Zendaya is Meechee
And LeBron James is Gwangi
Danny DeVito is Dorgle
Ooh, Common is Stonekeeper
And Zendaya is Meechee (Zendaya is Meechee!)
Gina Rodriguez is Kolka
And Zendaya is Meechee!
And LeBron James is Gwangi
Danny DeVito is Dorgle
Ooh, Common is Stonekeeper
And Zendaya is Meechee (Zendaya is Meechee!)
Gina Rodriguez is Kolka
And Zendaya is Meechee!
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!"👁 Image
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
- 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."
- 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."
- Johnny Depp IS Rango. Rather ironic given that Rango is a pseudonym.
- A trailer for Minions tells us that "Sandra Bullock is Scarlet Overkill".
- Smallfoot was advertised this way, inspiring the memetic "Zendaya is Meechee👁 Image
" song. - Posters for Smurfs (2025) say that "Rihanna is Smurfette".
- 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
- Air Force One: Harrison Ford IS the President of the United States.
- "Kathy Ireland is the Alien from L.A.."
- Angels & Demons: "Tom Hanks is Robert Langdon".
- "Dudley Moore is Arthur".
- Michael Keaton IS Beetlejuice. (Funny when you consider the correct spelling is Betelgeuse.)
- Nearly imperceptible, but on the poster it says clear as day "Harrison Ford is Blade Runner"
- Blonde: "Ana de Armas is Marilyn Monroe".
- On the poster for The Bourne Identity: Matt Damon is Jason Bourne.
- Halle Berry IS Catwoman.
- Darkest Hour: Gary Oldman is Winston Churchill.
- Parodied in the marketing for Dear Santa with "Jack Black is NOT Santa", highlighting that he plays Satan mistaken for Santa. Technically, he isn't playing Satan either, but an imposter.
- Julia Roberts IS Erin Brockovich.
- Harrison Ford is The Fugitive.
- This👁 Image
TV promotional spot for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga states that Chris Hemsworth is Dementus and Anya Taylor-Joy is Furiosa. - 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.
- "Paul Newman is Harper."
- The Incredible Lou Ferrigno is Hercules.
- I'm Not There - "Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw are all Bob Dylan."
- The film Icarus is also known as "The Killing Machine". However, some sources actually title it as "Dolph Lundgren is The Killing Machine".
- 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.
- Tom Cruise is Jack Reacher and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. At least on some of the posters and DVD covers anyway.
- James Bond: 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.
- The trailer of The Last Showgirl has "Pamela Anderson Is The Last Showgirl".
- 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".
- Angelina Jolie IS Maleficent.
- Richard Harris is the Man in the Wilderness.
- "Jim Carrey is Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon."
- Author Mickey Spillane played his own creation, detective Mike Hammer, in the 1963 movie of "The Girl Hunters". The movie's opening credits declare, "Mickey Spillane is Mike Hammer", while the closing credits list it as, "Mike Hammer is Mickey Spillane".
- 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.
- Parodied in the trailer for Pee-wee's Big Adventure: "Pee-Wee Herman is Pee-Wee Herman."
- David Hyde Pierce IS The Perfect Host.
- The poster for Peter Rabbit states that James Corden is PETER RABBIT.
- "Roberto Benigni is Pinocchio."note Even though the American version of the movie, which the phrase appeared in advertisements for, featured Breckin Meyer dubbing over Benigni as the character.
- "Joey King IS The Princess"
- 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.
- Kevin Costner is Robin Hood.
- Smurfs (2025): The trailer and teaser poster announce that "Rihanna IS Smurfette."
- The teaser trailer for Star Trek: The Motion Picture did this with the whole cast. With Orson Welles narrating. See here👁 Image
. - 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.
- 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)
- Arnold Schwarzenegger IS The Terminator.
- The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan and The Three Musketeers: Milady: 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".
- Tom Hanks IS Forrest Gump...and A Man Called Otto.
- Tomb Raider (2018): Alicia Vikander is Lara Croft.
- 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 The humor here, of course, being that it states essentially that "Daniel Radcliffe is weird."
- This promo👁 Image
for The Wizard of Oz (1939) inverts it with "Dorothy is Judy Garland". - The character posters for Wicked and Wicked: For Good both state that the actors are the characters in question, i.e. "Jonathan Bailey is Fiyero."
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.
- 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".
- For Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary, the Radio Times released twelve special edition covers👁 Image
, 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 (in)famously misspelled his name (as "Davidson"), which they corrected a quarter-century later when he got a second cover for a Children in Need short.
- A segment in Horrible Histories presents the events of the Gunpowder Plot as a film trailer, with a voice a la Don LaFontaine proclaiming "Guy Fawkes IS The Mastermind" and "Francis Tresham IS The Idiot."
- Later episodes of The Hitch-Hiker bill the title character this way in the credits ("Page Fletcher is The Hitchhiker").
- 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!"
- A Saturday Night Live sketch👁 Image
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". - "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👁 Image
. - The liner notes of Pretty Hate Machine state "Nine Inch Nails is Trent Reznor." This was true at the time, as Reznor was doing almost everything heard on PHM and was the only official member of the band up until 2016, when Atticus Ross, whom Reznor had been working with since With Teeth, became a permanent member.
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👁 Image
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.