I assume most actors relish the chance to try different roles, based on nothing in particular other than knowing how I hated to do repetitive jobs. But it seems few get to stretch, while many are stuck in a very limiting box.
What I wonder is whether this is because of perception by “the studio” or whoever makes casting decisions, or is because the actor’s agent doesn’t have the pull or the drive to put their client up for other roles. Once an actor is established as versatile, I imagine it’s easier for them to get more choices. But if someone gets noticed as the nerd, or the slut, or the tough guy, what does it take for them to step into a period drama or a rom-com or whatever?
Or is a steady paycheck preferable to branching out?
Well some actors are not acting, they just kind of play themselves and get roles that need that kind of person. Steve Buscemi and William Macy comes to mind.
If you are Michael Ironside or Dean Norris you are pretty much built to play a cop or a heavy, or occasionally a gruff authority figure. The same is true of a lot of actors who have a particular ‘look’; actors like Michael Biehn or Max Martini are almost invariably cast as military because they not only have a certain grizzled look and bearing that viewers tend to associate but have also been in those roles enough to look more or less authentic in the weapons handling, stuntwork, and managing jargon in a way that isn’t obviously wrong to anyone who has served in the military. (Michael Biehn literally got dropped into the cast of Aliens several weeks into principal photography after James Remar was fired from the role and managed to mesh perfectly despite not having gone through the ‘boot camp’ with the rest of the Colonial Marine cast.) Although it is frowned upon, sometimes writers will literally write in an actor they think will fit the character they are writing; following the popularity of Breaking Bad I’ve literally seen scripts which have “A Dean Norris type” in the character description (never mind that Norris had been doing ‘that guy’ character roles for more than two decades prior to his role as Hank Schrader).
It even happens to A-list actors like Brad Pitt or Matthew McConaughey who despite their talents both were typecast as handsome leading man types and had to do a lot of small budget ‘indie’ films to get both filmmakers and the movie-going public to see them as something else. Once there is a perception that an actor can headline a movie and make it successful by name recognition alone it is difficult from a ‘business’ point of view to accept casting them as some other type.
An actor make a good career being known at playing a particular type of role because you are at the top of casting directors’ lists when trying to cast, which if you are a ‘working’ actor who doesn’t have the luxury of being picky about projects or taking off a couple of years, helps to maintain consistency of income in a career where there is generally no guarantees of work. If you are really well known for a type of role you may just be offered a part in a show or movie without having to audition, which most actors regard as a painful and uncertain process. Contrast that with ‘branching out’ and playing a bunch of different types of roles where you may be in a pool of candidates for a role; just because an actor “has more choices” doesn’t mean they will necessarily get more work unless they are really an A-list actor with a hotshot agent or is one of those actors everybody is dying to work with no matter how much of an asshole they are.
I have to take exception with the notion that either Buscemi or Macy “just kind of play themselves”. Both of them are certainly not traditional leading men types but they have played a variety of different types of characters in films that you may not have seen.
When Terry Gilliam was writing the script for Time Bandits, he wrote of Agamemnon wearing a helmet and battling a minotaur; then he takes off his helmet and it’s Sean Connery (or someone equally impressive). He was just being cheeky; he knew that as a young director just starting out that there was no chance of actually getting him in the movie.
On the side of the producers, the basics would circle:
As a storyteller, I want to immediately show you who this person is, without having to spend any time on it. In that aim, I want to use every stereotype in the book, during casting, to find someone who you’ll immediately, by eye, understand to be just exactly that sort of person.
As a producer, I have a budget and a schedule. Sure, maybe I could find someone who can play any character, convincingly. Maybe I could work to mold some actor’s performance into the sort of performance that I want. But what if they end up wrong for the role? What if it takes a long time to mold them? If they played a good, convincing stereotype of a cop on that other show and I need my own stereotype of a cop, then that just makes everything easier.
And on the side of the actor… Well, a check is a check. I’d assume that the people who stick with acting - who aren’t making millions of dollars a year - are largely people who have accepted that it’s a job, not just some artistic pursuit. (I’m sure that there’s exceptions, but they’re probably more active in stage productions and experimental films.)
As a professional, you’re just going to go to casting for anything that you think you could reasonably pass for. Maybe, over time, you might realize that you’re never cast for particular roles (because of the above) and maybe you stop trying for things outside of that. But, either way, it takes two to tango. You can want roles that let you stretch out your wings and try something new all day. That doesn’t have anything to do with what you get to do at work.
Dean Norris was a military guy in Starship Troopers back in 1997, more than a decade before Breaking Bad.
Five years later he was a General on 24.
In '89 he had an uncredited role as one of the cops in a gym in Police Academy 6. And he played a SWAT team leader in not one, but two movies; Gremlins 2 in 1990, and Terminator 2 in 1991.
He definitely has that look of a military/cop person.
I just saw Dean Norris as a cop on Six Feet Under last week. He’s played oodles of cops. I remember once hearing him referred to as “the poor man’s Michael Chiklis” when Chiklis was on The Shield.
Same thing with Dennis Franz - always a cop.
I imagine a director saying, “Get me a Dean Norris type for this role!”
I just saw Rainn Wilson playing an uber-nerd on Six Feet Under, long before he did it again on The Office. He sure has that look to him (or maybe just when he’s trying to appear nerdy).
Sometimes an actor becomes so well-known to audiences for a particular role and type of character, that studios and directors will hesitate to use them in other sorts of roles, because the typecasting is so strong. My understanding is that the actors usually find it to be very frustrating, as they want to break out of that box, and they feel that it limits their careers.
A few examples:
Max Baer Jr.: typecast as a lummox, due to playing Jethro on The Beverly Hillbillies
Tina Louise: typecast as a sex symbol, due to playing Ginger on Gilligan’s Island
Leonard Nimoy: typecast as smart and non-emotional, due to playing Spock on Star Trek
And if you happen to look just like a famous person, you can spend your acting career playing that person exclusively. Like Jerry Haleva, who appeared in the Hot Shots movies, The Big Lebowski, and various other productions - always as Saddam Hussein.
Tom Selleck playing Saddam would make Saddam much more likeable. I think they both liked Ferraris, that would fit. Ducks under friendly fire and runs away
I wondered if he played one of the Saddam look-alikes in Arrested Development but no.
On the other hand you weren’t kidding about that always being his role. IMDb shows 7 different credits for him, and it’s always as Saddam in some project.
Old time Hollywood dealt entirely in stereotypes. Actors were usually cast in particular roles. Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart as gangsters (at least before Casablanca). Yes, they occasionally played against type, but the studios preferred that they play the types they were best-known for.
Back in the 40s, Bobby Watson played Hitler nine times. He was the go-to guy if you wanted to show him as a cameo.
Nowadays, it’s usually because of how the actor looks, and how much they like playing the type.
The flip side, so to speak, of this phenomenon are the “chameleon” actors, who disappear into their roles, so much so that it can take a very long time before they become recognizable and bankable actors. Gary Oldman may be a good example of this. His first big role was probably as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy in 1986, but I would argue that in spite of several notable roles in between he only became a sort of well-known face from his Harry Potter films, 18+ years later, and the Dark Knight movies.
