Why, often in film credits, are the actor’s and character’s name often written as, for example, “Ian McKellen – Gandalf (as Ian McKellen)”, but only for certain cast members?

Question

I’ve seen this a lot on IMDB, and this was just an example using more well-known names. For a direct example, I was looking up the cast for the 1999 film, DragonHeart: A New Beginning, and the lead actor, Chris Masterson, is listed as “Christopher Masterson – Geoff (as Christopher Masterson)”, and another character is ” Vladimir ‘Furdo’ Furdik – Sentry (as Vladimir Furdik)”, but only those 2 actors were listed that way. What does it mean that their character is “as the actor”, but it’s only true for them and not anyone else in the cast?

In: 80

Answer 1

I’m pretty sure this is the do with relative importance of the actor being credited. Ian Mackellan is often the biggest name in a film so his agent probably insists on this wording to emphasise his status.

You can also see this when for the name order during the opening credits where the first and final names are highly sought after.

Of course the main star will be first but the last position it might say ‘and Wilhem Dafoe’ or maybe ‘and featuring Wilhem Dafoe’.

Important actors like to have these little things in credits to stick out from the crowd especially when they aren’t the main star of a film.