Calvin # X - the transmogrifier

I was, and still am, a big fan of Calvin and Hobbes comics. Were/are you? If yes, then you surely remember the transmogrifier, Calvin's little cardboard box where he hops in and tells Hobbes to turn some scribbled drawing of some dial on the box and then out pops 2 Calvins, one being the original and one being the copy (sort of like that brilliant brilliant movie The Prestige).

I am now going to completely ignore that the second (and third, fourth etc) Calvins were completely imagined. I am also going to ignore that Hobbes is just a soft toy tiger. I hate being adult. I am unable to retain that capacity to unquestioningly BELIEVE that those were real Calvins and that Hobbes was real. Thats part of the magic and
beauty of Watterson's creation.

The point of the above paragraphs being...?

Lets talk about personalities of human character types. Some people can be described very definitively as being
just one type. E.g. 100% of the time he is a slow, steady, methodical, boring, risk averse, introverted, serious
type.

Many can be classified as being more than 1 type: e.g. when at work, is capable of being very professional, very capable, 
serious, methodical etc, but when not at work, having a vivacious sense of humor, full of tricks and jokes, likes to go drinking  etc.

Some can even have completely contrasting properties, such as the serious, mathematical, logical physicist
holding a PHd who apparently is able to make millions laugh (read: Rowan Atkinson). Or the safe, risk averse, methodical, slow, steady engineer whose hobby is indulging in superbike road 
trips at speeds of 180kph.

These are normally referred to as multifaceted people, or people with multiple facades, or very versatile types. It is entirely possible, and for their friends and family to be exposed to and accept these facades, even
though some of them might be quite different, because these facets CAN still fit into ONE person.

When cases get more serious, they are referred to as clinical multiple personality disorder, schizophrenia etc, where people become someone else albeit in a very skewed n retarded (pardon my language) way etc.

What if there are cases whereby people are not clinically deficient?

Where the person does not have 1 type 100% of the time, nor 2 types that he can toggle as he sees fit. Maybe he can very happily and comfortably shift between varied, very different, very contrasting personalities? He might even enjoy it, or need to be X for a while, and Y some other time and Z another time.

Am I making sense?   

And when he changes character, it does not have to be in a skewed, retarded way? It would seem to an observer when he is A that he really is type A, and to another observer when he is type B that he really is a type B, and when A and B get together and compare notes, neither can believe the other's observations because to them, he was so A or so B (completely mutually exclusive types) that he cannot be both. Its either or.

What is this condition called?

I believe all good actors, people who can play diverse roles, people who are not stereotyped and earmarked for certain characters, people with great versatility possess this attribute. Actors are able to get away with this, this need to occasionally be different, by indulging in the process of acting and playing different 
characters. These people need acting much more than acting needs them. If they couldn't act, they would not be able to express themselves so in normal lives, choosing very typical characters of the spectrum of character availability. Only in acting can they channel and vent their occasional tendencies to be characters more on the extreme side of the spectrum, if you know what I mean.

Normal people can possess certain types/numbers of characters in one body. Certain types/number of characters just cannot be limited to one body. Hence the transmogrifier concept. And if we did a scientific study on this, I'd bet my bottom dollar this is the case with actors, where they cannot transmogrify and choose to be sensitive Leo today, nice Leo tomorrow, tough bad ass Leo the day after, swaggering swashbuckling Leo after that. Or they cannot be the Depp pirate today, Depp the reclusive author tomorrow, Depp the drug runner the day after, etc.

Actors are born. Not made. Not trained. If you suck you suck.

OK, got to go, time for my nightly jog.