History Main / PlayingWithCharacterType

* The casting of ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'''s voice actress as [[BigBad Monokuma]] in ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' is a perfect example. [[MascotVillain Monokuma]] is a parody of a Japanese kawaii mascot character with a NonStandardCharacterDesign, who speaks with affected cuteness, as well as openly being a vicious, psychotic EvilGenius manipulating people into killing each other, explicitly [[ItAmusedMe for his own amusement]]. Him choosing to use a voice associated so strongly with the wonder of childhood in generations of the Japanese consciousness[[note]]The go-to analogy for international audiences is "imagine Jigsaw from ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' voiced by MickeyMouse"[[/note]] perfectly fits his personality.

->''"[Audrey] Tautou has made several movies, but in America she is known for only one, ''Film/{{Amelie}}'', in which she played a wide-eyed innocent. Here she is just as wide-eyed, but if she's innocent it's only by reason of insanity. ''Film/HeLovesMeHeLovesMeNot'' has its own charms, but part of its wicked kick is that it's the anti-''Film/{{Amelie}}'', presenting romantic fixation, not as noble and sweet, but objectively, as something selfish and volatile..."''

*** Creator/AkioOhtsuka, the Japanese voice of Solid Snake in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', is jarring to hear if you're an English player more used to Creator/DavidHayter's GutturalGrowler version of the character. Ohtsuka has often played cool BadassBaritone characters who crack the odd BondOneLiner, but the voice he uses for Snake is more like the 'astringent', warm and likeable register he uses in his extensive career as a voice-over artist for television advertising, giving Snake an impression of DissonantSerenity that at first makes him seem like the most relatable, fun character in the cast, but gets progressively more desperate and brittle as the story continues and it becomes more apparent how messed-up a person he is.

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'':

* In season 4 of ''Series/VeronicaMars'', Creator/PattonOswalt plays another "PluckyComicRelief {{Nerd}}" who repeatedly impedes in the investigation carried out by the main characters with his bumbling antics, is constantly trading insults with the SitcomArchnemesis in his online group of amateur sleuths, and it's even somewhat sweet when he starts to romance one of his female friends. [[spoiler:Until it's revealed that he's really a delusional PsychopathicManchild who treats everything as a game, ''murders'' the SitcomArchnemesis to frame him, and becomes a copycat MadBomber to undo his perceived lack of respect from the "alpha crowd" around him.]]

*** Creator/KenyuuHoriuchi was cast as Raiden because of his ability to play cool {{biseinen}} while himself being a much older veteran, with the idea that Raiden's voice would sound inappropriately old for his age, indicating he isn't as innocent as he seems.

* Creator/JamesMcAvoy in ''Film/VictorFrankenstein''. The actor was almost always TypeCast as a WideEyedIdealist, he often appeared in {{Period Piece}}s, and he had about a dozen roles where he portrayed an intellectual character. Between 2013 and 2015, however, he was PlayingAgainstType as all of his onscreen and theatre personas suffered from mental illness. [=McAvoy=]'s interpretation of MadScientist Victor Frankenstein combines ''all'' of these elements; Victor is a dark character, but even he possesses a hint of naïveté when he says things like, "I dream of a world where hope replaces fear." That line of dialogue could have been spoken by the benevolent [[Film/XMenFirstClass Dr. Charles Xavier]] (which is [=McAvoy=]'s most famous example of TypeCasting), but in Victor's case, his idealism is mixed with SanitySlippage, and they twist him into a WellIntentionedExtremist.

* A dub example: In the Japanese dub of ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', the titular character is played by Creator/JunkoTakeuchi. He ''would'' fit her {{Typecasting}} of goofy young boys (as in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', ''Anime/HunterXHunter'', ''Anime/{{Monster}}'', and ''Anime/InazumaEleven'')... if only Gumball didn't [[TookALevelInJerkass take a level in jerkass]] and become TheCynic in the second season.

* Creator/PedroPascal has played several characters who start out as friends to protagonists, but turn out to be EvilAllAlong, and the last enemies the protagonists fight. In ''Film/TheUnbearableWeightOfMassiveTalent'', he plays Creator/NicolasCage's newest friend/screenwriting partner, whom the CIA suspects of being a crime lord. [[spoiler:However, he turns out to just be a nerd taking the heat for his cousin's crimes, and actually saves Nick from getting killed by the cousin.]]

* Alexander Abdulov was famous for playing KnightInShiningArmor romantic leads such as Ivan from ''Film/{{Sorcerers}}''. Then he got cast as Anthony Marston in the 1987 adaptation of ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'': handsome, daring and attracted to the main heroine, but revealed to be an utterly amoral [[spoiler:and killed off halfway through the movie's first part, barely contributing anything to the plot]].

* Creator/PedroPascal has played several characters' EvilAllAlong friends. In ''Film/TheUnbearableWeightOfMassiveTalent'', he plays Creator/NicolasCage's newest friend/screenwriting partner, whom the CIA suspects of being a crime lord, [[spoiler:but he turns out to just be a nerd taking the heat for his cousin's crimes]].

* Creator/PedroPascal has played several characters' EvilAllAlong friends. In ''Film/TheUnbearableWeightOfMassiveTalent'', he befriends Creator/NicolasCage, who learns that the CIA suspects Pascal's character of being a crime lord, [[spoiler:but he turns out to just be a nerd taking the heat for his cousin's crimes]].

* Creator/PedroPascal has played several characters who start out as friends to the protagonist, but turn out to be EvilAllAlong. In ''Film/TheUnbearableWeightOfMassiveTalent'', he plays a suspected crime lord who befriends Creator/NicolasCage, [[spoiler:but turns out to just be a nerd taking the heat for his cousin's crimes]].

* Creator/PedroPascal has played several characters who start out as friends to the protagonist, but turn out to be EvilAllAlong. In ''Film/TheUnbearableWeightOfMassiveTalent'', he plays a suspected crime lord [[spoiler:who turns out to just be a nerd taking the heat for his cousin's crimes]].

* ''Film/EndOfDays'' was sold on the premise of "Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger fights TheDevil". However, instead of depicting Arnold as an unstoppable force of nature that can destroy everything in sight, this movie depicts his character, Jericho, as being genuinely flawed, such as [[DrivenToSuicide being suicidal]], not being able to do the same death-defying acts as the other heroes Arnold has played (not counting the scene where he uses a rope on a helicopter to lower himself mid-flight) and, in the end, [[spoiler:there was no other way to stop Satan from causing the End unless Jericho [[HeroicSuicide killed himself]]]], but at least [[spoiler:Jericho can be with his family again]]. In interviews, Schwarzenegger said that he took this role because he thought it was the perfect script to make his return to action movies, which makes this part even more weird.

* Creator/NickFrost in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge4ContinentalDrift''. He voices a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} [[TheDitz Ditz]]... who is TheBrute of the villains and who cheerfully admits to being one of the "bad guys".

* In the Music/JoynerLucas song "What If I Was Gay?", Joyner plays a gay man who comes out to his homophobic friend who tries to force him back into the closet. His friend is played by Music/{{Eminem}}, notorious for his homophobic lyrics... and admits at the end of the song that [[ArmoredClosetGay he's gay, too]].

* Creator/ChuckNorris is one of the archetypal {{Hollywood Action Hero}}es who can [[MemeticBadass memetically]] beat up people with a mere glare. ''Film/HeroAndTheTerror'', while seemingly another "Chuck smashes Evildoers" plot in fact deconstructs this hero myth and sees him playing a cynical, jaded police officer who regrets his past as a CowboyCop because his recklessness almost got him killed when he tried to take down a sinister SerialKiller twice his size by going in guns blazing and walking right into a trap. Anyone familiar with Norris' usual roles would be shocked to see his character struggling with PTSD.

* Creator/ChuckNorris is one of the archetypal {{Hollywood Action Hero}}es who can [[MemeticBadass memetically]] beat up people with a mere glare. ''Film/HeroAndTheTerror'', while seemingly another "Chuck smashes Evildoers" plot in fact deconstructs this hero myth and sees him playing a cynical, jaded police officer who regrets his past as a CowboyCop because his recklessness almost got him killed when he tried to take down a sinister SerialKiller twice his size. Anyone familiar with Norris' usual roles would be shocked to see his character struggling with PTSD.

* In season 4 of ''Series/VeronicaMars'', Creator/PattonOswalt plays another "PluckyComicRelief guy" who repeatedly impedes in the investigation carried out by the main characters with his bumbling antics, is constantly trading insults with the SitcomArchnemesis in his online group of amateur sleuths, and it's even somewhat sweet when he starts to romance one of his female friends. [[spoiler:Until it's revealed that he's really a delusional PsychopathicManchild who treats everything as a game, ''murders'' the SitcomArchnemesis to frame him, and becomes a copycat MadBomber to undo his perceived lack of respect from the "alpha crowd" around him.]]

** In ''Film/PunchDrunkLove'', his character is, like always, antisocial, [[ManChild emotionally immature]], and [[HairTriggerTemper prone to uncontrollable fits of anger]]. Instead of that being a source of comedy, [[RealityEnsues it leads to awkward, embarrassing situations, and the character leads a lonely, depressing life.]] Creator/RogerEbert discussed this in his [[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20021018/REVIEWS/210180308/1023 review]] of the film.

** Rebel Wilson is usually typecast as outrageous FatComicRelief characters. She plays Fraulein Rahm in ''Jojo Rabbit'' -- still comic relief, yet also a fanatically devoted Nazi who brainwashes children into Fascism and [[spoiler:throws them into the meat grinder as ChildSoldiers.]]

* Nick Frost in ''Slaughterhouse Rulez''. As usual, he plays an eccentric {{Cloudcuckoolander}} - here, however, his Cloudcuckoolander tendencies come off as more him being unstable than him merely being a goofball.

* ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'': In the episode "Made a Lady Think I Was God," Roseanne Barr guest stars as a character with her usual insulting personality until Earl inadvertently turns her into a kindly nun.

* Jaleel White is famous for his role on ''Series/FamilyMatters'' as a nerd who is constantly pursuing a girl who is not interested in him. Because he is so dorky, he comes across as annoying but generally harmless. In an episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' he plays a character who was constantly hitting on the victim before she was murdered despite her lack of interest. This time he is not a nerd and comes across as creepy and even a reason to suspect he killed her. [[spoiler:Though he didn't.]]

* Nick Frost in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge4ContinentalDrift''. He voices a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} [[TheDitz Ditz]]... who is TheBrute of the villains and who cheerfully admits to being one of the "bad guys".