"It's not that I'm upset, it's just that I don't really get it."

I’ve been friends with David Stratton for about seven years. At a dinner recently, the subject of his fake Twitter account — @DavidStratton9 — came up. I said I thought it was very funny, but he seemed fairly disturbed by it.

When it hit social media a few weeks later, I asked to interview him about it.

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When I first showed you @DavidStratton9 you were upset; do you still feel like that?

Well I don’t get it. It’s not that I’m upset, it’s just that I don’t really get it.

Do you see the humour in the Tweets?

Not really – oh I suppose so… Some of it, and some of it not so much. Some of it’s okay I suppose.

Which bits are not okay?

I think it’s quite understandable that you’d be upset if someone’s using your name and your image to say things that you would never say. And I have views on things obviously that I don’t necessarily share – I don’t tweet, and I don’t use social media; I don’t have the time or inclination to do it.

I just find someone using my name and image to say things that I would never say and that I don’t believe is a bit unsettling.

Its bio now calls it “a loving tribute”, which makes it clearer that it’s fake.

I think the ABC asked the person with that account to add that – to make it clear that it’s not me. It’s still not totally clear. Well, it says “not the real David Stratton”, so okay.

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DAVID STRATTON REVIEWS @DAVIDSTRATTON9

FAKE DAVID:

REAL DAVID:

Well… Some of the political stuff bothers me, because I would never publically say anything about Christopher Pyne or Wayne Swan or that sort of thing. I don’t find that very funny and it bothers me somewhat.

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FAKE DAVID:

REAL DAVID:

I don’t know who Joel Madden is. Who is that? Some of the references I don’t quite get.

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FAKE DAVID:

REAL DAVID:

I’d never call him Jimmy Stewart – he’s James Stewart. What the fuck, you know — James Stewart is the actor’s name, not Jimmy Stewart, I would never say that. No, I mean, his name is James Stewart, you know? I’m not Dave Stratton – I’m David Stratton. The guy’s James Stewart.

But allowing for the fact that I would never say Jimmy Stewart, I thought that was quite a funny comment about Rear Window, because I must say I sort of felt that way a bit myself…

[pause]

I love Grace Kelly in that film.

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FAKE DAVID:

REAL DAVID:

That’s quite funny.

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FAKE DAVID:

REAL DAVID:

That’s quite amusing, too.

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FAKE DAVID:

REAL DAVID:

[Heavy sigh] Anyway.

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Dee Jefferson has been talking and writing about film for over ten years and for various outlets, including ABC 702 and PowerFM in Adelaide, Inside Film, Filmink, Senses Of Cinema,The Brag and Beat Magazine. She is currently the Arts & Culture Editor of Time Out Sydney.

Feature image by Matt Roden.