Question about Opening Credits (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

The opening credits of Seinfeld goes like so:
Jerry Seinfeld, Richard XXX, Julia-Louis Dreyfus AND Jason Alexander AS George
While Seinfeld is the only example I can think of, this happens in numerous movie credits. Why is Jason Alexander presented last, yet emphasised by the "AND... AS..."?
What is the purpose of "AND Actor AS Character" in opening credits, why not simply place his name like the other main characters?
--
Holadem

 

[Jeff Kleist]

I think it's supposed to be a balance for being last

 

[Alex Spindler]

I agree. It's often used as a concilliatory move for a big name actor who has too small a role to be call a lead actor. But they don't want to devalue him, so he gets special billing.
My favorite is when a movie has "Guest Starring" credit, as opposed to the regular showing of the movie that doesn't have guest stars?

 

[Jason Seaver]

It's more prestigious placement - agents figure people remember the first and last items of a list fairly clearly, but tend to forget the middle, and often negotiate for that space.
For example, on Babylon 5 Peter Jurassik and Andreas Katsulas actually alternated who got the "...and" credit.
No-one does it better than the French, though. I still haven't figured out what "avec la participation de..." signifies versus just "avec", but it sounds pretty sweet. Not to mention, instead of "...and Jason Alexander as George", they'll do "...et Vincent Perez dans la rôle de 'Le Duc'".
(Not just because French sounds classier than English, but because they're clearly using more words than strictly necessary and adding flourish)

 

[Alex Spindler]

I know that my movie is going to have:

Starring Edward Norton
With Nicole Kidman
And Jodie Foster
Featuring Julianne Moore
And with the participation of Jeffery Combs
With the incomparable baking talents of Julia Childs
And guest starring Ben Murphy!

 

[Dan Rudolph]

The opening credits of Seinfeld goes like so:

Jerry Seinfeld, Richard XXX, Julia-Louis Dreyfus AND Jason Alexander AS George

While Seinfeld is the only example I can think of, this happens in numerous movie credits.

Buffy does this as well. Recent seasons end the credits with "And Alyson Hannigan as Willow." In the credits that play over the first act, major reoccurring characters are typically creditted with character name as well. I think it's a way of preventing someone from seeming diminished because they're listed last.

 

[Patrick McCart]

and
Eli Wallach
in the role of Tuco

 

[Ted Lee]

that is why the "starring (in alphabetical order)" thing works so well.

guess they can't argue too much then.

 

[Jason Whyte]

I'd like to adopt PT Anderson's approach that he used in both Magnolia and Boogie Nights:
Philip Baker Hall played Jimmy Gator
Burt Reynolds played Jack Horner
Mark Wahlberg played Dirk Diggler
Melora Walters played Claudia Wilson-Gator

 

[David Lawson]

Mr. Cranky's review of "Mission To Mars" had a humorous take on this. (I am using spoiler tags for a reason!)

Tim Robbins dies.

How do we know this before the film starts? Well, first of all, you never see him on the planet in the trailers. Second of all, he's given one of those credits where his name doesn't appear until the end of the major stars and then it says: "and Tim Robbins." It should say: "and Tim Robbins... who dies."

 

[Rob Gardiner]

...and JERRY MATHERS as THE BEAVER