Actors Who Always Play The Same Character
Getting typecast as an actor is seen as a curse: You’re so identified with a type that different types of roles elude you. However, some actors manage to work those limitations to their advantage, being go-to performers for specific roles. Here are some actors who essentially play the same role in every movie.
Michelle Rodriguez
One benefit of being typecast as something very specific is that there is little competition. Michelle Rodriguez routinely plays the kickass woman who’s tougher than the men around her. Throughout her career, she’s always been the tomgirl. As Rodriguez herself has said, “I need to represent those little girls or women who think I’m cool”.
Twentieth Century, Widows (2018)
Steve Carell
It’s only with some serious roles that Steve Carell has managed to break the curse of the sitcom star. With hits like 40-Year-Old Virgin, he established himself as box office-ready but he always seems to play variations on Michael Scott or Andy Stitzel. It’s only with serious fare such as Beautiful Boy and Foxcatcher, the latter landing him a Best Acting Oscar nomination, that Carell has been able to show how much more he can do.
Universal, The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005)
Jennifer Aniston
There’s nothing more enviable than starring in a hit sitcom. The cast of Friends have found their post-Friends careers to be a mixed bag of success and misses, and Jennifer Aniston has managed to survive any Friends curse by leaning into her personality. Playing a woman in a constant state of distress but working hard towards making things right seems to be Aniston’s stock in trade.
Channing Tatum
Channing Tatum is a big muscular guy who’s popular with women: not a bad situation, but it can be limiting for an actor. Whether it’s the Magic Mike series or any number of other roles where his looks are what sells, it’s easy to see how he gets typecast. Luckily for Tatum, he also has some personality that keeps his roles from being too shallow.
Warner Bros., Magic Mike (2012)
Samuel L Jackson
Playing a bad guy with a short fuse and bad language tends to be Samuel L Jackson’s forte. But in films like Pulp Fiction, he’s had the opportunity—and the talent—to rise above the stereotype and make his roles memorable and iconic. Looking at his filmography, Jackson actually has a far more varied career than it appears on the surface, and his roles in Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight go a long way toward showing Jackson’s range.
Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis started off playing sarcastic wise guys but he moved into the mainstream by refocusing his image, and his hairline, into a tough guy stuck in an impossible situation. From the Die Hard franchise to Pulp Fiction, The Fifth Element, and Unbreakable, his action star image doesn’t seem to fail him.
Twentieth Century, Die Hard (1988)
Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise has, on occasion, taken on roles in an attempt to show some range, but it’s action films that he’s most known for. With the Mission: Impossible series and Top Gun, he has established himself as a reliable box office star and for the most part, that seems to be the best place for him.
Paramount, Mission: Impossible (1996)
Dwayne Johnson
If you need a really big, tough bald guy, and Bruce Willis and Vin Diesel are too small, Dwayne Johnson is your man. To be fair, Johnson has a ton of personality that clearly comes from his success in professional wrestling and he has an ease and humor that audiences love. He may not get Oscar-worthy roles, but he has his turf and he’s very good at it.
Jason Statham
Jason Statham seems bred to be in film franchises: the Mechanic series, Fast & Furious, the Transporter series, and The Expendables. Statham is the combatant British bald guy, playing assassins, spies, agents, and tough guys who need to get a job done.
Millennium, The Mechanic (2011)
Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant seemed destined to play in romantic comedies. His posh British accent, with its stammering delivery, has always played well for audiences, and his undeniable charm and good looks have made him perfect for films such as Notting Hill and Love Actually. Never an action star, Grant nevertheless can play serious roles as well, albeit with his posh accent and charm intact.
Universal, Notting Hill (1999)
Adam Sandler
For someone coming from the world of stand-up or sketch comedy, there’s no guarantee that fame in those areas will lead to a film career. Adam Sandler managed to do just that, playing a type of man-child in a variety of films in the 1990s and 2000s. Successful as those were, he clearly wanted a bit more and he managed to break through in some more serious roles, such as Punch-Drunk Love.
Columbia, Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Michael Cera
Michael Cera plays socially awkward dorks on television in Arrested Development and in movies like Superbad and Scott Pilgrim vs The World. His greatest fame came with portraying teenagers and as he’s gotten older, it’s not clear if he can translate that earlier success into adult roles.
Will Ferrell
Where Adam Sandler plays a man-child in his movies, fellow SNL alum Will Ferrell tends to play middle-aged men, but otherwise, they’re similar characters. Ferrell’s roles lean toward the awkward and thick, such as his Anchorman series character Ron Burgundy, but his other roles tend to trade on his trademark tall, soft frame, and ability to play dimwitted but likable characters.
DreamWorks, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
Ken Jeong
Ken Jeong is a bona fide medical doctor but a flair for comedy—especially physical comedy—resulted in a second career in films and television. As with his appearances in the Hangover series, he utilizes his small frame and willingness to do pretty much anything for laughs.
Warner Bros., The Hangover (2009)
James Marsden
James Marsden is the Vin Diesel to Paul Rudd’s Bruce Willis: a sweet, good-looking everyday guy who doesn’t seem to age. Marsden is the supportive boyfriend or husband but just as easily he plays the guy who doesn’t get the girl but manages to continue to be sweet-natured.
IFC Films, The Female Brain (2017)
Paul Rudd
And speaking of Paul Rudd, here we have a case of someone who has managed to create a very successful career playing the same basic role over and over again, all of which seem to be a thinly veiled extension of the real Paul Rudd. He plays husbands and boyfriends well, he plays best friends and bros, and he plays characters that are basically Paul Rudd.
Jason Bateman
Where Paul Rudd is the affable everyman trying to understand the world, Jason Bateman plays the more responsible father and husband, even-tempered and selfless. Around him, people fall apart but he remains there for them. Bateman even played a parody of his own personality on the cult hit television show Arrested Development where he plays a character who believes he’s the responsible and selfless person surrounded by chaos, but in reality is pretty much just as bad.
Warner Bros., Game Night (2018)
Milla Jovovich
Coming from the world of modeling, Milla Jovovich is always cast as the beautiful girl, but in any number of her films, she’s the beautiful girl who can win in a fight. Her Resident Evil series cemented her image as an action star.
Constantin Film, Resident Evil (2002)
Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds in all appearances has a leading man persona. His character type, however, tends to be of a sarcastic wise guy. Even in the Marvel Universe film Deadpool, Reynolds plays that type, and since he has a flair for comedy, why not?
Twentieth Century, Deadpool (2016)
Jesse Eisenberg
The neurotic nerd is an archetype going back at least as far as Woody Allen. Playing a person smarter than those around him but never comfortable in his own skin is Jesse Eisenberg’s specialty, so much so that it seems inevitable that he’d portray Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. Like others on this list, Eisenberg seems most comfortable essentially playing himself.
Columbia, The Social Network (2010)
Nicolas Cage
What can be said about Nicolas Cage—small roles that led to an Oscar-winning breakthrough performance and then one of the most chaotic Hollywood careers in the last 50 years. It seems that regardless of the vast variety of film roles—big-budget action, small dramas, and forgettable movies that were simply a paycheck—they all seem to be Nicolas Cage being, well, Nicolas Cage.
George Clooney
It took George Clooney a long time to make it in the business and it wasn’t until he was well into his 30s when stardom struck during his time on the television series ER. He was then a hot commodity and his movie career took off, but it seemed that for most of his roles, he was always playing the handsome and affable charmer with a sarcastic wit, which strikes most viewers as really just a few versions of Clooney himself.
Warner Bros., Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Jeff Goldblum
Jeff Goldblum has had a long career and has a particularly devoted fanbase, beloved for his quirky persona and warmth. His most successful role is in the Jurassic Park franchise. There, he plays a smart, sarcastic, and idiosyncratic scientist, a type he has played in countless other films before and after Jurassic Park.
Universal, Jurassic Park (1993)
Sarah Jessica Parker
Sometimes an actor is known not just for a type but for a specific role. When that familiarity leads to a lack of work, it can be a curse. In the case of Sarah Jessica Parker in her role as Carrie Bradshaw, considering its success and longevity as a franchise, and that Parker is not just the star but a producer, it seems that being seen as Carrie, and only Carrie, is not the worst thing that could happen.
Warner Bros., Sex and the City (2008)
Benedict Cumberbatch
Like Hugh Grant, Benedict Cumberbatch's Britishness is his trademark and Cumberbatch inhabits that role in any number of projects. Where Grant is charming and boyish, Cumberbatch is quirky and intellectual, an image suited for portraying Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Strange, as well as real-life intellectuals such as Alan Turing.
Black Bear, The Imitation Game (2014)
Judy Greer
Judy Greer is a rom-com staple and her standard role is that of quirky best friend to the female lead. As she has gotten older, she has transitioned from sidekick of the lead to mother of the lead, a definite lateral move. Nevertheless, she continues to be busy with steady work, something that any struggling actor would want.
Paramount, Men, Women & Children (2014)
Martin Freeman
Like his compatriots Hugh Grant and Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman plays a certain type of British figure that’s made him successful to especially American audiences. Whether he’s playing a Hobbit, or a paper salesman in the original British version of The Office, Freeman always portrays someone likable but awkward and bumbling.
Warner Bros., The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter plays larger-than-life and often somewhat unhinged characters. Her work in the fantasy genre has allowed her to emphasize a somewhat witchy persona, vaguely menacing but nonetheless disarming. She is, in particular, known for her work with director Tim Burton while the two were married and she was especially well-suited for Burton’s style of dark fantasy, appearing in his films Big Fish, Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Alice in Wonderland.
Warner Bros., Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Katherine Heigl
For a time, Katherine Heigl was the queen of rom-coms and her main character traits were that of an ingénue, innocent, if somewhat clumsy. In her most notable roles, she plays the girl next door who finds herself in a predicament, usually due to her naïveté.
Warner Bros., Life as We Know It (2010)
Queen Latifah
Queen Latifah’s presence on screen, regardless of the role, is always one of a tough Black woman. It’s a stereotype but it is something that she does well. As someone who was able to make the transition from hip-hop artist to actress, her larger-than-life screen presence has served her well in landing parts in blockbuster movies.
Danny Trejo
Danny Trejo had a rough life growing up poor, law-breaking at a young age, and spending 11 years in and out of prison. While away, he was able to turn his life around, first with boxing and then as an extra on a film, strictly based on his authentic gang appearance. Since then, his roles have traded on his past as he mostly plays bad guys and villains.
7C Productions, Seven Cemeteries (2004)
Zach Galifianakis
Zach Galifianakis is a big guy, usually with a full beard, and a quirky child-like personality which has led to success in films such as the Hangover series, and as a television personality and stand-up comic. In a word, Galifianakis comes off as weird, sometimes temperamental, and with difficulty fitting in and lacking in many social skills. This has led to a series of film roles where he plays that type to the hilt.
Legendary, The Hangover (2009)
Sean Bean
Sean Bean has had a lengthy career in his native UK where his classical training has made him a familiar face in the historical and fantasy genres. His role as Boromir in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Ned Stark in Game of Thrones has made him appear to be in his natural element wielding a sword.
New Line Cinema, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Seth Rogan
Seth Rogan plays stoners and he plays them well. A sarcastic comic presence, Rogan always appears to be playing himself, and given his personality apparent in late-night interviews, that isn’t too far-fetched. As a screenwriter, Rogen has managed to establish himself behind the scenes which helps offset his public image.
Columbia, Pineapple Express (2008)
Vince Vaughn
As a big guy, Vince Vaughn has a particular bearing that you would think would be ideal for playing heavies and bad guys. However, Vaughn’s main type of role is a sarcastic friend or the leader of a group of bros. Comedies like Wedding Crashers and Old School seemed to have limited him to frat-boy comedy but he has managed to move somewhat into serious roles in recent years.
New Line Cinema, Wedding Crashers (2005)
Michael Madsen
Michael Madsen has never been a star but he has an undeniable screen presence that has allowed him to work steadily, often in ensemble casts, standing out with his rugged charm. His characters are often low-life thugs and he is skilled at bringing menace to these roles while remaining captivating to audiences.
Miramax, Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Mickey Rourke
Mickey Rourke started with a promising career. In the early 1980s, he began appearing in critical hits such as Diner, drawing comparisons to James Dean and cultivating an image as a smooth bad boy. By the 1990s, his career seemed to be over and it’s only with his comeback in 2008’s The Wrestler has he began to live up to that early promise.
Searchlight Pictures, The Wrestler (2008)
Jason Momoa
Seemingly charting territory occupied by Dwayne Johnson, Jason Momoa first came to public attention playing the Dothraki king, Khal Drogo, in Game of Thrones. His muscular build and long dark hair and beard makes him stand out, and his Hawaiian and Samoan heritage has set him apart from many other Hollywood tough guys. Add to that a touch of wry humor and Jason Momoa has been able to move beyond the possible limitations of Game of Thrones' success.
Vin Diesel
If a big, tough bald guy is needed and Bruce Willis is not available, Vin Diesel tends to be an acceptable substitute. Never going to be well regarded for his range, Diesel nonetheless has a specific area of ability and with franchises such as XXX and Fast & Furious, he manages to secure roles ideally suited for his abilities.
In recent years, Diesel hasn't strayed from his typical tough guy roles—and perhaps he sticks to them because his foray into other character types has been panned by critics. Babylon AD is often said to be one of the worst sci-fi films of all time, and Diesel’s performance received equally poor reviews.
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