starring so-and-so as....

[pinkkitty]

this is so not important in any way, but something i've often wondered. In films & TV shows, sometimes they list the stars/actors, and then for no reason that i can see they'll say "and - joe blogs as joe blogs" or "with Joe bloggs" instead of just saying "joe bloggs" i can understand why they'd say "introducing Joe blogs" if Joe was an unknown, but otherwise, why single Joe bloggs out? is there actually a purpose for this? Hmmmmm.

[marwel7]

Sometimes the wording of an actor's credit is part of the contract negotiations.
Sometimes the credits are used to make up time if the film is running short.

[dot.hawkes]

It is something that gives an actor's CV a boost. A 'starring' role is ok, a 'guest star' role is better a 'special guest star' is even better. It doesn;t happen as much now, but back when they made Columbo and McMillan & Wife and Name of the Game or Ironside, this was where you would see actors from other populat shows getting work.

[kempie]

The actors whose names appear first are said to have "top billing". They usually play the principal characters in the show/film and have the most screen time.

In film it is possible to give actors "equal billing" by placing their names side-by-side however this is not practical on a much smaller TV screen, thus this leads to...

"last billing", which is usually credited after the rest of the lead cast, prefixed with "and". In some cases the name is followed by "as" plus the name of the character.

[pinkkitty]

ahh. thank you all! i had wondered, because they do it on Stargate SG-1, they have Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Ben Browder, then it says "and Michael Shanks as Daniel Jackson". i know Shanks left SG-1 because he was not happy with the amount od screen time his character was getting, so maybe that's whiy they hav him as an "and..."

that was really useful, thanks again.