A Cast the Expert subtrope of Meta Casting, this is where a famous actor — the kind of person the average person would recognize on the street — is cast to play the part of a fictional similarly famous actor (or a fictionalized version of a historically famous actor), i.e. an actor that the average person in the fictional universe of the story would recognize on the street.
The fictional actor is probably somewhat different in both personal characteristics and acting predilections from the real-life actor playing the part. And so, the actor playing the part really has to carry a doubled acting load, playing the fictional actor engaging in the factional actor's 'off-screen' behavior, and portraying the fictional actor's 'acting.'
There are a couple of things going on in these roles. Firstly, it's easy to buy the idea that the character is a famous actor because we look at the screen and see, hey, famous actor (though it'd be interesting to catalogue examples of relatively unknown actors playing the role of a famous actor). Secondly, there's always a great opportunity for some wry Actor Allusion to the actual career of the portrayer. Thirdly, the roles themselves are usually trope storms, either of the actors falling into out-of-bounds wackiness detached from the reality of normal people, or the counter-trope of actors being normal people trying to live normal lives amidst the glare of fame and unusual work pressures.
Some disconcertment may arise when a famous actor plays a famous actor alongside another famous actor playing an average person — for example, in The Hard Way, Michael J. Fox is paired up with James Woods, with Fox playing a famous actor and Woods playing the typical rogue action cop. In Notting Hill, Julia Roberts plays a star who trysts with an average bookseller — played by Hugh Grant.
Where the star played by the star is the star themself (albeit a comically overplayed version of themself), then you have Adam Westing.
Examples:
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Film — Fictional
- America's Sweethearts — John Cusack and Catherine Zeta-Jones play a Hollywood power couple.
- The Artist — Jean Dujardin, best known for spy parody films, plays silent film star George Valentin.
- As well the below-mentioned What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Bette Davis also played fading actresses in All About Eve, Dangerous and The Star.
- In the movie version of Bewitched big star Will Ferrell stars as (washed-up but still famous) movie star Jack Wyatt, who is looking to revitalize his career, which is why he's starring as Darrin in a revival of Bewitched. Highly lauded actress Shirley MacLaine also plays Iris Smythson, one of the world's greatest actresses of all time, who is also co-starring in the new series as the new Endora.
- Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance):
- Famous actor Michael Keaton (well-known for having twice played Batman in the 90s) portrays Riggan Thomson, a famous actor well-known for having twice played in-universe superhero Birdman.
- Edward Norton plays an actor who is brilliant, yet a pain in the ass to work with.
- Blazing Saddles, Broadway musical star Madeline Kahn plays the famous stage performer Lili von Shtupp, aka the "Teutonic Titwillow".
- Bowfinger — occasional action star (and comedy superstar) Eddie Murphy plays action superstar Kit Ramsey, who happens to hew to a Scientology-like religion.
- California Suite — Dame Maggie Smith, who had previously won an Oscar for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, plays Diana Barrie, an actress who has been nominated for an Oscar; ironically, Dame Maggie won her second Oscar for this performance.
- Dinner at Eight: In this 1933 film John Barrymore, a big movie star since the silent era, plays Larry Renault, a big movie star back in the silent era whose career has been ruined by drinking. This parallel got more painful after the fact when Barrymore, who himself had an out-of-control drinking problem, saw his career go down the drain within a few years after this movie just like Larry Renault's did.
- Dreamgirls — Beyoncé is a Diana Ross-inspired singer and Eddie Murphy is a James Brown-inspired soul singer.
- Dumbo (2019) has Eva Green as world-famous trapeze artist Colette Marchant.
- The First Wives Club — Goldie Hawn — who won an Oscar for Cactus Flower — as Elise Elliot, an Oscar winner who now struggles to get good roles upon reaching middle age.
- Forgetting Sarah Marshall — the eponymous title character is famous for being an actress in a weekly TV crime drama, played by Kristen Bell, who became famous for being an actress in the weekly TV crime drama Veronica Mars. The character's paramour, rock star Aldous Snow, is played by comedian Russell Brand.
- Galaxy Quest — former episodic TV star Tim Allen plays former episodic TV star Jason Nesmith (though Allen was a sitcom star and Nesmith was a sci-fi series star).
- Shakespearian actor Alan Rickman plays...a Shakespearian actor.
- Sci-fi heroine Sigourney Weaver plays a sci-fi heroine. Albeit one completely unlike Ripley.
- Get Him to the Greek — Russell Brand reprises his role as rock star Aldous Snow, with his Idol Singer girlfriend Jackie Q played by Rose Byrne. Kristen Bell also cameos as the aforementioned Sarah Marshall.
- Get Shorty — instantly recognizable star Danny DeVito plays Oscar-winning superstar Martin Weir (a step up from DeVito's actual, if not ignominious, career).
- Go West Young Man — saucy movie star Mae West plays saucy movie star Mavis Arden.
- Hail, Caesar! — George Clooney, Channing Tatum, and Scarlett Johansson play Classic Hollywood movie stars - Clooney as a Robert Taylor-type leading man in a sword and sandals epic, Tatum as a song-and-dance man and Johansson as an Esther Williams-type starlet appearing in a musical.
- The Hard Way — comedy actor Michael J. Fox plays famous action movie star Nick Lang.
- In & Out — big star Matt Dillon plays actor Cameron Drake, who kicks off the story by winning an Oscar for his role as a homosexual soldier, and declaring his inspiration to be his regular-guy drama teacher (played by Kevin Kline), who Drake announces is gay; Dillon himself has never won an Oscar but got his first nom a few years later for Crash.
- Inside Daisy Clover — 1960s movie star Natalie Wood plays 1930s teen movie star Daisy Clover.
- Lost in Translation — aging American movie star Bob Harris is played by aging American movie star Bill Murray.
- My Favorite Year — the legendary Peter O'Toole plays fictional legendary early era action hero (and Errol Flynn Expy) Alan Swann (though Swann is more of an actioner and more than a bit of a lush).
- No Strings Attached (2011) — former sitcom star Alvin Franklin is played by movie (and occasional TV) star Kevin Kline.
- Notting Hill — megastar Julia Roberts plays fictional megastar Anna Scott, whose range goes from space thrillers (the one London is full of posters for) and submarine thrillers (the one she's rehearsing her role with Will for) through artsy films like the one Spike and Will are watching within the movie, to adaptations of Henry James (the one she's making in the last scenes).
- Repo! The Genetic Opera — Paris Hilton plays Amber Sweet, a bratty, surgery-addicted opera singer and Inadequate Inheritor to the CEO of GeneCo.
- The Rocketeer — Timothy Dalton plays the main villain, an Errol Flynn-inspired swashbuckling movie star.
- S1m0ne — Director Victor Taransky, played by Al Pacino, after falling out with famous actress Nicola Anders (played by Winona Ryder), finds and casts a Virtual Celebrity named "Simone".
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World has Chris Evans as action star Lucas Lee, while Brie Larson, Brandon Routh, and Tennessee Thomas play popular rock band, The Clash at Demonhead.
- Mae West's final film, Sextette, had her essentially playing herself - an aging movie star.
- Singin' in the Rain — Gene Kelly played Don Lockwood, a song-and-dance man turned stuntman turned silent movie star who must adapt to the coming of sound.
- Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3 — movie star Kirsten Dunst plays Mary Jane Watson as a rising Broadway star (in the comics, Mary Jane is a soap star for a time, so this Character Development was probably on the producers' minds when she was cast in the first film).
- A Star Is Born — all four versions have done this - Fredric March, James Mason, Kris Kristofferson, and Bradley Cooper played washed-up movie stars/rock stars, while Janet Gaynor, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, and Lady Gaga played the up-and-coming stars.
- Sunset Boulevard — silent film era star Gloria Swanson plays all-but-forgotten silent film ere star Norma Desmond (and silent film actor and director Erich von Stroheim plays Desmond's butler Max, also her former silent film director).
- Theatre of Blood— Vincent Price plays Edward Kendal Sheridan Lionheart, a famous or possibly infamous Shakespearian actor who is hated by critics (though seems to be not unpopular with audiences) for his hammy performances.
- ¡Three Amigos! — comedy stars Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Chevy Chase play silent film western stars Lucky Day, Ned Nederlander, and Dusty Bottoms.
- Thor: Ragnarok — Sam Neill, Matt Damon, and Luke Hemsworth play theater actors who are respectively playing Odin, Loki, and Thor.
- Tropic Thunder — movie stars Jack Black, Ben Stiller, and Robert Downey Jr.. play fictional movie stars Jeff Portnoy, Tugg Speedman, and Kirk Lazarus (with Portnoy as more of a wacky fart-joke comedy guy, Speedman as a monosyllabic actioner, and Lazarus as an Oscar-obsessed intensive method actor).
- V for Vendetta — beloved talk show host Gordon Dietrich is played by beloved panel show host Stephen Fry. They even changed many aspects of his character compared to the comic to make them more in line with Fry.
- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? — famed actress Blanche Hudson was played by famed actress Joan Crawford (in the 1962 adaptation) and famed actress Vanessa Redgrave (in the 1991 adaptation); her fictional sister, famed (and then forgotten) vaudeville star Baby Jane Hudson was played by famed-and-never-forgotten Bette Davis in the original, and by real-life sister Lynn Redgrave in the remake.
Film — Biographical
- All Eyez on Me is a Biopic of Tupac Shakur that stars Demetrius Shipp Jr as the eponymous rapper, Jamal Woolard as The Notorious B.I.G., Kat Graham as Jada Pinkett, among others.
- Auto Focus stars Greg Kinnear as Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane.
- The Aviator cast Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn, Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow, Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner and Jude Law as Errol Flynn.
- Behind The Camera The Unauthorized Story Of Charlies Angels is about the creation of the eponymous TV show. It stars Christina Chambers as Jaclyn Smith, Tricia Helfer as Farrah Fawcett, Lauren Stamile as Kate Jackson, Ben Browder as Lee Majors, Orson Bean as John Forsythe, and Dan Castellaneta as famed show creator Aaron Spelling.
- Behind the Candelabra is a Biopic of Liberace in which he is played by Michael Douglas.
- Being the Ricardos has Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball, Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz, and J. K. Simmons as William Frawley.
- The Queen Biopic Bohemian Rhapsody stars Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, Gwilym Lee as Brian May, Ben Hardy as Roger Taylor, and Joseph Mazzello as John Deacon.
- Bound for Glory is a Biopic about Woody Guthrie starring David Carradine.
- Burton and Taylor starred Dominic West and Helena Bonham Carter as Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.
- Eddie Izzard also played Chaplin in The Cat's Meow, which was inspired by the mysterious death of film mogul Thomas H. Ince.
- Chadwick Boseman starred in 42 as Baseball legend Jackie Robinson, and in Get On Up as Soul and Funk icon James Brown.
- In the biopic Chaplin, Robert Downey Jr. plays the titular character. In addition, Kevin Kline played Douglas Fairbanks.
- An upcoming biopic about George Romero, Dad of the Dead, will star iconic horror actor Robert Englund in the title role.
- The Mötley Crüe Biopic The Dirt stars Douglas Booth as bassist Nikki Sixx, Iwan Rheon as lead guitarist Mick Mars, Colson Baker as drummer Tommy Lee, Daniel Webber as lead vocalist Vince Neil.
- The Disaster Artist is about the creation of The Room (2003) starring James Franco as Tommy Wiseau and Dave Franco as Greg Sestero, plus Bryan Cranston as himself.
- The Doors (1991) has the eponymous band played by Val Kilmer (Jim Morrison), Kevin Dillon (John Densmore), Kyle MacLachlan (Ray Manzarek), and Frank Whaley (Robby Krieger).
- Ed Wood — noted thespian Martin Landau played famous horror-film actor Bela Lugosi.
- The wrestling Biopic Fighting with My Family is about one of Britain's prominent Wrestling Family, the Bevises/Knights. It stars up and comer Florence Pugh as protagonist Saraya "Paige" Bevis, Lena Headey as Julia "Sweet Saraya" Bevis, Nick Frost as Patrick "Ricky Knight" Bevis, and Jack Lowden as Zak "Zodiac" Bevis, plus notable wrestler Thea Trinidad as three-time WWE Divas Champion A.J. Lee and Dwayne Johnson as himself.
- Guy Pearce starred in Flynn, which was about Errol's younger days.
- Jessica Lange starred in Frances, a biopic of former silent movie star Frances Farmer.
- A Futile and Stupid Gesture has Joel McHale as Chevy Chase, Jon Daly as Bill Murray, John Gremberling as John Belushi, Rick Glassman as Harold Ramis, Seth Green as Christopher Guest, Jackie Tohn as Gilda Radner, Emmy Rossum as Kathryn Walker, among others.
- The Haunting of Sharon Tate stars Hilary Duff as the title character.
- Hitchcock, a dramatisation about the production of Psycho, starred Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock, Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh, Jessica Biel as Vera Miles, and James D'Arcy as Anthony Perkins.
- Barbra Streisand starred in Funny Girl, a biopic of Broadway and film star and comedian Fanny Brice.
- Ben Affleck played George Reeves, the tragic star of The Adventures of Superman in Hollywoodland.
- In James Dean, James Franco plays the title role.
- Diana Ross starred as Billie Holiday in the musical biopic Lady Sings the Blues.
- Kevin Kline starred in The Last of Robin Hood, which was about the last days of Errol Flynn.
- In the made-for-television film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, the Academy Award-winning Australian actor Geoffrey Rush plays the famous English comedian Peter Sellers.
- James Cagney starred as Lon Chaney in the biopic Man of a Thousand Faces (1957).
- Jim Carrey starred in the Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon.
- The infamous Mommie Dearest starred Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford.
- My Week with Marilyn, a dramatization of the production of The Prince and the Showgirl, starred Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe and Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier.
- Nowhere Boy stars Aaron Johnson as John Lennon, Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Paul McCartney, and Sam Bell as George Harrison.
- Notorious (2009) is a Biopic of The Notorious B.I.G. that stars Jamal Woolard as the eponymous rapper, Anthony Mackie as Tupac Shakur, Derek Luke as Sean Combs, Antonique Smith as Faith Evans, among others.
- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood stars Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate, Damian Lewis as Steve McQueen (actor), Emile Hirsch as celebrity stylist Jay Sebring, Luke Perry as Wayne Maunder, Nicholas Hammond as Sam Wanamaker, among others.
- Rocketman (2019) is a Biopic about Elton John starring Taron Egerton.
- The Runaways is a Biopic about the band of the same name. It stars Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett, Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie, Stella Maeve as Sandy West, and Scout Taylor-Compton as Lita Ford.
- Selena famously stars Jennifer Lopez in the title role.
- In Stan & Ollie, Laurel and Hardy are played by Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly respectively.
- The musical Star! starred Julie Andrews as actress, singer, dancer, and musical comedy performer Gertrude Lawrence.
- Too Much, Too Soon stars Dorothy Malone as Diana Barrymore and Errol Flynn as her alcoholic father John Barrymore.
- Ken Russell's Valentino cast legendary ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev as Rudolph Valentino.
- Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is absolutely full of stars playing other stars—most notably Daniel Radcliffe as "Weird Al" Yankovic himself, Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna, and Rainn Wilson as Dr. Demento.
- Wolves At The Door stars Katie Cassidy as Sharon Tate.
- Wonderland, a film based on the real-life Wonderland Murders, starred Val Kilmer as legendary porn star John Holmes.
- James Cagney starred in Yankee Doodle Dandy, about song-and-dance man George M. Cohan, "The Man Who Owned Broadway".
- Director example: David Lynch stars as director John Ford in Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans.
Live-Action TV - Fictional
- 30 Rock — the stars of the show-within-the-show, TGS with Tracy Jordan, SNL alum Tracy Morgan plays Tracy Jordan, while Jane Krakowski plays Jenna Maroney; both characters are somewhat detached from reality due to their stardom.
- American Horror Story
- American Horror Story: Coven has Emma Roberts as teen idol Madison Montgomery.
- American Horror Story: Freak Show has multi-awarded actress Jessica Lange as a White-Dwarf Starlet Elsa Mars.
- In the Babylon 5 episode "Day of the Dead", celebrity magicians Penn & Teller guest star as "Rebo and Zooty", who are basically expys of themselves. (Also, Harlan Ellison provided the "voice" for Zooty.)
- In The Big Bang Theory, famous sitcom star Bob Newhart guests as Arthur Jeffries, Ph.D. (aka Professor Proton), a famous former host of a children's science show.
- Californication — movie star Rob Lowe plays Eddie Nero, a deviant Brad Pitt expy.
- Castle
- Laura Prepon guest-starred in a Season 3 episode as an actress who was cast as the lead in the Live-Action Adaptation of the title character's novel.
- Hilarie Burton guest-starred in a Season 4 episode as a Reality TV star.
- The Dick Van Dyke Show — TV star Carl Reiner, well known for his appearances in variety shows, plays well-known variety show host Alan Brady.
- Doom Patrol (2019) has April Bowlby as 50s megastar Rita Farr and Brendan Fraser as '80s NASCAR legend Clifford Steele.
- In Empire, Terrence Howard plays Hip-Hop Living Legend and mogul Lucious Lyon. Jussie Smollett and Yazz play his sons Jamal and Hakeem, who are popular musicians themselves.
- Entourage — B-list actor Adrian Grenier plays sometimes A-lister Vincent Chase (and, to a lesser extent, B-list actor Kevin Dillon plays C-list actor Johnny "Drama" Chase).
- In Extras, all the celebrity guest stars in play fictionalized versions of themselves, while sitcom star Ricky Gervais plays a fictional character, Andy Millman, who becomes famous as the star of the Show Within a Show When The Whistle Blows.
- The Frasier episode "The Show Must Go Off" cast acclaimed thespian Derek Jacobi as a Shakespearean actor famous for starring in a science-fiction series.
- In the Friends two-parter "The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding", lauded character actor Gary Oldman plays lauded character actor Richard Crosby (and teaches Joey Tribiani to increase his dramatic range by spitting while speaking).
- Game of Thrones Season 6 features a theater troupe consisting of Richard E. Grant as its Descended Creator and Essie Davis as the troupe's premier actress.
- Gilligan's Island — knockout movie star Tina Louise played knockout movie star Ginger Grant; although ultimately four actresses played Ginger — a different one in the pilot (for which the character was not identified as a movie star), Louise throughout the series, and two others in later made-for-TV-movies, only Louise was already a genuine movie star when she took the part — and is generally regarded by fans as the real Ginger.
- Later seasons of Glee feature most of the main characters eventually becoming celebrities.
- Miley Cyrus became a household name playing Miley Stewart, an apparently Ordinary High-School Student who is secretly an Idol Singer named Hannah Montana. Her father (both in the show and in real life) played by Billy Ray Cyrus was a popular Country Music singer back in the day.
- Hot in Cleveland invoked this in their promos for the series when it premiered; Wendie Malick certainly isn't a big A-lister or anything, but in promos, she acted like one, because the character she played was an egotistical and diva-ish former television star (much like Malick herself, and pretty much all of the cast members of this show).
- The father of the eponymous Jane the Virgin is a popular telenovela actor played by popular telenovela actor, Jamie Camil.
- Jessica Jones (2015) has Rachael Taylor as Former Child Star and current popular radio talk show host Trish Walker.
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has a few in its long history:
- Maggie Grace plays popular TV star Jessie Dawning in Season 6.
- Norman Reedus plays popular rock star and activist Derek Lord in the Season 7 finale.
- Bailey Chase plays NFL superstar Lincoln Haver in Season 9.
- Antwon "Big Boi" Patton plays Hip-Hop artist Gots Money in Season 10.
- Mehcad Brooks plays NBA superstar Prince Miller in Season 13.
- Chad L. Coleman plays NFL superstar A.J. Martin in Season 16.
- Dove Cameron plays the eponymous twins Liv and Maddie, with the former half of the pair being a teen idol.
- Lucifer (2016) has Lauren German playing detective and former teen idol, Chloe Decker.
- In an episode of McCloud "McCloud Meets Dracula" John Carradine, an actor with a long history of appearing in horror films, plays Loren Belasco, an actor with a long history of appearing in horror films who has become convinced he's Dracula.
- Davy Jones appears in an episode of My Two Dads as a famous musician.
- In Nashville, Connie Britton plays Country Music Living Legend Reyna Jaymes while Hayden Panettiere plays her younger and currently popular rival/frenemy Juliette Barnes.
- In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Conscience of the King", longtime Broadway character actor Arnold Moss played Shakespearean troupe-leader Anton Karidian (who is, in fact, the disguised genocidal Governor Kodos of Tarsus IV).
- This Is Us casts Justin Hartley as popular TV actor Kevin Pearson.
- Veronica Mars — once hugely famous star Harry Hamlin plays hugely famous movie star Aaron Echolls.
Live-Action TV - Biographical
- An Adventure in Space and Time is a Docudrama about the creation of Doctor Who. It stars David Bradley as William Hartnell, Jessica Raine as Verity Lambert, and Brian Cox as Sydney Newman.
- Elizabeth Taylor has been played by Helena Bonham Carter in Burton & Taylor and Lindsay Lohan in Liz & Dick.
- Feud casts Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis, Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford, and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Olivia de Havilland. In addition, the cast features Alfred Molina as Robert Aldrich, Kathy Bates as Joan Blondell, and John Waters as William Castle.
- Fosse/Verdon casts Sam Rockwell as Bob Fosse and Michelle Williams as Gwen Verdon.
- Gia is a Biopic about supermodel Gia Carangi starring Angelina Jolie (and Mila Kunis) as the titular protagonist. It also had Faye Dunaway as fashion legend Wilhelmina Cooper.
- My Dinner with Hervé casts Peter Dinklage as Hervé Villechaize and Andy García as Ricardo Montalbán.
- Pam & Tommy had Lily James as Pamela Anderson and Sebastian Stan as Tommy Lee.
- A Season 1 episode of That '70s Show has Dwayne Johnson playing his father, Rocky Johnson.
Theatre
- The original cast of Lady in the Dark featured Victor Mature as Randy Curtis, a handsome Hollywood actor desired by women around the world.
Western Animation
- Adam West has a memorable guest appearance in Batman: The Animated Series voicing 1960s crime show star Simon Trent, whom the titular Batman idolized as a kid.
- In one episode of The Flintstones, Swedish movie star Ann-Margret plays "Ann-Margrock," a famous actress visiting Bedrock. James Darren (as "James Darrock") and Tony Curtis (as "Stony Curtis") also appeared in episodes.
- Adam West is in an episode of Kim Possible voicing the aging star of a 1960s crime show. It's not Adam Westing, but it's darn close since the whole thing is clearly an Affectionate Parody of Batman (1966).
- In The Simpsons episode "The Lastest Gun in the West", Dennis Weaver, star of the TV series Gunsmoke and McCloud, plays washed-up has-been western film star Buck McCoy.
