That Awkward Moment When You Send Your Mr. Bean Fan Mail To Sean Bean By Accident When, Really, It Should Be Sent To Rowan Atkinson

This is a public service announcement to all those fans out there sending letters to Mr. Bean: he’s not real. Mr. Bean is a fictional character made famous via his television shows and subsequent movies based on this character. He is played by the actor Rowan Atkinson who is also known for playing various characters in the successful Blackadder TV series.

Mr. Bean is not played by the actor Sean Bean, who is famous for playing characters such as Ned Stark in HBO’s Game of Thrones and Boromir in The Lord of the Rings movies. Sean Bean is also famous for being cast in movies and TV shows where his character ends up dying, thus the creation of memes such as the following.

However, it seems, to some fans of Mr. Bean, that the distinction between Mr. Bean and Sean Bean is not distinct enough. According to Sean Bean, over the years, he has received fan mail addressed to him but meant for Mr. Bean, AKA Rowan Atkinson. The amount of letters have not been hugely substantial but there has been enough of them that Sean Bean commented about it during an AMA on Reddit. This comment subsequently led to the information being added to Sean Bean’s Wikipedia page and now, people are talking about it all over again on Reddit thanks to a recent article by Metro.

The original conversation was had via a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything). Mr. Sean Bean had been invited to do the AMA two years ago. One Redditor, Velorium_Camper, asked the question, “Do you ever get mixed up with the other Mr. Bean?”

“I used to get his fan mail, actually! I think they had the wrong address. I have gotten a couple of letters meant for Mr. Bean aka Rowan Atkinson. These letters would say things like, ‘You’re so funny, you make me laugh, with your big rubbery face,’ and I would say, ‘you can’t mean me!'”

While, visually, it is very hard to mistake Sean Bean and Mr. Bean, it seems it is the names that confuse people more than anything else. Sean Bean explained further.

“Whenever I call people up and they say, ‘who’s calling,’ and I say, ‘Mr. Bean’ and you can hear people giggling on the other end of the phone… he’s got a lot to answer for, that Rowan Atkinson.”

What ensues after Bean’s response is hilarious. One Redditor suggests Sean Bean should introduce Mr. Bean to Ice, referring to the sword Sean’s character, Ned Stark, owed in Game of Thrones. However, one Redditor thought the comment referred to the drug, ice (also known as crystal meth) and many Breaking Bad references were made in regard to the fumbling Mr. Bean character. A fictional TV series was quickly developed among the Redditors, Breaking Bean.

Game Of Thrones star Sean Bean sometimes gets fan mail meant for Rowan Atkinson's Mr Bean https://t.co/5eg2t0UqJ8 pic.twitter.com/uArLnX73bh

— Metro Entertainment (@Metro_Ents) September 21, 2016

Reddit user, redpandaeater stated, “I’d watch that. Mr. Bean opens a coffee shop but somehow accidentally gets involved with meth dealers and his beanery becomes a front.”

The actor that plays Mr. Bean, Rowan Atkinson, has recently been in the news over a recurring death hoax that seems to target various celebrities. The most recent death hoax involving Rowan Atkinson involved the photoshopped image of the Mr. Bean actor with the BBC News logo, leading many fans to think the death notice was legitimate. However, upon reading the article, faults began to appear. One instance stated the actor as being 21-years-old due to an incorrect birth date. Another statement claimed Atkinson died at his home in San Francisco. However, die-hard fans of Rowan Atkinson knew he didn’t own a house in San Francisco. Eventually, the death notice was revealed as a hoax and fans were relieved to hear the Mr. Bean star was still alive.

Have you — or someone you know — ever confused Mr. Bean and Sean Bean? Let us know by commenting below.

[Featured Image by New Line Cinema]