Unfiltered Story #254833

I am 5 or 6, and am watching a movie with my parents on TV. Since it is mostly a comedy movie, I find it quite interesting even at my young age and get invested in the characters. Meanwhile my parents, who’ve already seen the movie at least once, are engaged in idle chatter about what a shame it is that the (60-something) lead actor has serious heart problems and has had a heart attack at some point recently. This actor also happens to be playing a doctor in the movie, and my mother is pointing at him on the screen.

Alarmed and upset at hearing this, I exclaim: “Oh, no! Dr. [character’s name] had a heart attack??”

Cue several minutes of my parents laughing, mocking and ridiculing me for “being stupid enough to think the movie character is the actor”, because it’s so simple and “obvious” that he’s not, and that he’s just playing a character in a movie, and that it’s just incredible that I’m actually enough of an “idiot” to get confused about this and not already know the difference. It literally sounds like they’re convinced “everyone” is just born naturally knowing the difference between movie actors and their characters, and I must be some kind of unusual moron.

Cue me quietly deciding to never again make any comments on anything I ever watch with my parents. This was one of the first in a very long string of similar incidents that lasted well into my adulthood, and served to systematically crush my self-esteem about my basic intelligence and about anything I ever say in other people’s presence.