Louise Brix Jacobsen

Vitafiction as a Mode of Self-Fashioning: The Case of Michael J. Fox in Curb Your Enthusiasm

Celebrities playing fictionalized versions of themselves in movies, TV series, commercials, and campaigns has become a widespread media cultural phenomenon. John Malkovich in Being John Malkovich. Julia Roberts in Oceans 12. Emma Watson and Rihanna in This Is the End. Kate Winslet, Ben Stiller, Daniel Radcliffe and others in Extras, and numerous American celebrities in The Larry Sanders Show. George Clooney in commercials for Nespresso, Madonna for BMW, and Brad Pitt for Heineken. Even President Barack Obama used this strategy at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2013, where he starred as Daniel Day-Lewis playing Obama in the spoof follow-up for Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln. Perhaps one of the most conspicuous and remarkable platforms for this kind of self-acting is the American TV series Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000–present). In the show, the famous Seinfeld-creator Larry David stars as the famous Seinfeld-creator Larry David. He has the same name, the same job, and the same friends that he has in real life. A number of American celebrities, such as Richard Lewis, Ted Danson, Diane Keaton, Martin Scorsese, Anne Bancroft, Meg Ryan, and the entire cast of Seinfeld co-star in the show where they, like Larry David, seemingly act as themselves. In