Fanfic Trope of the Day: Castback

[seriousfic]

Every now and then, a performer captures fandom's attention. They're usually pretty, always charismatic, and hopefully good at acting. Examples would include Jensen Ackles in Supernatural, Michael Rosenbaum in Smallville, David Tennant and John Simm in Doctor Who, and so on. However, just seeing these guys once a week isn't enough. You need more. There's always their upcoming work, but damnit, you need your fix now! So, what do you do? You turn your attention back to work they did before they were famous. Thus, fannish affection is shared from a show that's good to something that's... maybe not so good?

For instance, after the Ackles fangirls discovered that their lord and master starred in a little show called Dark Angel a while back, that fandom spiked in Yuletide. And Sorority Girls, a rather dire comedy about teenage boys who (hee hee) have to dress up as girls because without the plot wouldn't be "funny". Oh, my sides! Men dressing up as the opposite sex? Oh my stars and garters! But it had a young Michael Rosenbaum dressed up as a woman in it, so bring on the squee. Of course, Sweet November has Michael Rosenbaum as Jason "Lucius Malfoy" Isaacs's cross-dressing gay lover, but no amount of fan-love could make anyone sit through that movie.

So next time you see a sudden interest in a fandom that has nothing to recommend it except giving some actor a paycheck, remember it's probably just a castback and all of fandom has not gone insane (more so than usual, anyway).

Comments

[parsimonia.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha Sorority Girls....I remember being forced to watch that movie. I can't believe Michael Rosenbaum was in it! lol

[crogos.livejournal.com]

Hahaha. I was a Jensen fan way back in the day when he was in Dark Angel when it aired originally! I didn't know that people didn't know that. It's funny, because I actually see a lot of the same fangirls from way back when watching Supernatural because of (or at least started to watch because of) the Ackles factor. It's funny that you note the "discovery" of the show by the fangirls hahaha. There are actually quite a few similarities between Dean and Alec, so it's fun to watch too.