Reading the credits of a movie, you can stumble upon a recording according to which a famous media person plays the role of a cameo. The viewer is perplexed by such inscriptions, because the word is foreign and in most cases remains incomprehensible to the average person. So cameo - what is it? Why do such roles exist?
Kameo: what is it?
When the name “cameo” is in the credits opposite the name of the celebrity, the viewer does not quite understand what is being said. Cameo - what is it? What is such an incomprehensible word?
It’s difficult to track the exact origin of this term. But for the first time, the word "cameo" has been widely used in relation to cinema in the UK and the USA. This was the episodic role of a very famous person in a film or series. Moreover, this person (politician, businessman, actor, model), as a rule, played herself.
Why do we need a cameo?
So, in the movie, the episodic role of a public person who plays herself is called a cameo. What is it, we figured out. Now a logical question arises as to why and who needs it. The viewer will say: you can understand when a celebrity plays a major role, but why should she appear in the frame for only a few minutes?
Firstly, the directors of a film or series attract additional attention to their project. For example, the rating of a series of a sitcom, in which the billionaire Donald Trump appears for several minutes, increases sharply. The audience is simply interested to see such a person in new conditions for her. And if you still imagine that unknown actors play in the film where Donald Trump appears, then it would be nice to invite Oprah Winfrey to increase the rating.
Secondly, the appearance of an interesting person in the role of herself can well affect the rating not only of the series, but also of the person himself. Say, a little-known artist appears in a popular film under his own name, where he is presented from the best side and even demonstrate his work. It can be argued that the very next day after showing the picture, the number of requests on the Internet in the name of a little-known artist will increase dramatically, and he will turn into a celebrity.
So cameo is a profitable “trick” for both filmmakers and celebrities who are invited to episodic roles.
Director cameo
Often, directors play episodic roles in their own films.
For example, everyone knows about the famous cameo directed by
Alfred Hitchcock. The fact is that this was one of the distinguishing features of his work: Hitchcock played 39 cameos in 37 of his films. True, he did not appear on the screens specifically in the image of a director or other filmmaker. He played passers-by, photojournalists, fellow travelers in transport - i.e. ordinary people.
Quentin Tarantino took over the habit of Hitchcock: he plays a cameo not only in his own films, but even in projects where he simply acted as a screenwriter or producer. The director can be seen in the films Golden Girls, The Birthday of My Best Friend, Mad Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Sleep With Me, and many others.
Eldar Ryazanov also played episodic roles in the films “The Purpose of His Life”, “Give the Complaint Book”. Leonid Gaidai also appeared in the frame: in the film “Risk is a Noble Deed,” he embodied the usual image of a film director on the screens.
Why do directors play such roles? Some simply do not want to spend money on extras, so they play minor roles themselves. Some people say that they want to feel the atmosphere that prevails on the set. But in general, probably, each of the directors just wants to leave a memory after himself, because cinema is an ageless art.
Acting Cameo
What is a cameo in films for professional actors? This is an opportunity to "PR" once again, to confirm your "star status". Sometimes this is a way to return to the screens after a long lull.
Anyway, almost any celebrity appeared at least once in the role of himself on the screen. If we return to the Soviet film “Risk is a noble cause,” the actors of the Soviet cinema played the roles of actors on the set: Yevgeny Morgunov, Leonid Kanevsky and Elsa Lezhdey.
Brad Pitt appeared in the role of himself in the series "Friends". And indeed, in the sitcom, friends played a cameo by many Hollywood celebrities: George Clooney, Steve Zan, Brooke Shields, Jean-Claude Van Dam, etc.
What can we say about the actors, if nowadays you can even see a billionaire in a television series. So Donald Trump does not cease to amaze the audience: he played himself in the films “Alone at Home-2”, “Days of Our Lives”, “Candidate” and in many other projects. For his immediacy in the frame, Trump was even nominated for an Emmy Award.
Cameo on TV
Most of all cameos are in demand in television series. There, this technique is often used to raise the rating.
For example, in the long-playing “soap” “Don't be born beautiful”, the cameo was performed by ballet dancer Anastasia Volochkova, singer Andrei Grigoryev-Apollonov, athlete Alina Kabaeva and TV presenter Tina Kandelaki.
Another series that often exploited the stars to raise the rating is “My Fair Nanny” with Anastasia Zavorotnyuk. Probably, no Russian project can still boast of such a galaxy of invited celebrities: Soviet actors Georgy Martirosyan and Armen Dzhigarkhanyan; actresses Galina Polsky, Nona Grishaeva, Natalya Gromushkina, Tatyana Kravchenko; artists Victor Suprun, Fedor Bondarchuk, Anton Makarsky; singers Nikolai Baskov and Dmitry Malikov; TV presenters Aleksey Lysenkov and Mikhail Shatz and dozens of people flashed on the screen.
The series Interns, one of the most popular on Russian television, was honored by trainer Edgard Zapashny, actor Maxim Averin, businessman Sergey Badiuk, comedian Alexei Agopyan and singer Sergey Zhukov.
Cameo in feature films
In full-length films, cameos are also widely used, especially if the plot of the action takes place at a social party or party. For example, in the film "Day Watch" the artist Nikas Safronov, musician Sergey Shnurov, singer Boris Moiseev and correspondent Maria Kiseleva came to the corporate party to Zavulon.