Culpability of Acting

[scameter18]

If someone acts in a role, in a play, movie, a roleplaying game, or any other medium that involves acting a role, if one freely elects to act the part of a character that is evil, would that be morally wrong? For example, if there was a play at high school or something about Hitler, and one acting the part of Hitler, and did evil things in the play and such. Would that be permissable?

 

[Matrix_Refugee]

Not morally wrong at all, since it’s all make-believe or at least “sub-creating”, to use a term coined by Catholic convert and fantasy grandmaster J.R.R. Tolkien. If you’re an actor playing Hitler, you’re not really buying into Antisemitism or inciting acts of genocide. To go back to my Tolkien example, Christopher Lee, the actor who played the evil wizard Saruman in the movie version of Lord of the Rings wasn’t really destroying forests and creating a race of monsters to ravage a kingdom, in order to pave the way for something bigger and nastier and more bent on world domination than he was. I roleplay a werewolf-like creature, but I’m not really running about a decaying urban landscape clawing gang hoodlums and crooked cops. The actions of an actor have no real moral effect in the real world, so culpability isn’t even applicable. If someone cannot discern the difference between fantasy and reality, that person needs to have some help from a good Catholic therapist, up to treatment for mild schizophrenia…

 

[scameter18]

Thanks alot for your reply, you answered it well. I was thinking about roleplaying a Sith on a Star Wars MMORPG and was wondering if that would be ok.

 

[Matrix_Refugee]

Thanks alot for your reply, you answered it well. I was thinking about roleplaying a Sith on a Star Wars MMORPG and was wondering if that would be ok.

Heh, you and me both! I actually find playing villains a bit cathartic: I find myself being kinder and more charitable to people in real life when I’ve run as my werewolf-like character on City of Villains. It’s as if it takes whatever nasty feelings I have toward my fellow man and gives it a safe way to show itself, where no one gets hurt and no sins are committed. It’s like G.K. Chesterton said about toy swords being “the soul of a real sword, which can never be stained with real blood.”

 

[scameter18]

That would definitely seem to be true. I’ve asked other people why they prefer playing villainous characters on games and they’ve essentially said that. Honestly the reason I want to play one on a game is for one, because of the conflict being evil brings; for two, because everyone else does; and for three, because it’s interesting to explore a side of life I don’t actually do in real life. But that’s just me.