Topic: typecasting

Brie Larson Is Building Her Career On Roles Where She Sleeps With Older Men

In The Trouble with Bliss, Brie Larson seduces Michael C. Hall… just like she did with Chris Kattan in Tanner Hall, and other older men in other movies since 2009. More »

With Vehicle 19, Fast Five Star Paul Walker Manages To Take On Yet Another Car Thriller Without Pigeonholing Himself

I know what you’re thinking: Paul Walker sure loves his car movies, having made his career on several action-adventure flicks involving guys chasing other guys in designer cars. But the smart thing that Paul does is to make sure each movie is of a different genre — or at least, subgenre — so that they can’t all be lumped together. More »

Ryan Gosling’s Unconventional Transition From Creepy Roles To Leading Man

Says Ryan, “I’m not that good looking. I think I’m a pretty weird-looking guy. Every role I got up until The Notebook was the weirdo, freak, psychopath, nerd, outsider character guy. Maybe things have changed a little bit.” More »

Emma Roberts Manages to Play a Better Version of Her Past Roles in ‘The Art of Getting By’

Hollywood typecasting makes it easier to audiences to figure out what a movie’s about without knowing anything about its plot — thanks to actors who play the same roles over and over again, trying to recapture lightning in a bottle. With each role, they run these characters into the ground until they’re the most bare-bones stereotypes.

It becomes shorthand: Sarah Jessica Parker is a highstrung, Type A businesswoman. Sandra Bullock is tough-as-nails and uses a breezy attitude to hide her secret insecurities. Penelope Cruz played the same role in both the Spanish and American Vanilla Sky movies, with the second an awful remake of what had been a fantastic performance the first time around.

Emma Roberts‘ good-girl muse Sally in The Art of Getting By could have been just a worse rehashing of her radiant character in Twelve, but the combination of director Gavin Wiesen‘s script and Roberts’ own know-how elevates Sally to a better version of what we’ve seen before. More »

How Typecasting Can Ruin a TV Show for Fans

Columnist Andy Greenwald’s piece “The HBO Actor Recycling Program” is funny, especially when you look at the chart detailing the 66 actors who have had at least 3 major parts on an HBO program since 1997′s Oz, but it also introduces a troubling idea: When actors get typecast, it diminishes the viewing experience for us viewers because we often can predict the twists and reveals related to their new characters.

It’s the same thing I said (albeit tongue-in-cheek) in my post about how I’m creeped out by Keith David no matter what role he’s in, thanks to his drug dealer part in Requiem for a Dream. More »