You know how it is, some actors and actresses have been typecasted, and you never get to see them sink their teeth into a different role. Maybe they’d be great in a role polar opposite of the one they always seem to play, but we never get to find out.
I myself would love to see Marc Summers play the wife-beating, child-abusing drunken asshole of a Lifetime movie. It would be interesting to see him in a role in which he didn’t have to pretend to like children.
What role would you like to see a typecasted actor/actress in?
I’d like to see Leonardo DiCaprio REALLY stretch his acting muscle and play something aside from the “hot young firey male lead”, such as a mentally disabled kid.
Oh wait…
I’d like to see Bruce Willis play a gay character. And not yer stereotypically flamboyant-wearing-purple-scarf gay character that’s used for comedic effect in many a bad film… a serious, three-dimensional character.
I saw the jackal recently, and BW’s character pretends he is gay, picks someone up in a gay bar and kisses him. I was quite surprised that BW would do this in a role.
Well, Pacino is playing gay lawyer Roy Cohn in the HBO production of “Angels in America,” but I have a feeling that’s not the kind of gay role you had in mind.
Your feeling would be right. More on the lines of “yer stereotypically flamboyant-wearing-purple-scarf gay character that’s used for comedic effect” thanks, SPOOFE.
I’d like to see some of The Sopranos gangster types (Tony Sirico, Vincent Pastore, and some of the minor characters always in the background) in roles calling for academic effeteness. Perhaps in some of the roles that Peter O’Toole, Laurence Olivier and James Mason did in the past.
James Gandolfini as Prof. Henry Higgins
Meg Ryan as a dangerous psycho nutbar (ala Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction)
Traci Lords and Shannen Doherty as sister Christian missionaries
John Ritter as a hard-nosed military man
Angelina Jolie as a hard-nosed district attorney
A dark one, but when I read Leslie Epstein’s novel King of the Jews (a “the names have been changed” fictionalization of the Lodz Ghetto under Chaim Rumkowski , I kept thinking “Omigod, but this would be a fantastic comeback (or swansong) role for Leonard Nimoy!” (The character is an old Jewish con-artist and ersatz doctor who is given control of the Jewish ghetto and, by starving and beating them into a major cog in the Nazi war machine, prolongs their lives almost until liberation- it’s one of those “was he a total bastard who needs to burn in hell or a misunderstood hero?” type tales.)
Another dark one: on the TV series QUEER AS FOLK the character Ethan (played by not-at-all un-hot Fab Filippo) mentioned that his grandfather played an imaginary violin while in Auschwitz, I thought it would be really interesting to learn his grandfather was a conservative rabbi who had disowned him even though he was the favorite grandson, and have the rabbi played by Mel Brooks in a dramatic cameo.
On the lighter side:
I’d love to see Harvey Feirstein and Ellen Degeneres play the proud and zealously in-love in-laws in a “Meet the Parents” style movie. The other set of parents should be played by Charo and Bob Newhart, who are having affairs with Lorenzo Lamas and Queen Latifah respectively.
I’d like to see Steve Martin play a total piece of Jerry Springer quality whitetrash.
Eddie Murphy or Will Smith as a cold blooded hitman.
For a real stretch: Tom Cruise as a three dimensional supporting character.
I would love to see Russell Crowe play a cross dresser. Y’know, one of those movies where he would be a manly construction worker during the day, but at night, he likes to get all frilly.
I am not sure why this appeals to me, but I blame Patrick Swayze.
Tom Hanks as a psychotic serial killer/cannibal. NOT done for laughs.
Gwyneth Paltrow as a mentally disabled person. OR- the “ugly girl” character.
Jim Carrey in ANY Shakespeare role…not comedy, not one of those modern adaptations.
