, and the movie Invictus references the person in the character field, played by Morgan Freeman
- Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry: As a documentary about Ai Weiwei, Ai Weiwei is both referenced as a person and a character. Both fields reference the identical content, created as a Person.
- American Pie: Seann William Scott is credited as Seann W. Scott (abbreviated middle name). The referenced Person node has the full name as its title, but the abbreviated version is added to the Credited as field.
- Kalushi: Even though named Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu, the historical person (in the movie as played by an actor) is credited by the first name “Solomon” only.