Genre Typecasting of Actors - Blog Post #8

Genre Typecasting of Actors

 Blog Post  #8

 In TV and film typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character; one or more particular roles; or, characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ethnic groups. In some cases there has been situations where the actor has been so strongly identified with a role to make it difficult for him or her to find work playing other characters. 

However, an alternate situation is where a director may choose to cast an actor ''against type'', for example a role that would be unusual for that actor, to create a comedic or dramatic effect.

Examples of characters playing against the type:

Action Adventure & Comedy

Arnold Schwarzenegger: 

Arnold is most commonly known for playing his role as 'The Terminator', he has frequently been typcasted in action films as a brute force tough guy regardless of being a protagonist or an antagonist who seems to always evade death. However in the comedy 'Twins' starring himself and Danny DeVito, Arnold seems to play the 'gentle' giant to his twin Danny. Arnold spent the late 1980's and 1990's alternating between action films and comedies.

Fantasy Comedy & Family Film

Eddie Murphy:

Eddie Murphy is mostly known for comedy within films, he usually portrays sharp tongued characters. He is known for playing a big part in Dr Doolittle (1998), the film itself is about a doctor (Dr. John Doolittle - Eddie) who can communicate with animals and the animals can also communicate back. However, Eddie Murphy also plays a dark vampire character in 'Vampire in Brooklyn' (1995) which is about Maxmillian (Eddie) who is the only survivor from his race of vampires on a Caribbean island and he must find a mate to keep the line from ending.

Thriller:

Tom Cruise:
Tom cruise is known to be in a lot of thriller films, he is usually portrayed as the protagonist in films such as Jack Reacher (2012), which is a 2012 American thriller film about a homicide investigator who digs deeper into a case involving a trained military sniper who has shot five random victims. Tom Cruise has also starred in other thriller films such as 'Risky Business' and 'Rain Man'.

Sources: IMDB & Wikipedia

There are various benefits of genre typecasting of actors, this is because a person may watch that film because a person may want to see a film because of their favourite actor plays a certain role (for example Tom Cruise playing an antagonist). As well as an audience this may help the producers, as it can attract more audiences, as well as that for a new producer it can help identify the actors typecasting because they may have seen other films that specific actor is associated with. 

However typecasting can also restrict some actors, this is because it may seem odd if they decided to play a different role that they are not associated with. For example, if Danny DeVito decides to play an antagonist it wouldn't seem right as we would expect him to funny with comedic elements. Therefore typecasting can be hard for actors and actresses in order for them to try something new which they audience may not like. It could be argued that females are typecast more than men this is because some female characters are associated as an identifiable characters, For example we associated (Angelina Jolie), in terms of Lara Craft Tomb Raider as a kick-ass chick because she is a lone female protagonist.