A common turn of phrase on film posters is to have it stated that an actor is the main character. Sometimes, the poster designer wants to convey that the actor is so much like the character that he is the character (or that a certain actor is playing as the title character). It's a slightly odd expression, even with Dyeing for Your Art in play. Often used when the character's name is also the movie's title.
A fairly common parody form, when describing an actor who is both known for always playing the same kind of character to the extent that it qualifies as being As Himself, and is also a big enough star to be starring in a self-centered vanity piece of a film, is to give it as "Actor Name IS Actor Name IN Actor Name!"
Likely to overlap with Billed Above the Title.
Examples:
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Advertising
- Parodied by Lee Jeans in 1998: "Buddy Lee IS Buddy Lee IN Buddy Lee: Man of Action!"
Bonus points for using Don Lafontaine himself instead of a cheap sound-alike.
- Variant from a television ad: "Madonna gets to play Susan. And Susan gets to play around."
Films — Animated
- Three posters of this type were released featuring characters from My Little Pony: The Movie (2017): "Zoe Saldana is Captain Celaeno," "Cathy Weseluck is Spike the Dragon" and "Andrea Libman is Fluttershy."
- Smallfoot was advertised this way, inspiring the memetic "Zendaya is Meechee" song.
- Johnny Depp IS Rango. Rather ironic given that Rango is a pseudonym.
- Disney released a line of posters for The Lion King (2019) stating that "JD McCrary is Simba," James Earl Jones is Mufasa," "John Kani is Rafiki," "Donald Glover is Simba," "Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is Nala," "Seth Rogen is Pumbaa" and "Billy Eichner is Timon."
- The many character posters for Trolls World Tour featured a variant that didn't only apply to main characters, but rather all of them, reading "(actor name) is (character name)".
Films — Live-Action
- Angels & Demons: "Tom Hanks is Robert Langdon".
- Air Force One: Harrison Ford IS the President of the United States.
- Nearly imperceptible, but on the poster it says clear as day "Harrison Ford is Blade Runner"
- Blonde: "Ana de Armas is Marilyn Monroe".
- Arnold Schwarzenegger IS The Terminator.
- On the poster for The Bourne Identity: Matt Damon is Jason Bourne.
- Harrison Ford is The Fugitive.
- "Jim Carrey is Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon."
- Julia Roberts IS Erin Brockovich.
- Kevin Costner is Robin Hood.
- In Monty Python's Life of Brian, the Pythons wanted George Lazenby to play Jesus as a cameo, purely so they could say "George Lazenby is Jesus Christ!" They couldn't get him, so it didn't pan out.
- Michael Keaton IS Beetlejuice. (Funny when you consider the correct spelling is Betelgeuse.)
- One poster design for You Only Live Twice, which was competing with the Casino Royale spoof, had "Sean Connery IS James Bond." Ironically, it was after this movie that Connery quit the role partially because he wanted to be known as something other than Bond.
- Speaking of the Casino Royale spoof, which was "too much ... for one James Bond!", Ursula Andress IS James Bond.
- Parodied in the trailer for Pee-wee's Big Adventure: "Pee-Wee Herman is Pee-Wee Herman."
- The teaser trailer for Star Trek: The Motion Picture did this with the whole cast. With Orson Welles narrating. See here.
- Steven Seagal films traditionally have a descriptor of his character as the title so that the movie trailer announcer can say "Steven Seagal IS..." Out for Justice / Hard to Kill / On Deadly Ground," etc.
- The Stupids: "Tom Arnold is Stupid" *lower down the poster* (Stanley Stupid)
- Tom Hanks IS Forrest Gump...and A Man Called Otto.
- A variation on Inglourious Basterds, almost all the principal characters had "X is a Basterd" on their character posters. "Brad Pitt IS a Basterd", and so on.
- David Hyde Pierce IS The Perfect Host.
- In the RiffTrax of Captain America: The First Avenger lampshading the Captain's movie serials "Captain America is Captain America in Captain America." Which is how it happens in the movie except we're never shown for sure that the movie serial is actually called Captain America.
- The Incredible Lou Ferrigno is Hercules.
- Angelina Jolie IS Maleficent.
- "Paul Newman is Harper."
- Malavita has four (five if you include the dog...) poster slogans that read: "Robert De Niro is one Killer Dad", "Michelle Pfeiffer is one Bad Mother", "Dianna Agron is the Mobgirl Next Door" and "John D'Leo is the Young Gun". The dogs is "Hitman's Best Friend".
- Star Wars Insider published an issue based around The Force Awakens with a number of individual articles about the characters of the film and the actors playing them, titled variously "Adam Driver is Kylo Ren," "Carrie Fisher is Princess Leia," "Harrison Ford is Han Solo," etc.
- "Kathy Ireland is the Alien from L.A.."
- Halle Berry IS Catwoman.
- The film Icarus is also known as "The Killing Machine". However, some sources actually title it as "Dolph Lundgren is The Killing Machine".
- Tomb Raider (2018): Alicia Vikander is Lara Croft.
- Darkest Hour: Gary Oldman is Winston Churchill.
- "Dudley Moore is Arthur".
- The poster for Peter Rabbit states that James Corden is PETER RABBIT.
- Tom Cruise is Jack Reacher and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. At least on some of the posters and DVD covers anyway.
- Author Mickey Spillaine played his own creation, detective Mike Hammer, in the 1963 movie of "The Girl Hunters". The movie's opening credits declare, "Mickey Spillaine is Mike Hammer", while the closing credits list it as, "Mike Hammer is Mickey Spillaine".
- Richard Harris is the Man in the Wilderness.
- "Roberto Benigni is Pinocchio."note
- "Joey King IS The Princess"
- The Three Musketeers (2023): The trailer has "François Civil is D'Artagnan", "Vincent Cassel is Athos", "Romain Duris is Aramis", "Pio Marmaï is Porthos" and "Eva Green is Milady".
- One of the posters for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story features Daniel Radcliffe as Al wearing a t-shirt that states that Daniel Radcliffe is Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.note
- This promo for The Wizard of Oz inverts it with "Dorothy is Judy Garland".
- The Girl in the Spider's Web had on home media Lisbeth Salander's sobriquet, if only as a Continuity Nod: Claire Foy IS The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
- I'm Not There - "Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw are all Bob Dylan."
Live-Action TV
- Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, starring Awkwafina as a woman named Nora, has this in the title. Also counts as a Double-Meaning Title, since her real name is Nora Lum, and she really was raised in Queens.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 often spoofs this with their films, such as "Joe Don Baker IS Santa Claus". They spoof it even more if the actor on-screen bears similarity to more than one celebrity: "Jane Curtin IS Kate Moss AS Isadora Duncan!"
- For Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary, the Radio Times released twelve special edition covers, one for each actor to take the title role: William Hartnell IS the Doctor. Articles announcing the next Doctor often run with this format.
- Doctor Who Magazine uses this phrase on the front cover every time a new Doctor is announced. When Peter Davison was announced, they famously spelled his name wrong.
- A Saturday Night Live sketch featured a play about Frank Sinatra performed by Danish actors. The announcer proclaims that "Aki Hanenrud is Frank Sinatra", which is then followed up with a review that states "Aki Hanenrud is not Frank Sinatra".
- Later episodes of The Hitchhiker bill the title character this way in the credits ("Page Fletcher is The Hitchhiker").
- CBS liked using this for some of their dramas during The '90s; often featuring their stars billed in the manner of "Jane Seymour is Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" or "Chuck Norris is Walker, Texas Ranger".
- "Jack Lord as Stoney Burke," in that 1962-63 ABC Western/rodeo series.
Music
- Emphasizing its Concept Album and stage persona nature, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was promoted with an ad proclaiming "David Bowie is Ziggy Stardust"; at the bottom, in smaller type, it read "Ziggy Stardust is David Bowie".
- Paul McCartney IS The Fireman.
Theatre
- On Broadway and on tour, in many productions across more than 40 years, Cathy Rigby WAS Peter Pan.
Video Games
- On GTA Radio, the radio program within a video game of Grand Theft Auto V, the above-mentioned exaggerated version of the trope is used with Jack Howitzer is Jack Howitzer in Jack Howitzer. It's a Reality TV fame vehicle for the eponymous washed-up celebrity, and the game's resident Ahnold.
- A film within a game example: One of Johnny Cage's intros with Kitana in Mortal Kombat 11 plays this straight with "Johnny Cage. Is. 'The Edenian Candidate'."
Web Original
- Ashens and the Quest for the Game Child: Stuart Ashen IS Ashens (but he's still Stuart Ashen).
- The Agony Booth recap making fun of the fashions in Toomorrow: "Timothy Dalton is Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Brownies of Hash!"
Western Animation
- The Simpsons episode "Mayored to the Mob", guest-starring Mark Hamill played with this, with two posters in the Dinner Theater performing Guys and Dolls: "Mark Hamill IS Nathan Detroit" and "Pepper Steak IS the Entree".
- In the South Park episode "The Biggest Douche in the Universe", all the parody trailers close with: "Rob Schneider is The Stapler/A Carrot/Da Derp De Derp Da Teetily Derp Da Derpee Dumb/Kenny! Rated PG-13."
- The poster for Tuca & Bertie states that Tiffany Haddish is Tuca and that Ali Wong is Bertie.
