I tend to think of my RPS as original fiction played by five guys from NSYNC.

That's exactly my take on the LotR RPS I've read - that the stories are original fiction being acted by loose virtual analogues of real people. Like writing a play with such-and-such an actor in mind, and then they perform it, but it's not actually about them at all - it's just that theirs is the face animating the character.

t banging my head against the desk over the people who fucking CONFRONT actors about RPF

People - they're often stupid. And scary.

Oh, I know. And it's the not the first one. There was the infamous Tony Lucca incident when a bunch of fans did it to his face.

But I do find McKellen's comment interesting. Despite what provoked him to say it. I mean, did he just give consent to being slashed?

It certainly looks that way.

I'd say he's made his peace with the inevitability of it, anyway, and understands the mindset. This is a guy who imagines for a living, after all.

This is a guy who imagines for a living, after all.

Which might imply that most actors would be in the same place and I think that is not a conclusion one can safely draw.

No, I wouldn't suppose that!

Some actors really do see "the guy up there on the screen" as being completely separate from themselves, and then go beyond that and realize their public personas in fan minds is also as artificial a creation.

Some do, some don't, some'll have made peace with it, some won't.

But I don't think imagining for a living is tied causally to it.

I think you would be more likely to have to consider the issue, but then I'm skewed towards the "imagining for a living" experience.