Friday OT #2 - Typecast

[Angie]

@madguy30 sent me this great topic - thanks, yo!

Who are some actors/actresses in films or shows who had roles so iconic that it's hard for you to see them as anything else? Or, can you think of a role that finally did help them break out of that?

Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter is low-hanging fruit, so I'll take the obvious answer. He's continued to act and purposely made non-traditional choices because he knows he'll forever be Harry - but he still just hasn't quite shed that.

One who has broken out is John Krasinski. For almost 15 years he was just "Jim," no matter what other role he took. However, with Jack Ryan and "A Quiet Place," he's pivoted recently.

Who are others?

 

[CYdTracked]

I have a hard time thinking of Sean William Scott as anyone but Steve Stiffler whenever he is in something. Macaulay Culkin has probably had a hard time shaking the Home Alone movies. My kids are on a Brady Bunch kick right now and all 6 of the Brady kids I can imagine had a hard time being thought of as anything else after that show.

This link has a pretty good break down of actors that usually play the same type of characters in a lot of their movies and it pretty spot on: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2017/12/185979/typecast-actors-same-character-movies

I'd probably add Jim Carey and Adam Sandler as goofy guys and Steve Buscemi as a creepy/weird guy to that list too

 

[Isualum13]

Steve carell. Not just that he is michael scott, but his role in anchorman and 40 year old virgin. He soon realized he didnt want to be limited by thos types of roles. I watched the BIG Short a few years ago. His character in that movie had a weird accent that reminded me way to much of some of the characters michael scott did on the office for me to take anything he said seriously.

Also, Danny Glover. Not really his iconic role, but the first movie i saw with him was Angel's in the Outfield as a child. I enjoyed that movie. I learned as I grew up he isnt in many kids/family movies.

 

[cycloneG]

Matthew McConaughey will always be David Wooderson from Dazed and Confused to me. I know he won an Academy Award for Dallas Buyers Club but he is David Wooderson.

 

[CYdTracked]

Steve carell. Not just that he is michael scott, but his role in anchorman and 40 year old virgin. He soon realized he didnt want to be limited by thos types of roles. I watched the BIG Short a few years ago. His character in that movie had a wierd accent that reminded me way to much of some of the characters michael scott did on the office for me to take anything he said seriously.

Also, Danny Glover. Not really his iconic role, but the first movie i saw with him was Angel's in the Outfield as a child. I enjoyed that movie. I learned as I grew up he isnt in many kids/family movies.

Don't forget this character too for Carrell that fits your list too I think

 

[jbindm]

I think Bryan Cranston is going to have a difficult time separating himself from Walter White.

And basically everyone who signs on to the MCU. Yeah, the money and fame are fair tradeoffs but it's going to be real tough to get recognition for much of anything else.

 

[oldman]

Leonard Nimoy. I saw him in an old western once, on Mission Impossible, and of course as host of "In Search of...", but he'll always be Spock to me.

 

[JP4CY]

Ed O'Neil deserves a TON of accolades to shed Al Bundy. A TON.

 

[JP4CY]

My vote

 

[jdoggivjc]

Vin Diesel. Pretty much the definition of an antihero superstar.

 

[jcyclonee]

Two from "Cheers".

George Wendt was Norm and never really played anything but that character.

Woody Harrelson as Woody. He moved on but it took a long time to accept him as anything other than the sweet, naive, small-town Midwestern boy. Realizing that his father was a hitman-for-hire and had murdered a federal judge was certainly a WTF moment.

 

[jcyclonee]

Matthew McConaughey will always be David Wooderson from Dazed and Confused to me. I know he won an Academy Award for Dallas Buyers Club but he is David Wooderson.

This is certainly a good one. He sure seems to be Wooderson in real life (minus the creepiness factor).

 

[cycloneG]

This is certainly a good one. He sure seems to be Wooderson in real life (minus the creepiness factor).

I don't think he was acting in Dazed and Confused. He just showed up to the set and hung out all day.

 

[BCClone]

Chevy chase as Clark Griswald

 

[JP4CY]

I don't think he was acting in Dazed and Confused. He just showed up to the set and hung out all day.

He actually was on NPR, and it's a great listen.
https://www.npr.org/programs/ask-me-another/765016357/matthew-mcconaughey-commerce-and-vanity

 

[CYdTracked]

Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory is going to be another tough one to shed. Pretty much everyone on that cast has been in other stuff before and/or after that show that you knew them as someone else but I can't think of any role Parsons has played that he'll ever been as well known for as being Sheldon.

 

[madguy30]

Steve carell. Not just that he is michael scott, but his role in anchorman and 40 year old virgin. He soon realized he didnt want to be limited by thos types of roles. I watched the BIG Short a few years ago. His character in that movie had a weird accent that reminded me way to much of some of the characters michael scott did on the office for me to take anything he said seriously.

Also, Danny Glover. Not really his iconic role, but the first movie i saw with him was Angel's in the Outfield as a child. I enjoyed that movie. I learned as I grew up he isnt in many kids/family movies.

Haha, anything I see Danny Glover doing, I keep waiting for that smoky 'Riiiigs' and 'I'm gettin' too old for this sh*t'.

 

[Isualum13]

Haha, anything I see Danny Glover doing, I keep waiting for that smoky 'Riiiigs' and 'I'm gettin' too old for this sh*t'.

 

[madguy30]

Ed O'Neil deserves a TON of accolades to shed Al Bundy. A TON.

Was who I was thinking of when I wrote Angie about this.

Jay was like Al in another dimension. Rich, runs a company, stays calm under durress.

His spot in Wayne's World was pretty great too.

 

[Sigmapolis]

Has Samuel L. ever not been a bad ************ in a movie...?

The obvious one to me is John Wayne. He was always that same swaggering cowboy, even when he did approximately one million war movies, too.