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1Irony as She Is Cast happens when known traits of an actor and the displayed traits of a role do not mesh. Perhaps a classically trained opera singer is cast as someone who cannot carry a tune to save their life, or [[JewsPlayingNazis a born-and-raised Jewish actor is cast as a Nazi]]. In order to qualify, the fans must know about said traits, otherwise there would be no dissonance.
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3Their trait might even have been the reason for casting:
4* The actor wants to break out of their [[AdamWesting defined role]].
5* The character's trait is enhanced by, or impossible without, the actor's knowledge.
6* For action or performance scenes, ThePowersThatBe do not want to use a StuntDouble or a TalentDouble.
7* ThePowersThatBe simply thought [[RuleOfFunny it would be funny]].
8
9Casting a talented actor as an untalented character is a common form, as it usually requires a great deal of precision. You have to be off-tune in exactly the right way to be clearly off-tune, at ''exactly the right time'' to engage maximum laughter; the level of skill involved for StylisticSuck is frequently ''much greater'' than the skill needed to perform "properly". This version often implements DreadfulMusician, HollywoodToneDeaf, or BadBadActing (or any of the other tropes under StylisticSuck).
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11Irony as She Is Cast might be reactionary in a long-lived role; extreme cases might try to counter what's RippedFromTheHeadlines.
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13A supertrope of JewsPlayingNazis. Compare CastingGag, when an actor is cast in a role that mirrors or parodies a previous role or experience, and PlayingAgainstType, where the actor plays a character contrary to the previous characters. Contrast CastTheExpert where this person was chosen specifically ''for'' their talent, TheCastShowoff, where talent gets to be in the limelight, ActorSharedBackground, where an actor's characteristics line up with that of their character's.
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15The {{Trope Namer|s}} is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_As_She_Is_Spoke English as She Is Spoke]], probably the first real-life example of MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels, and not really related to the trope at all. But it makes for a good trope name.
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17----
18!!Examples:
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20[[foldercontrol]]
21
22[[folder:Advertising]]
23* French actor Creator/PierreArditi is rather left-leaning politically and against a number of practices in the banking system. He was once asked why he starred in commercials... for banks, and he replied that it's his job to act and pretend, and that [[MoneyDearBoy it paid quite well]].
24* Windows started to use John Hodgman's PC character from the Mac ads even though Hodgman is actually a Mac user.
25* [[https://twitter.com/Australia/status/1209852669281669122 This tourism ad for Australia]] intended for a British audience cast [[Series/TheLastLeg Adam Hills]] and Music/KylieMinogue as quintessential and recognisable Australians doing typical Aussie activities like visiting the beach and taking selfies with native wildlife. Both Kylie Minogue and Adam Hills live in England, home of the ad's target audience, which begs the question of why they'd leave their homeland if it's so great?
26* The classic Willkin's Coffee ads featured puppets performed by Creator/JimHenson. Despite not liking coffee himself, Henson performed the part of the coffee-loving creature Willkins. It was simultaneously averted as Henson also performed the coffee-hating Wontkins.
27[[/folder]]
28
29[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
30* Creator/RieTanaka, a voice actor well-respected for her singing abilities, has been frequently cast as tone-deaf characters:
31** Yomi from ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh''.
32** Xanthippe in ''Anime/TheGirlWhoLeaptThroughSpace''.
33** Eriko in ''Kimikiss''.
34** Neptune in ''VideoGame/{{Neptunia}}'' (except for [[ImageSong Image Songs]] and [[VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptuniaProducingPerfection the idol simulation spin-off]], where she instead [[TheCastShowoff suddenly is a fantastic singer]]).
35* Creator/HekiruShiina has a singing career. Guess which is the worst subject for her character in ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth'', Hikaru Shidou... singing.
36* Creator/MinamiTakayama, the Japanese voice actress for Conan of ''Manga/CaseClosed'', is actually a singer in the J-Pop band "Two-Mix"; before ''Conan'', her voice was what she was best known for. Naturally, in the series itself, Conan [[HollywoodToneDeaf cannot hold a tune to save his life]]. Two-Mix itself actually appeared on the show once and invited Conan to sing with them, [[LampshadeHanging as a wink to all her fans]]. They played with it, too: the episode in question makes it a plot point [[CelebrityParadox that Conan sounded like her]].
37* Creator/TakehitoKoyasu, while not really a big name in singing, also sings. Cue ''Anime/{{Macross 7}}'' where his character Gamlin Kizaki tried to 'outsing' Basara Nekki in singing despite his protests... only for Gamlin to have a ''horrendous'' singing tune.
38* Creator/MaayaSakamoto is much better known for her singing career than her acting career, especially considering she's done quite a few anime songs and worked with the famous Music/YokoKanno for some of them. In ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' she played Fujioka Haruhi who is an atrocious actor, and apparently a horrible singer... so horrible we never actually hear her sing, but LIPSYNC a song by Chieko Kawabe (who sang the opening). Oddly enough, Haruhi's English voice actress, Creator/CaitlinGlass, is also a singer and occasionally does so in many other dubs.
39* Kaere of ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'' is sometimes joked to be a dreadful guitar player and an awful singer. Her voice actress, Creator/YuuKobayashi, plays guitar as a hobby and is clearly a quite good singer as evidenced by her singing in various music for the show. Kaere's character songs play around with this trope--at some points, they are very discordant and Karere is HollywoodToneDeaf, but this is a reflection of the character's multiple personality disorder. When that's not in effect, the singing is very good.
40* ''Manga/LuckyStar'':
41** Creator/AyaHirano playing Konata Izumi. Anyone who's watched Hirano as Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya (also singing that series' themes) knows that she has a fantastic singing voice. Konata, on the other hand... [[CuteButCacophonic doesn't]] (her ''butchering'' of "[[Anime/DragonBallZ Cha-la Head Cha-la]]" is but an example).
42** The same applies to Yuko Goto, the voice actor of Mikuru: she sings very well in the theme songs, but her in-character rendition of Koi no Mikuru Densetsu is hilariously off-key
43* The OP theme of ''Anime/MapleTown'' is sung by Satoko Yamano, who also does the voice of minor character Puriprin. As with many of the above examples, Puriprin is notable for being a ''horrible'' singer: her practice session before the school play is cacophonous enough to wake the entire town.
44* This, combined with PlayingAgainstType, was the stated reason Creator/JunFukuyama was cast as the MagnificentBastard AntiHero lead in ''Anime/CodeGeass'', while Suzaku, the KnightInShiningArmor, is played by Creator/TakahiroSakurai, known for playing {{Anti Hero}}es. The director wanted the dissonance since both characters are trying desperately to be something they're not. For the English dub Creator/JohnnyYongBosch, best known for being a former Franchise/{{Power Ranger|s}} and [[Manga/{{Bleach}} Ichigo Kurosaki]], and Creator/YuriLowenthal, best known for [[Manga/{{Naruto}} Sasuke Uchiha]], were given the same respective roles, with the original director having a hand in their casting as well.
45* In ''Manga/KotouraSan'', [[{{Telepathy}} Haruka Kotoura]] (played by Creator/HisakoKanemoto) is severely HollywoodToneDeaf as shown [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybxurIDFvNY here]]. The irony is that Creator/HisakoKanemoto also played [[Anime/SmilePrettyCure Yayoi Kise/Cure Peace]] ''just months before'' and had sung [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rsk7OZQ94w her]] ImageSong ([[http://prettycure.wikia.com/wiki/100%25_Hero Lyrics here]]) [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic very competently]]! Need more proof of Hisako-san's singing talent? Look no further than ''Manga/SquidGirl''[='=]s [[MemeticMutation infamously addicting]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCcLrC4MuLI opening theme]] ([[http://www.animelyrics.com/anime/ikamusume/shinryakunosusume.htm Lyrics here]]) since [[DoItYourselfThemeTune she sang that one too]]!
46* In ''Anime/ActionHeroineCheerFruits'', Ann Azuki is such a DreadfulMusician that her singing is actually [[SuckinessIsPainful physically painful]]; her [[UnknownRival Self-Proclaimed Rival]] Kanon Shimura is only marginally better than her (at least her singing doesn't hurt the listeners...). Naturally, their seiyuu Miku Ito and Haruka Shiraishi are actually quite talented singers, and in fact they (along with the actresses who play the rest of the Cheer Fruits crew) [[DoItYourselfThemeTune sing the show's opening and ending themes]].
47* In the original English dub[[note]]the first three TV seasons, the OAV series and both movies[[/note]] of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' the male voice of Ranma Saotome, a young man cursed to turn into a girl whenever he gets splashed with cold water (who is consequently very insecure about his masculinity to the extent that comparing him to a girl is his BerserkButton) was provided by... a female voice actress (Sarah Strange). She actually provided a really convincing male voice (surprisingly even deeper than Creator/RichardIanCox, her replacement from season 4 onwards), but the casting is still inexplicable, considering that she did ''not'' also provide the voice of Ranma's female form (who was voiced by Creator/VenusTerzo).
48[[/folder]]
49
50[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
51* ''WesternAnimation/RiseOfTheGuardians'' cast the UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}n actor Creator/HughJackman as Bunnymund the Easter Bunny. While Bunnymund takes offense to being [[IAmNotWeasel called a kangaroo]], Aussies would consider that comparison [[InsultToRocks insulting to kangaroos]], since rabbits are a much-maligned invasive pest down under.
52* ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBirdsMovie'' has Creator/PeterDinklage voice the LargeAndInCharge Mighty Eagle. Dinklage has dwarfism.
53* Creator/JessHarnell as [[ComicBook/{{Asterix}} Cacofonix]] in ''WesternAnimation/AsterixAndTheVikings''. In reality, Jess can sing quite well (he possesses a ''quadruple-octave'' vocal range and is a member of a band called Rock Sugar). Somewhat lampshaded in the animated feature film ''Asterix and the Big Fight'' where Cacofonix's singing actors Jean-Jacques Cramier and George Harrison do an amazing rock song, only to be knocked out like always with the villagers declaring him a horrible singer (it is implied at least in that scene that he is a brilliant singer, but way ahead of his time).
54* The voice cast of ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lorax|2012}}'' includes Creator/ZacEfron, who's the star of the ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'' series, and Music/TaylorSwift, who's Taylor Swift. Even though the movie is basically a musical, neither of their characters ever sings a note (Swift's first role to involve singing was the 2019 movie adaptation of ''Theatre/{{Cats}}'').
55* In ''WesternAnimation/MonstersVsAliens'', the 49-foot 11-inch Ginormica is voiced by the 5-foot 1-inch Reese Witherspoon. The "behind the scenes" footage even lampshades this.
56* The voice of the Hero Boy in ''WesternAnimation/ThePolarExpress'', Daryl Sabara, is Jewish.
57* In ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'' the BigBad [[TheNapoleon Lord Farquaad]] receives a lot of mockery due to his short height. He's played by the 6'4 Creator/JohnLithgow.
58* The villains of ''WesternAnimation/TrollsBandTogether'', Velvet and Veneer, are fraudulent pop stars who literally drain the singing talent out of [[DistressedDude Floyd]] due to not having any of their own. Veneer's voice actor, Creator/AndrewRannells, is a talented singer in his own right (Velvet, meanwhile, [[NonSingingVoice has separate actors do the speaking and singing]]).
59[[/folder]]
60
61[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
62* ''Film/ThePrestige'': Ricky Jay, the film's magic consultant, is cast as an mediocre stage magician.
63* Creator/MadelineKahn - a classically-trained opera singer, among her other talents - playing the German Lili Von Schtupp in ''Film/BlazingSaddles''. Lili is extremely popular for her sex appeal, but her singing voice is deep, heavily accented, and mostly off-key. Namely because she's an old-west parody of Creator/MarleneDietrich.
64* Creator/MirandaCosgrove (Carly on ''Series/ICarly'') needed lessons in how to sing badly to play Summer Hathaway in ''Film/SchoolOfRock''. The same goes, in a way, in the Japanese dub, as Carly is voiced by Creator/NanaMizuki, which is also a professional singer.
65* Music/DavidBowie has played characters that sang off-key in ''Film/TheManWhoFellToEarth'' and ''Film/MerryChristmasMrLawrence''.
66* Creator/MerylStreep
67** She playing hammy bad actress Madeline Ashton in ''Film/DeathBecomesHer''.
68** Similarly, Streep playing the titular character in ''Film/FlorenceFosterJenkins.'' The ''whole point of the movie'' is that Jenkins is an absolutely awful singer who thinks she's great. Streep herself is an accomplished singer, having appeared in the movie musicals ''Mamma Mia!'' and ''Into the Woods'', and even as a hard-rocker in ''Ricki and the Flash.'' Streep is also known for her humility and awareness of her own limitations, unlike Florence, who seems (literally) tone-deaf to her own bad singing.
69* Ralph Garman, a radio host, voice actor, impressionist, and a pretty damn good singer, was cast by his friend Creator/KevinSmith as the mute Caleb in ''Film/RedState''.
70* Played with by Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont in ''Film/SinginInTheRain''. Hagen, actually a talented singer, plays Lina with a hilariously shrill and screechy Brooklyn-accented voice and no sense of pitch. However, when Cathy Selden (played by Debbie Reynolds) dubs Lina's voice work for her in order to salvage the studio's current film, it's actually Hagen singing, not Reynolds.
71* At the end of the Creator/SteveMartin film ''Film/AllOfMe'', mystic and CloudCuckoolander Prahka Lasa is "playing" the piano as accompaniment to a saxophonist performing the eponymous song. This consists of him hitting a single note at the end of each musical phrase for the first verse of the song (and it's the same note each time, except once). Richard Libertini, the actor playing Prahka Lasa, was a professional musician before becoming an actor. Subverted in that a) it's always the right note to blend in with the song and b) at the end of the first verse, he looks at the rest of the keyboard as if in surprise and begins a quite talented accompaniment.
72* The ''Film/{{Hairspray|2007}}'' movie with John Travolta and Christopher Walken romantically singing together and dancing very, very badly. It's even funnier as both are well known as excellent dancers and are doing it [[StylisticSuck badly on purpose]].
73* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in ''Film/MajorLeague'', where the big slugger for the Yankees is played by Peter Vuckovich, who [[CastTheExpert did play in the Major Leagues]] but was a pitcher who never hit a home run.
74* In a deleted scene in ''Film/LittleFockers'', Barbara Streisand's character sings "Happy Birthday" horrendously off-key. Though this may be a joking reference to the commonly observed 'fact' that it's impossible to sing that damned song on-key in a group.
75* This trope is invoked occasionally with Creator/MarkWahlberg, who, because he started out in music as Marky Mark, is assumed to be a good singer. He's actually a good rapper, but it's this trope that's being milked when he sings badly in a movie.
76** In ''Film/{{Ted}}'', he does a very, very, very horrendous job of singing [[Film/{{Octopussy}} "All Time High"]].
77** He sings [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie "The Touch"]] poorly in ''Film/BoogieNights''.
78* In ''Film/ThePinkPantherStrikesAgain'', Michael Robbins is [[NonSingingVoice dubbed]] with a truly appalling singing voice courtesy of an uncredited... Creator/JulieAndrews!
79* ''Film/JamesBond'':
80** According to Creator/RogerMoore's book ''Bond on Bond'', Creator/DesmondLlewelyn (Q from ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove'' through ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'') was a WalkingTechBane who couldn't get a ''[[EpicFail pocket calculator]]'' to work if his life depended on it.
81** In ''Film/GoldenEye'', Creator/MinnieDriver played terrible lounge singer Irina, whose rendition of "Stand By Your Man" is compared to "strangling a cat" by Film/JamesBond. Minnie Driver is actually a talented singer.
82** Roger Moore disliked even handling guns and would use them as little as possible while filming. If James' face wasn't seen while firing a gun, Moore would have his stuntman pull the trigger.
83* Played with in ''Film/StageDoor'', Creator/KatharineHepburn, considered one of the best actresses who ever lived (and who went on to win four [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Best Actress Oscars]]), playing the talent-free wannabe actress Terry Randall. However, Terry is also seen questioning everything all of the decisions of the writer and director of the play she's in, which Hepburn apparently did in real life.
84* Joanna "Music/{{Jojo}}" Levesque gets this twice in ''Film/{{Aquamarine}}'' - she plays the best friend to a girl with a fear of swimming and has a scene where she swims with dolphins... and '''she''' was the one who was afraid. Similarly, out of the three leads (her, Creator/EmmaRoberts and Sara Paxton), she's the only one who's a professional singer - and the only one who doesn't sing on the movie's soundtrack at all.
85* In ''Film/RomanceOnTheHighSeas'', it's a plot point that the wealthy Mrs. Elvira Kent (Janis Paige), who allows herself to be impersonated on a tropical cruise by a not-so-wealthy nightclub singer really named Georgia Garrett (Creator/DorisDay), is a terrible singer. The mistaken-identity complications are resolved in the movie's final scene where both women wind up on the same nightclub stage in Rio, but Mrs. Kent's singing abilities are not demonstrated even here. Janis Paige was a perfectly competent singer, as demonstrated by her leading role in the original production of ''Theatre/ThePajamaGame'', though the movie version of that musical doubled the irony by recasting her part with Creator/DorisDay.
86* Olga Baclanova played Cleopatra, the antagonist of ''Film/{{Freaks}}'', whose entire motivation is her ableistic loathing of the titular carnival freaks and her attempt to con them out of a lot of money. Baclanova in real life, meanwhile, was incredibly sympathetic and respectful to the disabled actors who featured in the film, staying in contact with some of them even after the production. This was ''not'' a common attitude at MGM at the time (they went so far as to force them to live in separate quarters), which makes it all the more impressive that the main villain was one of the few exceptions.
87* ''Film/MysteryMen'': Captain Amazing's publicist complains to him, "I'm not a magician!" He's played by Ricky Jay, a famous card magician.
88* In films featuring Creator/TheMarxBrothers, Zeppo Marx is remembered for playing TheStraightMan who rarely gets any good lines and mostly just serves as someone for the other brothers to play off of. Offstage, he was considered the funniest of the group.
89* In the ''{{Literature/Divergent}}'' films, Caleb is the NonActionGuy and is visibly winded and out of breath whenever he has to run. He's played by Ansel Elgort, who's a trained dancer and extremely ripped [[ClarkKentOutfit underneath the baggy clothes]].
90* In ''Film/TheNeonDemon'' Jessie has a speech about how she has no talents, mentioning she can't dance or sing. Creator/ElleFanning is both a professionally trained ballerina and quite a gifted singer.
91* ''Film/TheRedBaron'': Creator/MatthiasSchweighofer suffers from aviophobia, the fear of flying on planes. And he played Manfred von Richthofen, the [[AcePilot Red Baron]] himself.
92* ''Film/{{Scream}}'':
93** In ''Film/Scream1996'', [[spoiler:Tatum]] dies when she tries to escape Ghostface through the pet flap on the garage door, only to get stuck. During filming, it turned out that her actress [[spoiler:Creator/RoseMcGowan]] was actually skinny enough to fit through the pet flap, forcing the production to nail her top to the inside of the garage door to prevent her from slipping out. Maybe she wasn't TooDumbToLive when it was such a close thing in real life?
94** A prop example came with the Buck 120 hunting knife that was used as the model for Ghostface's signature weapon. Creator/WesCraven wanted Ghostface to use a big, scary-looking knife that the killer might've taken from Dad's garage as opposed to a slender, flimsy-looking kitchen knife like [[Franchise/{{Halloween}} Michael Myers]], and the Buck 120 certainly looked the part. The ironic part? Buck had actually discontinued the 120 because it was ''too'' big to be used at its intended purpose of gutting and skinning animals -- and one of the most famous scenes in the first film concerns Ghostface telling his target that he's going to [[GuttedLikeAFish gut her like a fish]]! Even more hilariously, Buck later put the knife back into production because of [[ColbertBump the movie renewing demand for it]].
95* ''Film/JojoRabbit'': Since the film mocks the hell out of the Nazi characters, of course many of them are played by Jews for extra "fuck you, Hitler" points. The biggest being Imaginary Hitler, who is played by Creator/TaikaWaititi, who's not only Jewish but also half-Maori and describes himself as a "Polynesian Jew".
96* ''Film/BohemianRhapsody'': Creator/RamiMalek portrayed Music/{{Queen}} frontman Music/FreddieMercury, who was a well-known KindheartedCatLover. In real life, however, Malek is allergic to cats, which is why he isn't directly seen alongside any cats onscreen.
97* ''Film/TheHarderTheyFall2021'': Creator/IdrisElba is the prominent villain in this modern-day Western, but he's allergic to horses and constantly took Benadryl to avoid sneezing all over the place.
98* On that note, Creator/ClintEastwood, star of numerous {{Spaghetti Western}}s, was himself allergic to horses. The famous ClintSquint originated partly as an allergic reaction to the animals he worked with, and partly for another ironic reason: the smoke from the {{cigar|Chomper}}s his characters smoked stung his eyes.
99* Happens in-universe in ''Film/GraveEncounters'', where the protagonists, hosts of the titular ParanormalInvestigation RealityTV show, work with a purported psychic named Houston Gray. The entire show is [[ManipulativeEditing staged]], but whereas the rest of the cast do actually believe in ghosts and express mainly disappointment that they've never found any real ones, Houston is an unapologetic PhonyPsychic and the most skeptical of the supernatural out of all of them. When it turns out in this case that the ghosts are RealAfterAll and actively malevolent on top of it, he becomes the FlatEarthAtheist of the group.
100* In the US film version of ''Literature/FeverPitch,'' the main character is a ride-or-die Red Sox fan...and is played by Jimmy Fallon, a Yankees fan raised in the NYC metro area. For non-baseball fans, the Yankees are the bitter rivals of the Red Sox, and their rivalry is the fiercest and longest-running in MLB history.
101* ''Film/{{Cromwell}}'': The choice of Creator/RichardHarris to play UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell raised many eyebrows, as Harris was a hedonistic and proudly patriotic Irishman (and a Catholic) playing an English puritan who allowed countless massacres to happen in Ireland. The salary was simply too good to pass up.
102* ''Film/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians1996'': Despite playing Cruella de Vil, Creator/GlennClose insisted all the fur coats she wears in the film be fake. She's also allergic to tobacco, and smoked herbal cigarettes for when Cruella smokes on screen.
103* In ''Film/FightingWithMyFamily'', Creator/FlorencePugh is a natural blonde who dyed her hair black to portray {{Wrestling/Paige}} - a wrestler who is a natural blonde (but the movie doesn't show this) dyed black, who dyes her hair blonde to better fit in with the other 'Divas' training at WWE.
104* ''Film/TheBlackDahlia'' has Creator/MiaKirshner playing the title role of Elizabeth Short; a terrible actress who couldn't get a part. And she gives a performance that even critics who hated the movie raved about.
105* Similarly is Creator/SarahMichelleGellar in ''Film/IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer'' as Helen Shivers; a young woman whose dreams to become an actress fail and she's reduced to working in her family's department store. Not only was this movie made during the peak of her career (''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' had just put her on the map), her performance was singled out as the best.
106* In Disney's ''{{Film/Enchanted}}'', Nancy is the real world {{Foil}} to a literal Disney Princess who sings musical numbers throughout the film. Nancy never sings once in the film. Her actress Creator/IdinaMenzel is an acclaimed Broadway star known for her incredible singing voice. While many bemoaned the wasting of her, she herself said she felt flattered to be hired just as an actress.
107* In ''{{Film/Spears}}'', Jeff is the NonActionGuy and is reluctant to let things get violent. Creator/BobbyCalloway was previously a pro wrestler.
108* ''Film/TheHarveyGirls'' has a gag where Ray Bolger's character is terrified of horses, and Virginia O'Brien is the one brave enough to put a shoe on one. In reality it was her who was afraid of horses.
109* ''Film/EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce'' stars Ke Huy Quan, who quit acting for three decades because of a lack of Asian roles in Hollywood. He gets to play over 200 on-screen variations on Waymond Wang, each a visually and emotionally distinct character with their own quirks and behaviors across the multiverse.
110* ''Film/ABadMomsChristmas'': Amy's family loudly complains at her mom dragging all of them to the Russian ''Theatre/TheNutcracker'', which is entirely in Russian, as no one in their family understands it. Her mom also later remarks, "What are we, Jewish?" speaking about their Christmas tradition. Creator/MilaKunis, who plays Amy, is a Russian-speaking Jew.
111* ''Film/KnivesOut'':
112** Both Creator/AnaDeArmas and Marlene Forte (who plays Marta's mother) are originally Cuban, pretty much the only place in Spanish-speaking Latin America their characters can't be originally from.[[note]]Due to the immigration policies at the time, if Marta's mother were Cuban, she would've gotten permanent residency within a year upon arrival on the US. Rian had a misconception that this was not currently the case, the actresses had to explain to him that Cubans still had special immigration privileges in the US. It was eventually decided that the country of origin was unimportant and the actresses deliberately spoke in a Spanish that is not Cuban sounding. They actively tried to make it hard to pin down their exact country of origin from the accent[[/note]].
113** Linda Thrombey's most notable trait is her arrogant and deceitful claims that she's a SelfMadeWoman, despite owing much of her success to her famous, wealthy father. In contrast, her actress (Creator/JamieLeeCurtis) was praised for her honesty and humility in a post-release interview where she admitted that nepotism played a role in much of her early acting career (her parents, Creator/TonyCurtis and Creator/JanetLeigh, were both famous actors).
114* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'':
115** The ironic thing about Gamora not enjoying dancing, is Creator/ZoeSaldana actually has a deep background in dancing, with Ballet being her first passion.
116** Similarly, Dave Bautista's Drax hates dancing and explains his attraction to his wife was due to her not dancing, no matter how catchy the tune playing was. Bautista himself is a former breakdancer and has married two dancers.
117** Creator/KurtRussell plays Ego, Peter Quill’s DisappearedDad who abandoned him and his mother, whereas Kurt Russell has been in a relationship with Creator/GoldieHawn since 1983, around the time her biological children, actors Creator/KateHudson and Creator/OliverHudson, with her ex-husband were still very young. Though little else is known to the public about the years growing up, both Oliver and Kate have publicly stated that they see Russell as their father.
118* ''Film/{{Aftershock}}'': Creator/LorenzaIzzo, who's Chilean with Spanish as her native tongue which she speaks fluently, in the film plays Kylie, who's American, just visiting Chile and only knows a tiny bit.
119* ''Film/LordsOfChaos'': The Jewish actor Emory Cohen plays Varg Vikernes, who in real life is an outspoken neo-Nazi and white supremacist. Needless to say, the real Varg was [[DisownedAdaptation not amused]], both by the choice of actor and how the film portrays him as the villain.
120* Although Creator/AntonDiffring played Nazis in many film and TV productions, including ''Film/WhereEaglesDare'' and ''Film/OperationDaybreak'', he was actually gay and Jewish, which caused him to flee UsefulNotes/NaziGermany in 1938 in order to escape persecution (and [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust death]], ultimately).
121* In the ''Film/LordOfTheRings'' movies, the kingdom of Rohan forbids women from joining its mounted army, and Eowyn has to disguise herself as a man to do so. But behind the scenes, ''most'' of the Riders of Rohan (or at least the non-speaking extras) were played by women disguised as men. Production wanted to cast [[CastTheExpert local equestrians with their own horses]], but [[AllGirlsLikePonies women vastly outnumber men in the equestrian hobby]]. As a result, production hired what men they could and the rest were women in fake beards. [[NoManOfWomanBorn The Witch King never stood a chance]].
122* ''Film/ShivaBaby'': The Jewish Danielle (Rachel Sennott) is contrasted with the gentile Kim (Creator/DiannaAgron), whom the characters call a "[[ShiksaGoddess shiksa princess]]". In real life, Agron is Jewish and Sennott is not.
123* ''Film/BlackPantherWakandaForever'': Creator/TenochHuerta didn't actually know how to swim when he was cast to play [[ComicBook/SubMariner Namor the Sub-Mariner]]. He had to take eight months of swimming lessons to prepare for the role.
124* ''Film/TheProposal'' is about Margaret, a Canadian woman, who attempts to marry her American assistant Andrew after her visa expires so she won't be deported. In real life, Creator/SandraBullock (Margaret) is American while Creator/RyanReynolds (Andrew) is actually Canadian.
125* ''Film/AmericanHistoryX'': Romani woman, practicing witch and anti-racist activist Creator/FairuzaBalk plays a dedicated Neo-Nazi.
126* ''Film/{{Snatch}}'': Alan Ford, a dedicated animal rights activist, plays Brick Top, a LondonGangster who runs dog fights and feeds people to pigs.
127* ''Film/HighlanderIIITheSorcerer'': Christopher Lambert plays a Scotsman who has lived as an emigrée in pre-revolutionary France, the actor's native country.
128* ''Film/{{The Flash|2023}}'': Creator/MaribelVerdu, who plays Barry Allen's [[GoodParents loving mother]] Nora, has once publicly stated that she doesn't want to have children, that she doesn't see herself as a mother.
129* ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'': famously, most of the Nazis were played by Jews, since those were the German actors who were available in Hollywood in World War II. Creator/ConradVeidt, who played the main Nazi antagonist Major Strasser, had fled the Nazis with his Jewish wife; he noted the irony of being praised "for portraying the kind of character who had forced him to leave his homeland."
130* ''Film/RedWhiteAndRoyalBlue'': The homophobic British king is played by Creator/StephenFry, who is openly gay.
131* ''Film/BeautyAndTheBeast2017'': Straight actor Creator/JoshGad plays [=LeFou=], who is gay and pining after the very heterosexual Gaston, played by openly gay actor Creator/LukeEvans.
132* ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'': Natasha reveals that she can't have children because Black Widow spies are routinely sterilized as part of their conditioning, to prevent an unplanned pregnancy from compromising their mission. Creator/ScarlettJohansson was pregnant during filming. In the very scene where she reveals that she's barren, she's wearing a thick bathrobe and holding a towel in front of her specifically to [[HideYourPregnancy hide her baby bump]].
133* Creator/GrahamChapman's character from ''Film/DoctorInTrouble'', Roddy, is a stereotypical CampGay, while Chapman (a gay man himself) deeply hated said stereotype and made sure to avoid being one in real life.
134* ''Film/{{Becky}}'': Creator/KevinJames plays a menacing Neo-Nazi who early on makes a veiled racist comment on how racial interbreeding is bad (while facing a white man and his black fiancée). James is HappilyMarried to a Filipina-American woman himself, with four children.
135* ''Film/ItChapterTwo'': Here, Creator/NicholasHamilton plays a violent homophobic bully. But in real life Hamilton is part of the LGBTQ+ community, and is a staunch progressive and LGBTQ+ ally.
136* ''Film/TheGreatDictator'': Creator/CharlieChaplin, who was partially of of UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} descent, portrays Adenoid Hynkel, a parody of Hitler, in ''Film/TheGreatDictator''. The Roma people were targeted for extermination by the Nazis and other fascist regimes. [[note]]Depending on the Romani community, the term employed to refer to the genocide may be ''porajmos'' ("devouring", "destruction"), ''samudaripen'' ("mass killing"), ''Kali Traš'' ("Black Fear"), ''Berša Bibahtale'' ("The Unhappy Years"), as well as ''Holokosto'', ''Holokausto'', etc.[[/note]]
137* ''Film/MaryMagdalene'': Creator/JoaquinPhoenix is an atheist, and plays Jesus Christ.
138* Despite being {{typecast|ing}} in horror films, [[ChronicallyKilledActor often as characters who suffered gruesome demises]], Creator/GiovanniLombardoRadice openly admitted he was never a fan of the horror genre.
139* ''Film/CarryOnSeries'':
140** ''Film/CarryOnCruising'': Creator/LizFraser and Creator/EsmaCannon couldn't swim. In the swimming pool scenes, the former pretended to by flailing her arms around.
141** ''Film/CarryOnCabby'': Creator/AmandaBarrie couldn't drive, so she had a rope attached to the front of her taxi and was towed out of the shot when the drivers were supposed to drive off.
142** ''Film/CarryOnCamping'': Harriet loved riding her tandem bicycle, but Creator/BettyMarsden was terrified of riding during filming.
143** ''Film/CarryOnAbroad'': Creator/DavidKernan (a gay man) plays Nicholas, a straight man, who is pined for by his GayBestFriend, Rob, played by Creator/JohnClive (a straight man).
144* ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'':
145** As opposed to the initially ExtremeDoormat role of George [=McFly=], Creator/CrispinGlover was actually very demanding and very argumentative, and, in fact, [[HostilityOnSet always tended to be at loggerheads]] with Creator/RobertZemeckis and Bob Gale over various matters.
146** Although the role of Biff Tannen cemented him as one of cinema's iconic bullies and meatheads, Creator/ThomasFWilson is actually self-professed music nerd and says that he used his own experiences as a bullying victim to create a character audiences would root against.
147[[/folder]]
148
149[[folder:Literature]]
150* The characters of P.Howard (Jenő Rejtő) are supposedly illiterate pirates or otherwise simple folk, but when narrating in the first person, they sound like schooled and literate middle-class citizens trying too hard to pretend they are complete morons because they reflect the style of the author.
151* Creator/IsaacAsimov once stated that Creator/MarkTwain's real genius was in writing ''[[Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn Huckleberry Finn]]'' so that Huck, who is uneducated and all-but-illiterate, is telling it in such a way that not once does the reader ask himself "How is this illiterate moron telling the story ''so well''?"
152* Caitlin Waite, a former child model who lent her likeness to [[Literature/AmericanGirlsKit Kit Kittredge]] in the ''[[Literature/AmericanGirlsCollection American Girl]]'' book series, stated on a [[https://www.reddit.com/r/PastAndPresentPics/comments/gnjnod/if_i_fits_i_kits_found_an_old_american_girl/ Reddit thread]] that while she got the gig to portray Kit, she was actually more into the books and was honestly [[CreepyDoll creeped out]] by the dolls themselves.
153[[/folder]]
154
155[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
156* In ''Series/TheMole'', the person playing the Mole purposely does badly at things at which they are highly skilled.
157* Alfonso Ribeiro is actually a professional dancer (with an instruction video to boot), but Carlton Banks on ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' has a humorously goofy and unhip dance routine that serves as a RunningGag. But as unhip as his dancing may be, he is clearly performing the moves the way he intended--i.e., he is an uncool dancer, but not a ''bad'' one.
158** On the other hand, there were a couple of episodes where he got to [[TheCastShowOff actually show his skills]], including one where Carlton is convinced to [[YouCanLeaveYourHatOn strip]] and throws in some of Music/MichaelJackson's iconic moves (Ribeiro was a backup dancer for Jackson), in ''Series/SoulTrain'', no less.
159* ''Series/DowntonAbbey'': Creator/RoseLeslie plays the lowly housemaid Gwen Dawson. In fact, Leslie has the most aristocratic origins of the entire cast, growing up in a castle as the daughter of a clan chieftain. Her ancestry includes UsefulNotes/CharlesII.
160* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': Sir Creator/DerekJacobi plays the worst Shakespearean actor in the world. Of course, he won an Emmy for his performance, too.
161* ''Series/{{Glee}}'':
162** In the original cast, before the character pool starting growing and flooding over, the cast's best dancer by a million miles was Kevin [=McHale=]. His character, Artie, is a wheelchair user.
163** Karofsky is an ArmoredClosetGay bully who has no interest in the glee club and frequently torments its members. Creator/MaxAdler is one of the few cast members who sang in show choir in high school.
164* In the 1998 LiveActionAdaptation of ''Manga/GreatTeacherOnizuka'', Kirari (the singer of the anime's first ending theme) plays Nanako, who shows how HollywoodToneDeaf she is when Onizuka considers entering her in an idol contest.
165* Broadway veteran Jason Alexander had to tone down his voice to convincingly sing badly as George Costanza in ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''.
166* ''Series/HogansHeroes'': Colonel Klink is a horrendous violin player. His actor Werner Klemperer was apparently very talented at it. His father Otto was a famous symphony conductor who left Germany in 1933 when Hitler came to power and served in the US Army during [=WW2=].
167** Exploited: In addition to Klemperer as Klink, John Banner as Sergeant Shultz, Leon Askin as General Burkhalter and Howard Caine as Major Hochstetter were all Jews cast to play the Germans. As observed by John Banner, "Who can play Nazis better than us Jews?".
168* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
169** In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS07E04TakeMeOutToTheHolosuite Take Me Out to the Holosuite]]", Sisko recruits a baseball team to challenge a Vulcan rival. The actors portraying the inexperienced players were actually much better at baseball than those playing the experienced players. In particular, much of the episode's plot is driven by [[GeniusDitz Rom's]] utter hopelessness at baseball. His actor, Max Grodénchik, was a semiprofessional player before pursuing his acting career, and ended up playing left-handed (his off hand) for the episode because it was the only way he could convincingly fake his character's level of incompetence.
170** Creator/WallaceShawn had the recurring role of Zek, the Grand Nagus of the Ferengi, [[PlanetOfHats who are staunch capitalists]]. In real life, however, Shawn is an outspoken socialist.
171* Music/SClub7 did this a couple of times on the TV show. Hannah is said to be a horrible actress and bungles her lines as an extra on a TV show. In real life, Hannah Spearitt studied acting for several years and had acted in numerous productions before joining the band. Another episode has Rachel failing at being a model. Rachel Stevens was part of a modeling agency prior to joining the band.
172* ''Series/ThirtyRock'':
173** In an early episode, Jack was written into a sketch, causing [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity To Ensue]] when he turned out to be a really terrible actor. Of course, he's played by Creator/AlecBaldwin, who has been nominated for Oscars and is widely considered to be an excellent comic actor, ''especially'' for sketch comedy (''Saturday Night Live'' has always loved having him on).
174** Liz Lemon can be pretty incompetent as a showrunner (depending on the episode). Creator/TinaFey is not, as seen when she was head writer on ''Saturday Night Live'' from the late 1990s to the mid-2000s--and then running ''30 Rock'' itself (probably the most acclaimed comedy of its era, which was a pretty good time for comedies).
175** Because ''30 Rock'' is [[ShowWithinAShow a show about making a fictional show]], it could use this trope in-universe. It did so when the new actor Danny, a skilled singer, [[HollywoodToneDeaf pretends to be a terrible one]] to avoid upstaging his costar Jenna.
176** Creator/AlanAlda reacts in one episode to Tracy's weekly hijinx: [[Recap/MashS11E16GoodbyeFarewellAndAmen "A guy crying about a chicken and a baby? I thought this was a comedy show."]]
177* On ''Series/HannahMontana'', Miley's best friend Lilly is shown to have [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbKrHQtunlQ&feature=related a terrible singing voice]]. In real life, Emily Osment [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8HpguNf6R0 is a capable singer]]. In the episode where her poor singing is demonstrated, the "edited" version of the song is actually Osment's real singing voice.
178* ''Series/{{MASH}}'': Creator/DavidOgdenStiers was a skilled French horn player, while his character, Charles, makes it sound more like a foghorn. In addition, Charles once told a patient that while he loved music he had little talent for music, while Stiers was an accomplished musician who conducted over 70 different orchestras.
179* ''Series/Numb3rs'':
180** Charlie is a math genius, while Creator/DavidKrumholtz was not a great math student in high school.
181** Conversely, Colby is as lost when it comes to advanced math as any of the other agents, but Creator/DylanBruno went to MIT for engineering.
182* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'',
183** ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'': Billy was a triple-example: his characterization started as that of a bumbling dork, who was also incredibly clumsy. His actor, Creator/DavidYost, used to be a champion gymnast. He was also initially portrayed as quite hopeless at fighting while unmorphed and generally weak. Whether or not Yost was as skilled as his cast mates is debatable, but he sure was muscular for a supposedly wimpy teen. Finally, in a darker form of the trope, Billy was the ranger most consistently shown as getting the girl and winding up in romantic entanglements. In real life, David Yost was a closeted homosexual and claims that the people who wrote the show knew this and were trying to make fun of him. (The only people who didn't were his fellow ranger actors.)
184** ''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce'': Kevin Kleinberg who played the Green Ranger Trip has a red belt in karate and seven years of kickboxing experience. Unlike other Ranger actors who got to show off their martial arts skills, Kleinberg rarely shows off this skill when Trip is unmorphed and Trip is depicted as being the weakest of the Rangers in terms of fighting skill with his main asset being his [[TheSmartGuy brains]].
185* ''Franchise/KamenRider''
186** Kengo Utahoshi from ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'' has a [[DelicateAndSickly chronically weak constitution]], but his actor Ryūki Takahashi is quite capable with stunts and fight scenes. ''Movie War Ultimatum'' does give him a chance to show his skills, however.
187** ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'' is for all intents and purposes, a video game MedicalDrama, and the Riders of the main cast are all doctors or involved in the medical field. One of the few major Riders who isn’t a doctor is the BigBad Kamen Rider Genm/Kuroto Dan, who is instead a CorruptCorporateExecutive for a game development company. His actor—Tetsuya Iwanaga—also happens to be the only member of the cast who actually does have real life experience practicing medicine, as he is ([[RenaissanceMan among other things]]) a licensed pharmacist and has written parts of medical textbooks.
188* ''Series/HiDeHi'': Gladys is known for her bizarre semi-off key opera singing. Creator/RuthMadoc is a professional singer.
189* ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'': [[Music/{{Garbage}} Shirley Manson's]] character's daughter notes that she can't sing. Extra irony since a cover by Manson of the spiritual "Samson and Delilah", recorded specifically for the show, had been prominently used at the beginning of the episode that introduced her character.
190* While Debra from ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' shows mediocre singing skills at the end of "Sweet Charity," Patricia Heaton is an accomplished singer.
191* ''Series/ICarly'': Carly Shay cannot draw. Creator/MirandaCosgrove can, very well.
192* Natalie Bassingthwaite did an impressive job playing a bad singer on ''Series/{{Neighbours}}'' considering her success with the Rogue Traders.
193* Both the [[Series/TheOfficeUK David Brent]] (played by Creator/RickyGervais) and [[Series/TheOfficeUS Michael Scott]] (played by Creator/SteveCarell) versions of ''The Office'' have extremely talented comedians playing a character that is not only not funny, but doesn't understand enough about comedy to understand that they are not funny. See, especially, Michael Scott's improv comedy classes (which is ''doubly'' funny given the fact that Steve Carell actually taught improv classes back in his [[Creator/TheSecondCity Second City]] days).
194** Michael Scott's first girlfriend in the series, Carol Stills, is perhaps the least tolerant girlfriend of Michael's {{Manchild}} ways and is quick to turn down his hasty marriage proposal. Carol is played Nancy Carell, Steve Carell's real-life wife.
195* ''Series/KathAndKim'': Kim is shown singing off-key in two episodes. Gina Riley, her actress, is a very talented singer who has appeared in several theater productions, and sings the show's theme song.
196* On ''Series/LawAndOrder'', Lennie Briscoe describes himself as having no knowledge of music whatsoever. His actor (the late Creator/JerryOrbach) was a veteran Broadway song-and-dance man, who even recorded a solo album.
197* In ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'', Peg is an awful singer. Creator/KateySagal, who plays her, is a talented singer who has recorded albums and was a backup singer for Music/BetteMidler, amongst others.
198* ''Series/{{Moesha}}'', who was played by the singer Brandy, could not carry a tune to save her life.
199* In the TV-Movie ''Film/BriansSong'', real-life Michigan State football player James Caan portrayed scrappy underdog Brian Piccolo, while Creator/BillyDeeWilliams, who did not have a sports background, played the supremely talented Gale Sayers. Caan had to consciously hold back in the training scenes to make Williams seem more believable as the superior athlete.
200* One of the world's all-time greatest violinists, Jascha Heifetz, whose name is synonymous with perfection, had a talent for imitating bad students playing the violin and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5SluQyVqWQ once did this on national television]]. In reality, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPcnGrie his playing]] was ''so'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21dsRBeIy8A awesome that]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPC5VU8sjDU it is close]] to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFaq9kTlcaY perfection in matters]] violin.
201* Musician-turned-comedian Creator/VictorBorge made a routine out of this: he would play a piece from memory, but throw in a single off-key note, which gradually multiplied into three bad notes, then five, then an altogether unrecognizable mess. At this point he usually stopped, got hold of the sheet music, and played the song again while reading very carefully -- until he started hitting the same bad notes again... the implication being that he wasn't a bad player, he'd just learned the piece from a hopelessly erroneous transcription.
202** Other jokes along those lines involved [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuWUp1M-vuM playing something that sounded oddly familiar but yet not, staring at the sheet music for a moment, then flipping it over]].
203* In ''Series/JeevesAndWooster'', Wooster (played by Creator/HughLaurie) was, at best, a competent piano player, while Jeeves (played by Creator/StephenFry) was better. In real life, it's the other way around.
204* ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'': Alex Russo is a terrible singer. Music/SelenaGomez, on the other hand, can sing pretty well.
205* ''Series/{{Friends}}'':
206** In "The One Where Joey Speaks French", Joey tried to learn French, but he was only capable of speaking gibberish. His actor, Creator/MattLeBlanc is a fluent French speaker.
207** In "The One Where Rachel Quits", Ross complains about Chandler's tennis skills after a game together. Creator/MatthewPerry (Chandler) was actually a skilled tennis player and thought about turning professional before becoming an actor.
208* On ''Series/LawAndOrderUK'', DS Matt Devlin completely butchers the French language when trying to interview a witness. In real life, Devlin's actor Creator/JamieBamber speaks excellent French (aside from an early childhood spent in Paris, it's one of two languages that he studied, along with Italian, for his Modern Language degree).
209* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'':
210** Timothy Hutton is this. While he is an Academy Award-winning actor, the character Nate Ford is almost entirely a LargeHam when he plays roles in-universe.
211** Played with in-universe by Sophie. On a con, she can effortlessly step into any role and master any accent to play a part brilliantly. But when she tries her hand at legitimate theater or even a commercial, she becomes the worst actress imaginable. Even she can't understand how she can fool law enforcement with ease but can't win over a third-rate talent scout. As Nate once puts it "she can act ''when'' it's an act."
212** The gang uses a movie shoot as part of a con and are naturally worried about Sophie as the lead actress in the "film". To their astonishment, she turns in a great performance with Nate explaining that because Sophie is only ''pretending'' to be an actress, she can pull it off.
213* In ''Series/GomerPyleUSMC,'' Frank Sutton's Sgt. Carter is portrayed as completely hopeless at hand-to-hand combat. In real life, Sutton was an Army Veteran and a black-belt in Judo.
214* Creator/DerekJacobi has been cast as a stammerer [[{{Typecasting}} at least three times.]] The first time was his BreakoutRole, as the title character in ''Series/IClaudius''. At any rate, he does not stammer in RealLife (although playing Claudius did, apparently, give him some temporary trouble in that area).
215* While filming ''Series/Roots1977'', Creator/LevarBurton's character, Kunta Kinte, was supposed to be chased down in a sprint by his future wife's father. The father was played by football Hall-of-Famer Creator/OJSimpson, and it was expected that Simpson would have absolutely no problem catching Burton. Problem was, Burton had been a medal-winning track star in high school and could leave Simpson in the dirt when running flat out. After six ruined takes, the director finally took Burton aside and instructed him to ''not'' run flat out.
216* ''Series/AlloAllo'':
217** René Artois is forever uncomfortable with Lieutenant Gruber's infatuation with him, but the actor who played René, Creator/GordenKaye, was an out gay man (while Creator/GuySiner, who played Gruber, is heterosexual).
218** Actor Creator/SamKelly was Jewish and played German Wehrmacht Captain Hans Geering[[note]]Which led to the UrbanLegend that Hans' unique response to "Heil Hitler" ("'Tler!") was a result of Kelly refusing to give the proper salute. Kelly denied this, claiming it was meant to emphasize Hans' laziness[[/note]].
219** In a few episodes, Fanny takes over for Edith and is an even worse musician; her actress, Creator/RoseHill, started out as a professional opera singer.
220** Officer Crabtree's French pronunciation is absolutely horrendous while being played by Creator/ArthurBostrom who is fluent in French.
221* An early episode of ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk1977'' featured Martin Kove AKA [[Film/TheKarateKid Master Kreese]] and a three-time Black Belt as a completely untalented boxer.
222* On ''Series/UnderTheDome'', Lyle sings horribly off-key during his short time in prison. He's played by Music/DwightYoakam, who is ''better'' known as a country singer than as an actor.
223* In the ''Series/{{Nashville}}'' episode "I Can't Get Over You To Save My Life," movie star Noah West asks country music star Juliette Barnes if she's acted much (she hasn't). Noah is played by Derek Hough, who's ''much'' better known for [[Series/DancingWithTheStars his dancing]] than his acting; Juliette is played by Creator/HaydenPanettiere, who's been in the business since she was a tot.
224* In ''Series/TheWildWildWest'''s "The Night of the Murderous Spring," Dr. Loveless, Antoinette, and Kitten Twitty go down with their boat in a lake, due to the fact that none of them can swim. Luckily, Michael Dunn (Loveless) was a great swimmer - when Phoebe Dorin (Antoinette) came close to drowning during the filming, he rescued her.
225* ''Series/KeepingUpAppearances'':
226** Part of the comedy involves Hyacinth being such a terrible singer that Emmet dreads even being in the same room as her. Creator/PatriciaRoutledge, who portrays Hyacinth, happens to have an excellent singing voice in real life, and in fact, actually shared the 1968 Tony Award for Best Actress with Leslie Uggams.
227** Additionally, Hyacinth is a social-climbing snob who prides herself on being "upper-middle-class", looks down her nose at anyone she considers "beneath" her, and goes to great lengths to get "in" with the local social elite. In reality, Routledge comes from a working-class background. She herself has admitted that she only agreed to play Hyacinth as a parody of all the traits she despises most in snobs!
228** Despite Richard being shown attending church with Hyacinth, Creator/CliveSwift was actually Jewish and by his own admission, Swift was nothing like Richard and was known to tell fans to fuck off if they approached him.
229** Richard drives a 1987 Rover 216S saloon, of which Hyacinth is (naturally) immensely proud, frequently disdaining the age of neighbour Elizabeth's car by comparison. Said car is a 1989 Austin Metro city hatchback and is thus ''newer'' than Richard's car.
230** A building example, if that's even possible. Hyacinth frequently brags to Elizabeth that her sister Violet has a swimming pool at her house. The one used to stand in for Elizabeth's actually had a pool in its garden, that of course couldn't be shown on screen.
231* In the ''{{Series/Undeclared}}'' episode "The Assistant", Steve's father Hal insists on performing an original song for Creator/AdamSandler (AsHimself) and turns out to be a DreadfulMusician: Hal is played by singer/songwriter Loudon Wainright III.
232* Musical comedy show ''Series/{{Crazy Ex Girlfriend}}'' has Rachel Bloom play Rebecca Bunch, a woman who frequently imagines herself in dramatic musical numbers but when heard to sing diegetically instead of in an imagine spot is awful. Bloom herself has long been known for her singing comedy.
233* Ed Asner, who is Jewish, played a Nazi who hid as a Holocaust survivor in an episode of ''{{Series/CSINY}}''.
234* Multi-talented Creator/CatherineOHara plays Moira Rose, a terrible actor, horrible dancer, and mediocre singer, on ''Series/SchittsCreek''. Moira does manage one excellent performance, at her daughter's high school graduation, showcasing O'Hara's actual vocal talent.
235* On ''Series/HaltAndCatchFire'' despite Creator/MackenzieDavis admitting that she's terrible at typing, she plays computer phenom Cameron Howe.
236* In ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'', the character Irene Adler is changed from an opera singer to a dominatrix. She is portrayed by Creator/LaraPulver, an accomplished musical theatre actress.
237* ''Series/KishiryuSentaiRyusoulger'': A VictimOfTheWeek EducationMama is played by Rei Yoshii, who is infertile.
238* In ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', Mr. Fowler is awestruck by Howard's stage magic act, and fails to reproduce a trick later, with painful results. He's played by Teller, who is part of a famous magic duo.
239* Much of the comedy of ''Series/{{Telenovela}}'' comes from how Ana Sofia (Creator/EvaLongoria) is the Latina lead for a hit Spanish soap opera despite how she doesn't understand a single word of Spanish.
240* This occurred in ''Series/BigTimeRush,'' but by necessity, only in the pilot episode. The boys are depicted as having no aptitude whatsoever for singing or dancing, until they finally agree to buckle down and get serious about learning from Gustavo. Of course, in real life, the four actors all needed to be skilled singers and dancers already, or else they wouldn't have been cast in the roles in the first place. From the end of the pilot episode and continuing through the rest of the series, the actors' real talents were allowed to shine.
241* ''{{Series/Vida}}'': Melissa Barrera, a native Mexican who speaks fluent Spanish, plays Lyn Hernandez, who's inability to speak (and just barely understand) Spanish serves to highlight her ''pocha''[[note]]A person of Mexican ancestry who lives in the US and doesn't speak fluent Spanish[[/note]] image.
242* The British comedian Tommy Cooper had a lot of routines in which he performed magic tricks that went wrong. In actual fact, Cooper was an accomplished magician (a member of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Circle_(organisation) Magic Circle]], no less) who ''deliberately'' performed the tricks in such a way that they would fail because he knew that they would get bigger laughs than successful tricks. Every now and then, he would perform a trick that actually worked - to which the audience would respond with rapturous applause.
243* ''Series/StudioC'' has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHM01zr1MuU a sketch]] where a group of people are choosing players for their basketball teams. Then comes actual NBA player Shawn Bradley, who's about one and a half times the height of all the others ("it's like someone put a pair of pants on a ladder", to quote the ShoulderAngel [[ItMakesSenseInContext that shows up]]), and everyone treats him like TheLoad.
244-->"Don't get near the hoop. Or the ball."
245* ''Series/{{Victorious}}'': Trina Vega is utterly untalented. She can't sing, she can't dance and she can't act. Her actress, Creator/DaniellaMonet, can do all three, to the point where she was a finalist for the role of Hannah Montana before ultimately losing it to Miley Cyrus.
246* ''Series/UltramanDyna'': Takeshi Tsuruno, who played the athletic [[HenshinHero Shin Asuka]], isn't athletic in real life, which made filming action scenes quite difficult. From ''Series/UltramanGaia'' onward, Tsuburaya Productions would start casting athletic actors for the leading roles to prevent a repeat situation.
247* ''Series/WandaVision'': Randall Park and Kat Dennings had previously been [[Series/FreshOffTheBoat sitcom]] [[Series/TwoBrokeGirls stars]] themselves, whereas Jimmy Woo and Darcy Lewis are much more serious looking in on Wanda's artificial sitcom setting for herself.
248* ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' has, at its main source of drama, friction between Darren and Samantha's mother, Endora. In truth, Creator/DickYork and Agnes Moorehead, the two actors, were dearly fond of each other.
249* ''Series/{{LOST}}'': For the first few seasons Jin can only speak Korean and doesn't understand English until Sun, and eventually the other castways, start teaching him. In real life Creator/DanielDaeKim's first language is English and he knew very little Korean, requiring coaching from Yunjim Kim who played Sun and spoke both languages fluently.
250* ''Series/DiplomaticImmunity'''s lead character Leighton has a bit of a thing for princesses, having a previous public indiscretion with a French princess and being in love with the king's niece Leilani. He's also furious at a musical about Edmund Hillary that inserts HomoeroticSubtext, and is visibly uncomfortable when The Niu hits on him. His actor Craig Parker is openly gay.
251* Jackie from ''Series/That70sShow'' frequently makes cracks about Fez being from another country. The irony is that Fez's actor (Creator/WilmerValderrama) was born in the United States while Jackie's actress (Creator/MilaKunis) was born in Ukraine.
252* In-universe in ''Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand''. Spartacus is a Thracian with a deep hatred of Romans because of the legionnaire who sold his wife into slavery. He is to take part in a re-enactment of a famous battle where a Roman general slaughtered a group of Thracians, himself playing the Roman.
253* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'': whenever Aunt Hilda tries to perform comedy on stage, she's terrible. Her actress Caroline Rhea was also a stand-up comedian.
254* ''Series/ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina'' casts Creator/KiernanShipka to play Sabrina Spellman, whose famous companion is her black cat Salem. Kiernan herself is allergic to cats.
255* ''Series/YoungSheldon'': "Summer Sausage, a Pocket Poncho, and Tony Danza" has Missy convincing George to take her to Red Lobster, and she loves the experience. Missy's actress, Raegan Revord, is a vegan in real life. Perhaps alluded to in "A Live Chicken, a Fried Chicken and Holy Matrimony", where Missy becomes upset that the Sparks' are going to kill their pet chicken Matilda, and steals her, along with trying to stop her family from eating fried chicken. It's possible that the character is on her way to becoming vegan also.
256** Music/RebaMcEntire, a talented and multi-award winning country singer, plays June, who is HollywoodToneDeaf.
257* ''Series/{{Degrassi|TheNextGeneration}}'': The [[HolierThanThou judgmental Christian]] Darcy Edwards was played by Creator/{{Shenae Grimes|Beech}}, who in real life is an atheist.
258* ''Series/BobHeartsAbishola'': The notoriously man-hungry and somewhat homophobic Kemi is portrayed by Gina Yashere, who's a lesbian in real life.
259* On ''Series/TheOriginals'', the majority of the titular family was born in what is now America, but the only one American among them, Riley Voelkel, plays the Scandanavian-born Freya. Freya is also the first-born but Voekel is actually the youngest of all of the actors
260* On Legacies, Leo Howard, a trained martial artist, plays Ethan a normal human who never fights anyone and even he receives Supernatural ability, he still isn't much of a fighter.
261* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': Among Creator/ChrisFarley's characters was Todd O'Connor in the recurring "Superfans" sketches, who are diehard fans of Chicago sports teams, especially the Chicago Bears. In real life, Farley, being a native Wisconsinite, was a fan of the Bears' division rivals, the Green Bay Packers.
262* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': Steven G. Norfleet is gay and is [[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/27/fashion/weddings/anthony-hemingway-and-steven-norfleet-say-their-love-is-built-to-last.html married]] to Anthony Hemingway, yet his character Paul de Pointe du Lac is homophobic.
263* ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'':
264** Rhaenyra, whose status as the official royal heir in a world of tightly set gender roles kicks off the entire plot, is played by the openly non-binary Creator/EmmaDArcy.
265** Young Alicent, who fully abides by the set gender roles of her world, is played by queer actress Creator/EmilyCarey, who has said her pronouns are she/they (a mark of gender nonconformity) and a feminist who rejects such sexist gender norms.
266* ''Series/{{Euphoria}}'': Cassie is a DirtyCoward who tends to run away from physical fights, while her actress Creator/SydneySweeney is a trained mixed martial artist who would probably be the one person in the cast who would handle herself best in an actual fistfight.
267** Sweeney also appeared in episode Kickin It around the same time she started learning how to fight. She does no fighting in said episode.
268* On ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'', Aria is considered the best at keeping secrets, but her actress Creator/LucyHale is so bad at it that the writers couldn't tell her about some of the show's twists because they thought that she would spoil them by accident.
269* On ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'', the only male main character Caroline didn't date was Jeremy, played by Steven [=McQueen=], who actually dated Candice Accola in real life.
270* ''Series/GoodOmens2019'': One of the Nazi spies in one of the flashback sequences is played by Creator/MarkGatiss, who is openly gay.
271* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'':
272** Serial womanizer Barney Stinson played by openly gay Creator/NeilPatrickHarris.
273** Pop idol and 2000s sex symbol Music/BritneySpears played the geeky, socially awkward AbhorrentAdmirer receptionist Abby.
274* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'':
275** [[ManChild Charlie's]] SingleTargetSexuality throughout the show is the Waitress (we [[NoNameGiven never learn her real name]]), and he's an AbhorrentAdmirer to her; she, in turn, is barely able to tolerate him on her best days and openly tells him she hates him on her worst, which far outnumber the others. Charlie is played by Charlie Day, while the Waitress is potrayed by Mary Elizabeth Ellis--the two have been HappilyMarried for nearly twenty years.
276** Deandra "Sweet Dee" Reynolds is the Gang's ButtMonkey and favorite target of abuse, while Ronald "Mac" [=MacDonald=] goes from being in a TransparentCloset to openly gay and proud over the course of the series' run; Dee and Mac often fight and snipe at each other. Their actors, Kaitlin Olson and Rob [=McElhenney=], met, fell in love, and got married over the course of the series and have had two children together, with Olson's first pregnancy being written into the show itself.
277* ''Series/{{Psych}}'': Second-season episode "[[Recap/PsychS02E13LightsCameraHomicidio Lights, Camera... Homicidio]]" revolves around a {{telenovela}} that Shawn gets cast in, which he struggles through due to his glaring lack of Spanish skills. In reality, Creator/JamesRodayRodriguez is half-Mexican and is actually semi-fluent in Spanish.
278* ''Series/FellowTravelers'': Keara Graves, who's openly queer, nonbinary and has vocally supported LGBT+ rights, is here playing Miss Addison, a homophobic secretary in the 1950s who supports the US government purging LGBT+ employees from its agencies.
279* ''Series/FamilyTies'': Despite playing a staunch Republican Alex P. Keaton, Creator/MichaelJFox has endorsed Democratic politicians due to his advocacy for stem cell research.
280* In the ''Series/DadsArmy'' episode, "Branded", Godfrey is revealed to have been a conscientious objector during the First World War. In RealLife, Creator/ArnoldRidley was a private with the Somerset Light Infantry Regiment and was heavily wounded at the Somme. He was medically discharged from the army with the rank of Lance Corporal in 1916. He was also a commissioned officer in the Second World War and, following his discharge, joined his local HomeGuard.
281* As Olive in ''Series/OnTheBuses'', Creator/AnnaKaren played a character who was presented as frumpy and uncaring of her appearance, though in RealLife Karen had been a model and dancer before her breakthrough role in this series. When she showcased her natural look during a magazine shoot in the 1970s, viewers were shocked at just how different she appeared from her character.
282* Creator/JohnClegg, who played the piano-playing Gunner Graham in ''Series/ItAintHalfHotMum'', couldn't play a note in real life.
283* Alf Garnett from ''Series/TillDeathUsDoPart'', a right-wing anti-Semite, was played by Creator/WarrenMitchell, who had left-wing views and was Jewish. This gets even more interesting when you take football allegiances into account, for the West Ham United-supporting Alf was often disdainful of Tottenham Hotspur, on account of their supposed reputation as a Jewish team... and Mitchell was a Spurs fan.
284* In ''Series/OhDoctorBeeching'', Creator/PerryBenson was cast as Ralph, the trainee engine driver who was always too hard on the brakes. In reality, Benson had become a skilled engine driver throughout filming and could stop perfectly on any mark.
285[[/folder]]
286
287[[folder:Music]]
288* Used InUniverse in the Spike Jones song "I'm the Angel in the Christmas Play", the humor of which comes from the fact that a child known for being an EnfanteTerrible (even cheerfully singing about all the pranks he's pulled) was cast as, well, the angel in his school's Christmas play.
289-->Daddy laughs, he bends in half,\
290When I wear angel hair\
291But wait until he takes a spill,\
292My halo's on the stair\
293
294* Despite being the most famous example of Surf Rock, The Beach Boys (except for Dennis Wilson) were terrible surfers.
295* One of Barry Manilow's most famous songs is "I Write The Songs", a song that he did not write.
296[[/folder]]
297
298[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
299* There's an infamous skit where Wrestling/SantinoMarella tries (and [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments fails]]) to do the splits on the ring apron[[note]]He was attempting to imitate Wrestling/{{Melina}}'s entrance. For Wrestling/BethPhoenix's reaction, go [[Radar/ProfessionalWrestling here]].[[/note]]. Santino actually can do the splits, as he has demonstrated in other matches. Although there is a difference between a side-split (legs out on either side, which he was doing on the apron) and a front-split (legs forward and back, which he does in matches.)
300* [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]]'s Joseph Park, a wrestling lawyer, was shown to be shockingly inept at wrestling, even not knowing how to get into the ring and winning by sheer luck despite being 6'8 and 300 pounds (136.08 kg). Of course, he's played by Chris Parks, a 15 year veteran of wrestling who also portrays Wrestling/{{Abyss}}.
301* Wrestling/{{CHIKARA}} brought in Stephen King[[note]]Not ''[[Creator/StephenKing that]]'' one[[/note]], 7 years a professional wrestler in various Midwestern promotions, as Wrestling/{{Deucalion}}, the BigBad of [[MatryoshkaObject The Flood]], the amalgamation of {{Heel}} groups out to destroy CHIKARA, and presented him as having no wrestling experience, leading to [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/pa/e/chikara/chikara-g.html CHIKARA Grand Champion]] Icarus countering his "one move" the Chokebreaker (Chokeslam into a backbreaker across the knee) and making him tap out to the CHIKARA Special.
302* [[Wrestling/KaraDrew Cherry]] was a timid valet to Deuce and Domino who at first was just the DamselInDistress, and then portrayed as the weaker friend to Wrestling/MichelleMcCool. Kara Drew on the other hand had been wrestling on the indies for years, and was the more experienced of the two. She however didn't mind this role, viewing Cherry as a separate character, and the plan was for her to slowly [[TookALevelInBadass get stronger]] without betraying the persona (before she was released thanks to budget cuts).
303* Wrestling/CharlesWright's most famous gimmick was that of The Godfather, a pimp wrestler. In real life, he despises pimps and whenever he worked security at the strip club he now runs, he'd let the clientele know that if there were any pimps among them and they didn't leave, he'd personally knock them out. Nonetheless, Wright states that the Godfather was his favorite gimmick.
304* In [[Wrestling/{{WWENXT}} NXT]], Indi Hartwell and Duke Hudson were revealed to previously be in a relationship with each other before (at the time) dating Dexter Lumis and Persia Pirotta respectively. In real life, both are lesbian and gay respectively.[[note]]Hudson previously was in an abusive relationship with Jake Atlas.[[/note]]
305[[/folder]]
306
307[[folder:Radio]]
308* Part of comedian [[Radio/TheJackBennyProgram Jack Benny's]] persona was his inability to play the violin, much less realize it. In real life, Benny was an accomplished violinist, often performing with Isaac Stern.
309** As an amusing anecdote, Jack was at one point asked to dine at TheWhiteHouse, and while he was there he would play his violin. When he arrived, a Secret Service agent asked him what he was carrying in his violin case. Benny answered that he had a Thompson submachine gun in there, "the old Chicago typewriter". The agent sighed and said, "Thank God, I was afraid you had your violin in there."
310** Apparently, only a very good violinist can pull off playing badly for comic effect. A ''bad'' violinist doing it is just horrible.
311*** This holds true for just about any musical or theatrical endeavor, resulting in this trope in the first place; someone who is very good can be far, far worse than someone who is actually bad or merely mediocre.
312** Speaking of Benny, he often compared his skills to the legendary [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jascha_Heifetz Jascha Heifetz]] (see the live-action TV folder), who himself occasionally recorded hilarious imitations of bad violin students for fun. Once one such imitation of Heifetz was actually rejected in a blind audition test. Heifetz's actual playing was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27n4rQ-VIT8 truly]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO032oAasec&feature=related spectacular]].
313* In ''Radio/TheGoonShow'', Neddie Seagoon is portrayed as utterly unable to carry a tune in several buckets. His actor Harry Secombe had a successful singing career.
314* Les Dawson and Eric Morecambe both used "playing the piano really badly" in their acts. Of course, both actually played very well, as is necessary to make playing badly comical rather than tedious, and in fact, it can be harder to play the wrong notes while keeping the tune recognizable than to just play the tune right.
315[[/folder]]
316
317[[folder:Theatre]]
318* A classic character type in musical theater is TheRival to the aspiring actor/dancer/singer protagonist. Of course, the rival is never as good as the protagonist at acting/singing/dancing. However, this is frequently Irony As She Is Cast. For example in ''Theatre/{{Hairspray}}'', the actress playing Amber Von Tussle has to be a good dancer, because it takes a lot of skill to trip consistently and safely.
319** The girl playing Penny has an even harder job--she has to be awkward and a beat behind everybody else.
320* In ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', Carlotta is a shrill, shrieky Opera singer who is beginning to get on in years. She's been played by many talented and wonderful singers, who switch from her shrieking voice during the parts where she's supposed to sound badly into a perfect operetta during the ensemble musical numbers. After all, even when she sings badly, she is ''still'' supposed to reach a high note during it.
321* In-universe example: In ''Theatre/TheMoonIsBlue'', the virginal Patty tends to play a tart on TV.
322* A somewhat meta example: In ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'', Thomas Jefferson uses "immigrant" derisively towards Caribbean-born Hamilton several times. Jefferson's actor also plays Lafayette in Act I (who would, in America, technically be an immigrant from France), and famously has the line "Immigrants - we get the job done". The irony is likely intentional.
323* Creator/LinManuelMiranda has played immigrants in both of his shows: [[Theatre/InTheHeights Usnavi]] and [[Theatre/{{Hamilton}} Alexander Hamilton]], and is in general very pro-immigrant. Not only is Miranda American-born, but his father (who's from UsefulNotes/PuertoRico, an American territory so not technically an immigrant himself) also does not come from the same place as either Usnavi (who proudly claims lineage from the Dominican Republic) or Hamilton (who was born and raised in what is now St. Kitts and Nevis).
324* The character of Janet in ''Theatre/TheDrowsyChaperone'' is a famous actress who (in-universe) is played by Jane Roberts, a relative up-and-comer in the theater world. In the Original Broadway Cast, she's played by Sutton Foster, who at the time was one of the most well-known modern Broadway actresses, thus making this a rare case of IronyAsSheIsCast (in the show) and CastTheExpert (in the ShowWithinAShow).
325* In ''Theatre/{{Cats}}'', Victoria is a silent role who dances an iconically difficult ballet number and must therefore be played by a very talented ballerina. During the performance, she is supposed to shake and look nervous, looking like an amateur, because Victoria is a very young cat at her first Jellicle Ball.
326* In ''Theatre/SpiesAreForever'', the Jewish actor Creator/BrianRosenthal plays [[NaziNobleman Baron von Nazi]].
327* ''Theatre/CompanyTakarazukaRevue'' casts Tamaki Ryou as Aoyagi, who is nervous, stiff as a board, and fumbling during Takano (the company's principal danseur)'s seductive demonstration of the New Swan Lake. She is, in fact, ''very'' good at dancing, having played Death (a dance-only role) in ''Theatre/RomeoEtJulietteDeLaHaineALamour'' as a younger actress. Additionally, Aoyagi is the male lead role. By default, principal male leads in Takarazuka are played by the ''top star'' -- the leader of the troupe, who must have singing, acting, and dancing skills ''par excellence'' to get to that position in the first place.
328* ''Theatre/{{Rent}}'':
329** In a CastFullOfGay, the only actor in the original cast who was actually gay was Creator/AnthonyRapp as Mark, a straight man (Rapp initially identified as gay but later came out as queer).
330** Wilson Jermaine Heredia, who plays a character dying of AIDS, studied medicine before getting into acting.
331[[/folder]]
332
333[[folder:Video Games]]
334* During the saving skits in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsUX'', [[VideoGame/VirtualOn Fei-Yen HD]] (aka [[Music/{{Vocaloid}} Miku]]) starts to speaks in a very robotic way, contrasting with her cheerful personality during the game. This is mostly [[Creator/SakiFujita her voice actress]] trying to sound like Miku just like in the original Music/{{Vocaloid}} software, rather than Banpresto trying to use the software for that job. Ironically, she does a ''bad'' job doing that, even if that scene is supposed to be a TearJerker for the player.
335* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'', Creator/RobinAtkinDownes has to do a bunch of [[BadImpressionists horrible impersonations]] of ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' characters in-character as Kaz. The voice actor himself is actually an extremely gifted vocal impressionist and nailed every line in the original recording session, with most sounding virtually indistinguishable from the original actor. The director had to call him in again to rerecord them all properly badly. Fortunately, the game gives Robin Atkin Downes the opportunity to show off his actual range when he plays Psycho Mantis and Revolver Ocelot in the [[UnexpectedGameplayChange quiz game at the end]].
336* "Celestia Ludenberg" of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'', an obviously Japanese girl who claims to be European, speaks with an affected French accent in the English dub (that [[AccentSlipUp quickly disappears whenever she gets angry]] and reappears just as quickly afterwards). She is voiced by Creator/MarieveHerington, who is French-Canadian.
337[[/folder]]
338
339[[folder:Web Videos]]
340* ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'': Happens and gets lampshaded in the second campaign: Caleb claims he is bad at imitating voices and accents and subsequently does a bad (but hilarious) job at imitating his friends' voices. Caleb's player, Creator/LiamOBrien, then breaks character to point out how strange that was since he, as a voice-actor, is ''very good'' at accents.
341* ''WebVideo/TheNutters'': Eoin tries to sing "Deck the Halls" in the ChristmasSpecial and gets a "that's rotten" in response from Jake. Creator/GregYoung is in fact a very [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQXpjunQNHY talented singer]].
342[[/folder]]
343
344[[folder:Western Animation]]
345* Dr. Robotnik from ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' is a [[HollywoodToneDeaf horrible singer]]. However, his voice actor, the late Long John Baldry, was a blues and folk-rock singer.
346* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'':
347** The Penguin squawks out a grating accompaniment of ''I, Pagliacci'' in "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE47BirdsOfAFeather Birds of a Feather]]". His voice actor Music/PaulWilliams is actually an acclaimed singer/songwriter with notably smooth, melodious vocals (as can be heard in the Penguin's speaking voice).
348** Notorious "playboy billionaire" ChickMagnet Bruce Wayne/Batman is played by Creator/KevinConroy, who later came out as gay. In an interview, Conroy stated that he related to Bruce Wayne/Batman, a man who keeps a large portion of himself hidden from the public, as he also lived that way in his younger years.
349* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'': In an episode, ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} jokingly mentions that ComicBook/BlackCanary being gagged is for the best since she has a horrendous singing voice (which keeps with the comics, where Oracle has compared Canary's singing to torture on multiple occasions[[note]]itself an irony as Canary would later be reinvented as a professional singer in her out-of-heroics job[[/note]]). Black Canary's voice actress, Creator/GreyDeLisle, is a professional singer. In the MusicalEpisode "Mayhem of the Music Meister", we get to hear her sing, and it's beautiful. Apparently, Catwoman was just messing with her.
350* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'': A central struggle for Princess Carolyn is [[MyBiologicalClockIsTicking being unable to have a child]] or marry at her [[OldMaid advanced age]]. She's played by Creator/AmySedaris, who has said in interviews that she has ''never'' wanted to marry or have kids.
351* The Boy and Little Sister in ''WesternAnimation/BumpInTheNight'' are voiced by siblings Scott and Anndi [=McAfee=]. In real life Anndi is the older sibling.
352* Similarly, ''WesternAnimation/DCSuperheroGirls2019'' has a episode revolving around how Wonder Woman, also voiced by [=DeLisle=], cannot sing at all. She only gets to show off her actress' actual singing voice via magical cheating.
353* In the ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' SchoolPlay episode, "Laughing Fit", Ulrich gives a spectacularly bad performance as Romeo prior to the [[ResetButton Return to the Past]]... his [[CrossDressingVoices voice actress]] was on Broadway at one point.
354* Downplayed with ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': Kim's voice actress is Christy Romano, an accomplished singer. The episode "Hidden Talent" reveals Kim is a ''mostly'' good singer, but has trouble hitting high notes (she does manage it at the end of the episode though).
355* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
356** Creator/MadeleinePeters, who voices Scootaloo is notorious for her rather bad singing in "The Show Stoppers". However, according to Daniel Ingram, Madeleine is actually a very good singer (as evidenced by her vocals during "One Bad Apple" and "Flight to the Finish") and was told to butcher the song. He would also very much like an opportunity to record a version of the Crusaders' theme sung properly.
357** Creator/ClaireCorlett grew into this trope. She only provided the speaking voice for Sweetie Belle in Seasons 1-3, with Creator/MichelleCreber doing the singing. On the one occasion during this time that Claire sang in her own right, she turned in a screeching, off-key campfire song, going sharply against Sweetie's previous beautiful vocals. As of Season 4, she is doing both the speaking and singing; based on fans' reaction to the latter, she is doing an excellent job.
358* Homer Simpson from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' is known for loving meat, drinking beer and rarely doing physical activities. But actor Creator/DanCastellaneta, who has voiced Homer for nearly 35 years, is a vegetarian, doesn't drink alcohol and does exercises regularly.
359* Leela in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' is played by Katey Sagal, who has worked as a professional singer before she became known for playing Peg Bundy on ''Series/MarriedWithChildren''. While during musical numbers, she gets to [[TheCastShowOff show off]] her chops, [[MusicalWorldHypothesis in-character]] Leela has a terrible singing voice, as seen when she attempts to serenade invading aliens with a horrific version of "I Will Always Love You".
360-->''The humans are attacking!''
361* Gina Cazador in ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'' is, at best, mediocre when she auditions for a singing part on her show ''Philbert''. Stephanie Beatriz, who plays her, is a much better singer, [[TheCastShowoff as shown]] in Bojack's [[spoiler: drug trip]]
362* On ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Meg's [[InformedFlaw perceived ugliness]] is one of her defining attributes; her voice actress Creator/MilaKunis is considered one of the sexiest women alive.
363** This is taken a step further in the episode "You Can't Handle The Booth". With Meg personally commenting on the attractiveness of Mila Kunis herself during the encounter between the characters and their voice actors.
364* In the ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble'' episode "Prison Break", Crimson Widow takes quite a bit of joy in beating up Wasp and vice versa. Their respective voice actors, Creator/JulieNathanson and Creator/KariWahlgren, are best friends in real life.
365* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' episode "Anne of the Year" shows Hop Pop being terrible at improvisational stand-up comedy. His voice actor, Creator/BillFarmer, is an expert at improv.
366* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'': One of the most notable traits of Orel's mother, Bloberta, is that she's incredibly tone-deaf, which earned her a lot of grief from her family, who all had perfect pitch. Bloberta's voice actress, Britta Phillips, is a professional musician best known as the singing voice for the titular character in ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' and the bassist for the indie rock band Luna.
367* ''WesternAnimation/HazbinHotel'':
368** Angel Dust is one of, if not the most [[ReallyGetsAround promiscuous]] characters on the show. His voice actor in the pilot and the ADDICT music video, Michael Kovach, is asexual.
369** Katie Killjoy is a [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain virulent homophobe]] voiced by the openly gay WebVideo/BrandonRogers.
370* In ''WesternAnimation/PepperAnn'', the titular character is a DreadfulMusician, while her actress Kathleen Wilhoite is a singer-songwriter in her own right.
371
372[[/folder]]

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