Fact Vs. Fiction: Do Actors Keep It Real When They Play Themselves?

In the new HBO comedy series Life's Too Short, English actor Warwick Davis portrays himself in a role that is described as depicting "the life of a showbiz dwarf." The show centers on Davis, the diminuitive star of Willow and the Leprechaun series, as he attempts to make a comeback, and it's chock full of cameos from other actors like Johnny Depp and Liam Neeson portraying versions of themselves as well. Co-creator and recurring cast member Ricky Gervais has said that Davis is playing a twisted version of himself, and that on-screen Davis is "quite conceited and arrogant and manipulative," unlike the real Davis.

Actors portraying and lampooning themselves in television and movies is nothing new, of course, but how often are they actually keeping it real on screen? To answer this question, and to honor of the U.S. premiere of Life's Too Short this Saturday at 10:30 p.m., we took a look at a few actors who have played themselves on-screen, and weighed on on how little acting we think they're doing.

Written by Tanya Ghahremani (@tanyaghahremani)

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In season four of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David is cast in Mel Brooks's broadway play The Producers. His co-star is originally Ben Stiller, but after a few incidents involving Larry, Stiller leaves the production and David Schwimmer is cast in the role instead.

Initially, Schwimmer seems pleasant enough, but after Larry more or less insults the cashew-to-raisin ratio in his father's company's trail mix packages, Schwimmer turns into a much darker person. It's a huge change from the way Schwimmer is normally perceived, which tends to be as a carbon copy of his character Ross from Friends, but it makes for some entertaining scenes like this one.

Verdict: Toss-up. Oftentimes the stars who seem nicest in real life are the biggest control freak assholes behind the scenes. On the other hand, this imagined version of Schwimmer exists in a world with Larry David's character, who can bring the devil out of anyone.

Grosse Pointe was a short-lived series on The WB about a cast of actors who star in a Beverly Hills, 90210-like primetime teen soap. It featured a few cameos from other WB stars, though no one as high-profile or memorable as Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar. Marcy (Lindsay Sloane) befriends Gellar as the two share the same yoga class, and then Gellar ends up being cast to guest star on Marcy's show. There's only one catch: Gellar wants to kiss Marcy on-screen.

Marcy misunderstands this somehow and, after going out to a bar with Gellar and downing a few drinks, she proceeds to kiss her. Gellar pushes her away in shock, and proceeds to go on some spiel about how she thought kissing a girl on screen would make her be noticed for an Emmy, and she never actually wanted to kiss Marcy. Not exactly the most complex or well-written storyline, but at least we got to see Buffy the Vampire Slayer kiss a girl.

Verdict: This is some meta reality for you, folks. Sadly she never did get that Emmy nomination for Buffy...

In the premiere episode of 30 Rock's second season, Jack (Alec Baldwin) has the seemingly brilliant idea of digitally inserting a clip of Jerry Seinfeld, adapted from old Seinfeld episodes, into new episodes of NBC shows for a week. The promotion is to be called SeinfeldVision, and since NBC already owns the clips, there is no need to spend any money on rights or even paying Jerry (who's out of the country, anyway, and thus wouldn't even know).

Of course, Jerry finds out and treks into 30 Rock to confront Jack. While there, he meets Liz (Tina Fey) and gives her advice about her recent break-up with ex-boyfriend Floyd (Jason Sudeikis). This proceeds to happen. Despite his bone to pick with Jack, Jerry is made out to be a pretty pleasant dude.

Verdict: We imagine that a super paid comedian with a serious kicks collection would be pretty chill unless you were fucking with his money, so yeah, not much of a stretch for Jer.

Larry David created one of the most successful shows ever on television, Seinfeld, but he didn't gain a lot of publicity as a person until the release of Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO in 2000. In the series, which he also writes, Larry plays a version of himself that, since the ending of Seinfeld, isn't really doing much with his career and faces small problems that are exacerbated by his lack of social grace. If Seinfeld was a show about nothing, Curb is simply a show about life.

In the series, Larry is somewhat of an anti-hero, someone who's a magnet for trouble, causes a lot of problems for no good reason, and is generally unpleasant, but you still can't help rooting for him. He's socially inept to the max, and most of his problems stem from his inability to comprehend certain practices of common courtesy, as well as his inability to let anything go. The series often mirrors his personal life, this being most apparent in the beginning of season seven when his wife, Cheryl, leaves him—in real life, David was going through a divorce with his wife as well.

Verdict: There are elements of real-life Larry in on-screen Larry, but they're definitely exaggerated—no one can be that socially inept and still have a career anywhere, let alone Hollywood.

Not much to say about Billy Zane's cameo appearance in Zoolander, other than that we'd listen to him. He's just trying to help out.

Verdict: Very likely. Come on.

Téa Leoni's role in The X-Files was a pretty small one, but significant all the same: Leoni plays herself starring in a film based off of a case Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigated. She's mostly seen playing Scully in the fake movie on screen in a theater, but when she does interact with Mulder and Scully, there's a pretty meta joke about her having a crush on Mulder. Leoni was, of course, married to Duchovny at the time of filming.

Verdict: Well, she was married to David Duchovny, so it's safe to safe she was into him.

Curb Your Enthusiasm probably has the most guest stars portraying themselves of any show ever, but few are as memorable as Michael J. Fox. In his episode, Fox is Larry David's upstairs neighbor, and since Larry is Larry, the two obviously have some issues: Most specifically, Larry questioning whether or not Fox is using his Parkinson's disease to be an asshole and get away with it. Everyone else except for Larry seems to love Fox, though, and he's presented as a very likable character who even NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg defends.

Verdict: Despite his fights with Larry, Fox is considered to be a very likeable, model citizen in the role, just as in real life.

On Louie, show-running comedian Louis C.K. portrays a newly divorced father attempting to raise his two daughters in New York City and balance family responsibilities with his career as a comedian. The show is loosely based on C.K.'s own life, but pumped up with extra awkward hilarity, such as his character's obsessive crush on a platonic mommy friend Pamela (played by his real-life comedian friend Pamela Adlon).

Verdict: In every good joke there is a kernel of truth. Plus, C.K. writes it all himself, so you do the math.

In 30 Rock, Kelsey Grammer plays the ultimate con-man version of himself. His true nature is common knowledge to Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski), who first calls him up when she's attempting to devise a plan to steal money from a bakery with Kenneth the Page (Jack McBrayer), but it's not too clear if anyone else really knows. He's devious, cunning, and completely insane, and he appears whenever Jenna and Kenneth need help pulling off a scam, which has been twice so far.

Verdict: It'd be awesome if Grammer were like this, but in real life he's thought of too highly to be a misfit on the low. Then again, his successful career as an actor, producer, and CEO would be a perfect cover...

On The Office, Creed Bratton is a deviant, technologically-challenged quality assurance manager at Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company, a job that mostly consists of him playing spider solitare on his computer all day. He is generally not that pleasant of a person, and has no problem taking advantage of the Canadian government, stealing, and writing what he thinks is a blog. Not much is really known about his past, other than the fact that in the '60s, he used to play in a band called The Grass Roots and was a hippie.

In real-life, Creed Bratton actually did play in a band called The Grass Roots during the '60s, but as far as we all know he didn't go on to work at a paper company in Scranton or do any of the things that Creed the character does on a daily basis.

Verdict: Co-star B.J. Novak has said that Bratton is just like the character he plays, only in real life he's "good-hearted and likeable." If you believe that guy.

Hamlet 2 is the story of a high school drama teacher who, after putting on an unsuccessful string of plays adapted from movies like Erin Brockovich, decides to write his own script. The result is a sequel to Shakespeare's Hamlet that includes Jesus, a time machine, and a happy ending, so bad that it ends up being kind of awesome.

Elisabeth Shue's role has nothing to do with any of this, though. Shue plays a version of herself who works at a clinic in Tuscon, Arizona, and claims to have left Hollywood because it was too crazy for her. In reality, however, she just couldn't get any acting jobs. Personality-wise, she's sweet, despite some slight bitterness over the fizzling out of her acting career. The previously referenced drama teacher, Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan), is her biggest fan, and the two end up falling in love even though it's totally unrealistic because she's a hot blonde and Dana can't even remember to put on pants for the majority of the movie.

Verdict: Her disposition seems right but her inability to get jobs is pure fiction. She was awesome in Piranha 3D and we can't wait to see her and Jennifer Lawrence in House at the End of the Street.

In Zombieland, Murray's role is part of an unexpected twist at the end of the film. When zombie apocalypse survivors Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) break into a random house in Los Angeles, they're surprised to discover that it's actually Bill Murray's place—except for Little Rock, because she has no clue who he is.

Assuming he's dead, they take refuge in the mansion, only to discover later that Murray is alive, and he's just been putting on make-up to look like a zombie so he can survive amongst them. Tallahassee and Wichita discover this first, and instead of telling the remaining two in the group, they decide to play a trick on them that includes Murray sneaking up on them and acting like he's a zombie. This is pretty stupid, though, because zombies actually exist in this world, and Murray ends up with a gaping bullet hole in his chest courtesy of Columbus. In true Murray fashion, however, he's not all that mad, and he dies pretty peacefully.

Verdict: Have you seen Ghostbusters? This guy would totally rock a zombie apocalypse and live to tell the tale.