Sometimes it’s hard to separate an actor from his or her characters. For example, many are still surprised when they hear Hugh Laurie speak in his natural English accent because they heard him speak with an American accent for eight seasons on House. That’s not so bad — at least they don’t expect him to answer medical questions, right? Even in that case hopefully all he would have to say is the old “I’m not a doctor but I play one on TV.”
However, the situation could be much, much worse, like in the case of Colombian actor Mauricio Bastidas. Bastidas played a villainous character on the soap opera Tres Milagros (Three Miracles).
In the early morning of May 12 he was walking with his friend in the city of Bogota when four men nearly beat him to death while they reportedly screamed, “If you’re so tough like you are on the TV, then you can defend yourself” as they did it. After the beating they also robbed him. Meanwhile, Bastidas’ friend only suffered minor injuries… perhaps because he didn’t play a tough guy on television.
