Superheroes and Their Secret Identities: How do they Manage Two Identities? Or Do They?

A young actor is always concerned with verisimilitude while performing. Verisimilitude – I know not everyone would know about it and its natural. Let me explain it in simple terms.

Verisimilitude, by definition, is the state or quality of being or looking real or true. In simpler terms, it is about being able to look like the character he/she is playing.

He or she will be concerned with the accuracy of the costume or the dialect and that somehow affects his/her overall performance. The actor will always have the fear of getting caught or appear artificial. The actor gradually moves towards being the character rather than playing the character. He/she will fail over and over again, and when he/she finally succeeds, his audience tends to be more interested in the character, not the actor!

A classic example is Heath Ledger’s Joker.

Read – How Christopher Nolan Got the Joker Right

How many of us actually knew Heath Ledger before Joker? And after he played the Joker; the name, Heath Ledger, always remind of Joker. I don’t intend to demean the great actor Heath was but just wanted to prove a point. The point is an actor can become the character, and the audience will only take an interest in the character and start losing interest in the man or woman beneath it.

But I believe the audience always want to forget the actor and cherish the character. However, I also believe the audience doesn’t want to forget the actor for obfuscation! They want to forget the actor so that they can cherish the performance. They want to get transported.

A superhero, a messiah or a saviour, is the character, and the man or woman beneath it is the actor. The actor creates the character, and that character takes people to another world; a world of bigger truths, hope, and positivity. Then again that world seems so fantastic that it moves the people and they quickly forget the man or woman beneath it as subconsciously they know that the man or woman beneath is like them; boring most of the times!

Read – The Journey of a Superhero

The character here will defy all the rules and will give them hope. That changes lives and that becomes the greatest performance. Therefore, I believe when a strong character like Superman, Batman, Ironman, or Spiderman plays the role right, people won’t be any longer interested in the man beneath.

So it’s not the glasses that hide Superman’s identity; it’s just the bigger character that he plays that mesmerizes people. However, it’s true that there will always be curious minds. They will eventually figure out. Just like many in the DC universe and Marvel universe knows who’s who!

Amanda Waller, The Joker, and Lex Luthor figured out easily who their enemies are in the real world and instantly even lost interest!

Wrapping it up:

There could be endless memes on Superman’s glasses hiding his identity, but the fact remains that Superman is bigger than Clark Kent. It’s only natural that the grandeur of the character will overshadow people’s curiosity to know how Superman is when he’s not wearing the suit!

I don’t want to see Johnny Depp in pyjamas; I’ll rather want to see him as Jack Sparrow!

That’s my opinion.

Tell me yours 🙂