Why aren't the actual people involved in incidents asked to do reenactments?
It has always struck me as being kind of funny that the actual people involved in incidents aren't invited to (reen)act the scenes.
It's usually some look-a-like actor who needs to do a ton of research into the person(s) and what happened while trying to understand, and get into, the psyche of the involved parties.
Would it not be easier to ask the involved to act out what happened?
For instance, why wasn't Captain Sully asked to play himself in Sully instead of Tom Hanks?
Best Answer
It's usually some look-a-like actor who needs to do a ton of research into the person(s) and what happened while trying to understand, and get into, the psyche of the involved parties.
Would it not be easier to ask the involved to act out what happened?
Eh, not really..
It'd be a lot easier for an already professional actor to get in the mindset of a character they're playing than it would be to teach/train someone how to act on a professional level.
FWIW though, the people these films are based on are still sometimes in the film, but usually as an extra. This is referred to as the Real Person Cameo TV Trope.
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Answer 2
Why aren't the actual people involved in incidents asked to do reenactments?
That's not always the case, Many times they do use a real person to portray their own life.
Mayuri is a Telugu film based on Sudha Chandran's life and she played the role herself and it was a critically acclaimed film. She also played the main role in its Hindi remake Naache Mayuri. Also in Telugu biographical sports drama film Ashwini where Ashwini Nachappa played the role-based her own life. This was critically received well.
And as Scotty Parker said in comments Hollywood also have many such examples too:
Nine Non-Actors Who Starred As Themselves in Feature Films.
And the latest example coming to my mind is The 15:17 to Paris, where it got some criticism for doing it too:
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 24% based on 144 reviews, and an average rating of 4.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The 15:17 to Paris pays clumsily well-intentioned tribute to an act of heroism, but by casting the real-life individuals involved, director Clint Eastwood fatally undermines his own efforts. - wikipedia
So it's not always rainbow and butterflies when they cast real-life individual involved.
And also a risky move too as Tom Hank can attract more audience towards theater then real life sully. And not every real-life hero can act in films.
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