Fourth wall

The **fourth wall** is a performance convention in which an invisible, imagined wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes, the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th century onwards, the rise of illusionism in staging practices, which culminated in the realism and naturalism of the theatre of the 19th century, led to the development of the fourth wall concept.

The metaphor suggests a relationship to the mise-en-scène behind a proscenium arch. When a scene is set indoors and three of the walls of its room are presented onstage, in what is known as a box set, the "fourth" of them would run along the line (technically called the "proscenium") dividing the room from the auditorium. The "fourth wall", though, is a theatrical convention, rather than of set design. The actors ignore the audience, focus their attention exclusively on the dramatic world, and remain absorbed in its fiction, in a state that the theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski called "public solitude" (the ability to behave as one would in private, despite, in actuality, being watched intently while so doing, or to be 'alone in public'). In this way, the fourth wall exists regardless of the presence of any actual walls in the set, or the physical arrangement of the theatre building or performance space, or the actors' distance from or proximity to the audience.

"**Breaking the fourth wall**" is any instance in which this performance convention, having been adopted more generally in the drama, is violated. This can be done through either directly referencing the audience, the play as a play, or the characters' fictionality. The temporary suspension of the convention in this way draws attention to its use in the rest of the performance. This act of drawing attention to a play's performance conventions is metatheatrical. A similar effect of metareference is achieved when the performance convention of avoiding direct contact with the camera, generally used by actors in a television drama or film, is temporarily suspended. The phrase "breaking the fourth wall" is used to describe such effects in those media. Breaking the fourth wall is also possible in other media, such as video games and books.

Listed here are scenes in Paramount movies and television shows where such characters break the fourth wall.

## Films

### Paramount animated features

#### *The Wizards*

* At the start and end of the movie, Joey narrates the story, while also taking part in the film's plot.

#### *Twin, Duo, and Two*

* At the start of the movie, Lance narrates the story, while also taking part in the film's plot.

#### *Twin, Duo, and Double*

* At the start and end of the movie, Lance narrates the story, while also taking part in the film's plot.

#### *Twin, Duo, and Three*

* At the start and end of the movie, Layla narrates the story, while also taking part in the film's plot.

#### *Puffy*

* At the start and end of the movie, Puffy narrates the story, while also taking part in the film's plot.

#### *The Brady Kids*

* At the start of the movie, Marcia narrates the story, while also taking part in the film's plot.

#### *Virtual Journey: Next Dimensions*

* At the start of the movie, Makaila narrates the story, while also taking part in the film's plot.

#### *Puffy's Big Break*

* At the start and end of the movie, Puffy narrates the story, while also taking part in the film's plot.

#### *Twin, Duo, and Forever*

* At the end of the movie, Lance narrates the end of the story, while also taking part in the film's plot.