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In the aughts, when Seth Rogen and his longtime creative partner Evan Goldberg were writing the script for \u201cThis Is the End,\u201d<\/a> an apocalyptic comedy about friends left behind by the rapture, a question arose: Would it be funnier to watch the actors play completely fictional characters or heightened versions of themselves?<\/p>\n The pair decided on the latter, casting Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill and others as postapocalyptic versions of themselves.<\/p>\n In an interview, Goldberg said that the rise of reality television had made audiences increasingly curious about the lives of stars. So he and Rogen decided to lean into that curiosity and found that playing a worse version of the celebrity \u201cwas usually more fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ken Marino and David Wain, the writers of the comedy \u201cGail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass\u201d<\/a> (in theaters), agreed. In their raucous adventure, Gail (Zoey Deutch) and her boyfriend, Tom (Michael Cassidy), offhandedly establish a \u201ccelebrity sex pass,\u201d which hypothetically allows each to sleep with one celebrity of their choosing should the opportunity arise. When Tom cashes in his pass during a chance encounter with Jennifer Aniston (playing herself), Gail books a flight to Los Angeles with a singular goal: to have sex with Jon Hamm (also playing himself). Upon arriving, Gail searches Hollywood for Hamm, bumping into Henry Winkler, Weird Al Yankovic and Hamm\u2019s fellow \u201cMad Men\u201d star John Slattery along the way. \u201cGail Daughtry,\u201d like \u201cThis Is the End,\u201d capitalizes on the audience\u2019s preconceived ideas of its celebrity cast, exploiting expectations for laughs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The films are part of a growing trend. Earlier this year, the pop star Charli XCX portrayed a heightened version of herself in the mockumentary \u201cThe Moment\u201d (on HBO Max<\/a>), and Lady Gaga tussled with Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) in \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada 2\u201d (On Disney+ and Hulu July 29). Shows like \u201cHacks,\u201d \u201cThe Studio\u201d and \u201cThe Comeback\u201d mingle their fictional characters with Hollywood glitterati. Nicolas Cage appears as a struggling and largely unemployed version of himself in the 2022 film \u201cThe Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.\u201d In 2025, James Marsden earned an Emmy nomination for playing a self-obsessed avatar of himself in the show \u201cJury Duty.\u201d<\/p>\n We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n