forum Has anyone based a character on someone famous or looked up to?

Started January 04, 2018 by @J.A.K

tune

Who did you base it off of? For looks, personality, job, name?

For me I based my main character off a youtuber Elton Castee, and his room mates. They all have different names and different personalities but it was all off the idea of him. My character also loves traveling around the world. There are a lot of things different and isn't all him but yeah.

I based one of my main characters on my taekwondo teacher from my youth. She is the only person in the world that I would call truly frightening and in the same breath inspiring. The abilities and personality is close as well.

Sure! Especially minor characters. It's like a little nod to my faves. However, I will say that it's distracting to the reader if it's a celebrity they recognize. You can instead start with the celeb and build off of them and tweak their personality/appearance to make them your own.

Of course. My antagonist looks just like my old sensei. Strong Japanese man. He always had that look on his eyes that he knew what you were going to do before you did

I’ve had full stories where most of the characters find their basis in real people. Almost all of the characters in my most recent story are based off of my favorite teachers I’ve had. It’s funny, though. Despite the fact that they start similar to the real life person, their character development turns them in a whole different direction by the end. I’ve even talked to my friends about some characters I’ve based off of them, and we compare how they are almost nothing alike by the end!

I give my characters personality traits I see in my friends and favourite characters/celebrities, and then go from there. I add so many little quirks and backstories to the characters that they can't be recognised as who I based them off of.

One of my characters looks like Thor. I think it's really funny as that character has lighting superpowers.

hell yeah dude, we all get inspirations and ideas from somewhere

for me, a person that has really spoken to me these past few years is Pierre XO (i look up to him a lot and i love him so much that i just- he's on my to protect list !)
I did a character with @RainClouds_might_be_itachi named Niveus and ended up incorporating some of his traits in there
_{(whispers like the bandana that he wears-)}

I don't really base my characters off of real people but I do name them after people every now and then.
I have a character called Gerard and another character called Frank. In case it wasn't obvious, I was listening to a lot of MCR when I named them.
I also have a character named Eva, who's named after a horse I used to lease.
Pretty sure Matthew is named after Matt Bellamy from Muse but I've had him for so long that I honestly don't remember.

I only have one character that's really heavily based off someone I know, and that's Dr. Matthias Shaubren. He's a scientist who specializes in the behavior and psychology of a certain magical species in my world, and he's based off my psychology teacher from community college. He was literally the most interesting and likeable person I've ever been taught by, and he had some great stories (besides being a really good teacher). Anyway, I like him so much that I had to base a character off him, although I know I'll never quite do his personality justice XD