AvPD characters in TV and movies

Nice bump. A character in The Expendables says outright that he has AvPD. He's portrayed as a paranoid self conscious individual.

I can't recall a character I ever really related to completely. Elijah Wood in Everything is Illuminated seemed like a character that wished he could connect easily. Too trusting and naive mixed with being passive, and the right amount of shock when people aren't like him.

Not sure if Leon from Leon the Professional would get AvPD too or not, he could just have been antisocial.

I'm sure I'll think of more later.

thepain wrote:

twistermind wrote: In "The Glass Menagerie" there is a character (the daughter in the family) that seems to be an avoidant. Good movie!

Just had to read this play again recently. Laura seemed like a text book example of an avoidant.

Laura's character has actually been used as an example of an avoidant in textbooks. I read the play many years ago. I identified with Laura so deeply my stomach was doing flips of anxiety while reading it.

I'm sure I can think of many many characters, but one that always comes to mind for me is Drew Barrymore's character Josie Geller in "Never Been Kissed." It was quite non-avoidant of Josie to be begging her boss to become a real reporter rather than just a copy-editor (actively seeking a risky promotion), but an awful lot in her life fits.

twistermind wrote:

Gin_n_Tonic7 wrote:My favorite tv detective - Adrian Monk. Also the title character in the French film, Amelie.
(hi fellow avoidants - I'm new here)

I can´t belive I forgot this character in one of my favourite films "Amelie". The Amelie artist neighbour seems to be an avoidant. yeah.

Amelie! Amelie! One of my favorite movies of all time. It's been a few years since I've seen it, but if I recall correctly, the painter neighbor kind of acts as her counselor. Yes he was a recluse, but my impression of him was that he was a shut-in due to physical reasons rather than psych ones. Everyone in that movie is caught in their own special idiosyncratic loop, which is what makes the film so damn cool. It's as much of an ensemble cast as it is about Amelie being the star.

Need to watch that movie again. Only I have a lingering jealousy of Amelie that she finds that soulmate when she's still young and beautiful in her early-to-mid-20s. The chances for someone like me, at nearly twice her age....not so much.

Gin_n_Tonic7 wrote:My favorite tv detective - Adrian Monk.

Bump
He seems too selfish in a way that doesn't really care about others feelings and opinions. He is awkward and anxious to extreme of course. His brother, Ambrose is much better example (totally avoidant and not so outgoing social beast as Adrian).

I can totally relate with Bud Bundy. Looked lot like me physically around that age but less anxious, bit too sarcastic and not so secure (I wasn't openly flirting). After that age avoidance started to be stronger part in my life.

Sorry for the old bump lol



But I'm trying to find movies about AVPD characters and they're pretty inexistant. I mean, SOME avoidance here and there is found on a lot of characters. Specially avoiding close relationships or particular "career choices/moves". Avoidance is a very common theme... but AVPD? Nope!
Almost impossible to find a movie about an AVPD. Most of the movies/shows listed with AVPDs are actually schizoid PD and OCPD people.

But I guess, how would it be possible to make a movie about an AVPD person, without it being exclusive about his disorder, almost? lol He would avoid so much the plot would have to focus on his avoidance.

"This movie is about a guy and his efforts to get by with least social interaction possible, and how he struggles more to AVOID than to avoiding to avoid. He meets people, but chokes up everytime he is forming a bond. As time passes, he sees his goals being left aside. His house has walls filled with unfulfilled dreams. Then he meets a girl. And she becomes an object of adoration, but alas, she disappears before he can both make a move or be succesfull about it".

Yeah, seems interesting. Someone should do it. I would pay to see this movie. AVPD people are usually very interesting in their personal world, and also in tactics on how to avoid.

I guess Zelig would be the closest movie about an AVPD... However, too far from reality.

An Angel at My Table – not sure if she was avoidant (probably not, actually), but the movie depicts her as very, very sensitive and shy. The quote is perfect in any case.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoTa-rOUfWA

Cold Light (Kaldaljos), an Icelandic film, starring Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson and directed by Hilmar Oddsson. It's available online with English subtitles.

I believe the main character, Grimur, has an avoidant personality, or is at least prone to avoidance. As he is reminded of a childhood trauma due to his girlfriend's pregnancy, he pulls away from the intimate relationship - in an avoidant way...

I know this is pretty leftfield, but it is a supremely excellent example: Darren Aronofsky's first film (he later went on to do stuff like 'The Wrestler' and 'Noah') was a little indie thing called "π" (pi). It's about a mathematician named Max who runs into a lot of trouble when he discovers the secret of the titular number. He is a character that displays so many dead-on symptoms of AvPD that I suspect Aronafsky, who wrote the film, is an avoidant (whether he knows it or not). Even the wikipedia page for this film describes Max as having social anxiety. Max lives alone in Manhattan. He has way too many locks on his door and always peeks through his peephole to be sure there's no one in the hallway before leaving his apartment. He treats the cute little girl in his building who constantly asks him to calculate complex mathematical equations in his head as a mere annoyance. There is a pretty woman who lives across the hall who mothers him and brings him food, but Max can't bring himself to acknowledge her with more than a few nervous syllables, even though he sexually fantasizes about her. Whenever his phone rings, he stares at it with incredulous horror but rarely answers. Aronofsky pumps up the volume of the ringing phone ridiculously loud, so it is as jarring to the viewer as it is to Max. Max has no friends and goes everywhere alone.In the scenes where he is walking down the street, Aronofsky uses that technique where a camera is strapped to the actor's chest so that he appears to move independently of his surroundings, but it only serves to isolate Max more from the crowds on the street, which are shot, from Max"s point of view, slightly speeded up, with a wide lens. This gives the effect of the people he passes to all be seemingly heading straight for him. When he goes into a coffee shop and a friendly man initiates a conversation, Max ignores him. He suffers from massive headaches so severe he frequently hallucinates. One time he imagines his front door is shaking, the locks slowly turning, until it suddenly bursts open. And this is all within the first then minutes of the movie.
A good half of the films action, including some of the most important plot developments, occur with Max alone in his apartment. Later in the film, when told he will be receiving a very special delivery, he instructs the sender to leave it at his door, knock, then go away because, as he puts it, "I'm a very private person"

I haven't watched it in a while, but I'm sure there are dozens more examples of this character's AvPD that I'm forgetting about. I hesitate to recommend this film because, while I like it a lot, I find a lot of people hate it. It's over-stylized and shot in grainy black and white, but anyone who's interested in eccentric characters, psychological thrillers, or even mathematics should check it out.

Maybe George Mcfly from Back to the Future?
And I'm pretty sure Charlie Brown from 'Peanuts' is Avoidant. I know the creators made him so that he was someone seemingly doomed at life/the embodiment of the bad luck of the average person, rather than someone with a PD, but he still seems like an Avoidant never the less.