| 1 | Actors PlayingAgainstType. |
| 2 | ---- |
| 3 | * Creator/AnneHathaway had to break away from her association with NiceGirl characters in films like the ''Princess Diaries'' duet. |
| 4 | ** ''Havoc'' and ''Film/BrokebackMountain'' were examples, but she came so far that when she hosted ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' in October 2008, she spoofed ''Mary Poppins'' in a skit that reveals what "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" means - it's not pretty... |
| 5 | ** ''Film/RachelGettingMarried'', where she plays a recovering drug addict and a thorough pain in the ass, seems to be a deliberate choice "against the type" as well. She got an Oscar nomination for Best Actress out of it. |
| 6 | ** The White Queen in Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/AliceInWonderland2010'' remake, distributed by Disney. Her character is sort of a creepy version of her earlier innocent characters. |
| 7 | ** Pretty well cemented in ''Film/LoveAndOtherDrugs'' which included several explicit sex scenes. |
| 8 | ** And she played [[Film/TheDarkKnightRises Catwoman]] and Fantine of ''Film/{{Les Miserables|2012}}''. She was very serious for her latter role where [[DyeingForYourArt she lost 25 pounds and has her hair cut short on screen]] and this earned her a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. |
| 9 | ** In ''Film/TheWitches2020'', she plays a villainous role, The Grand High Witch, the leader of a group of witches who want to rid the world of children. |
| 10 | * Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger made a pretty large side-career out of lampooning his action hero type casting in movies such as ''Film/Twins1988'', ''Film/KindergartenCop'', ''Film/{{Junior}}'' and ''Film/JingleAllTheWay''. |
| 11 | * ''Film/NoNameOnTheBullet'' is a rare time where MemeticBadass Creator/AudieMurphy plays a creepy villain. |
| 12 | * Creator/BradPitt got typecast in his early career as handsome, charming characters. ''Film/{{Kalifornia}}'' subverts this, playing a scruffy, drawling serial killer. In ''Film/TwelveMonkeys'', he plays a manic weirdo with a lazy eye. After this film, his typecasting was generally discarded, so audiences are no longer surprised to see him play a variety of roles. |
| 13 | * Creator/BruceWillis has played against type on a few occasions, to the point that his "type" completely changed. Before ''Film/DieHard'', Willis was a comedic actor known for his wisecracking role in ''Series/{{Moonlighting}}''. His appearance in such a big-budget actioner was met with a great deal of initial skepticism, but its success turned him into a bona fide action star. Willis went against his new action star type with a role in ''Film/DeathBecomesHer'', in which he played a weak-willed and neurotic doctor. As he has aged, his type has broadened to include characters from a wide range of backgrounds, from daffy to dour, weak to badass. Willis also did the same in the erotic thriller ''Film/ColorOfNight'', where he played a psychologist haunted by the suicide of a patient, and who has a love affair with a mysterious young girl. |
| 14 | * Creator/CaryElwes did this when cast as the villain in ''Film/EllaEnchanted'', especially after being the hero of ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' and ''Film/RobinHoodMenInTights''. |
| 15 | * Creator/ChengPeipei was best-known for her heroic roles in WuXia films in the sixties and seventies before her notable performance as [[BigBad Jade Fox]] in ''Film/CrouchingTigerHiddenDragon''. |
| 16 | * Creator/ChristopherWalken: |
| 17 | ** He played way against type in the musical version of the movie ''Film/{{Hairspray|2007}}'', wherein he portrayed milquetoast gag peddler Wilbur Turnblad. He even did a Fred-and-Gingeresque song and dance with his loving wife, ably played by Creator/{{John|Travolta}} [[{{Crossdresser}} Travolta]]. Ironically, Walken's dancing gained a fair amount of fame in the 90's due to ''Series/{{S|aturdayNightLive}}NL'' sketches and a Music/FatboySlim video. |
| 18 | ** And let's not forget his role as Puss in the live-action musical adventure "Puss in Boots" from 1988. Probably because of his strong typecasting, most people don't know he spent most of his college career as a dancer in musicals. |
| 19 | * Creator/ClancyBrown is best known for playing the brutal and authoritarian prison guard Captain Hadley in ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'', and many other roles in that vein such as [[DrillSergeantNasty Sergeant Zim]] in ''Film/StarshipTroopers''. In ''Film/TheHurricane'', he again plays a prison guard, but his character is far more reasonable, and eventually comes to believe in Hurricane Carter's innocence. |
| 20 | ** And even before then, when he was already known for villainous roles (such as The Kurgan in ''Film/{{Highlander}}''), his turn in ''Film/BlueSteel'' as a gruff yet kindhearted NYPD detective stood out. |
| 21 | * Creator/ColinFirth was saddled with his roles as soft, slightly foppish, romantic types from Series/PrideAndPrejudice and Film/BridgetJonesDiary before becoming a suave spy on ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService''. He even did his own stunts. |
| 22 | * French comedian and actor Creator/{{Coluche}}, who had only played comedic/goofy roles on the big screen before (such as in ''Film/TheWingOrTheThigh'' and ''Film/InspectorBlunder''), played an alcoholic and depressed gas station attendant who sets out to avenge the death of his young misfit friend in 1983's ''Tchao Pantin''. The French equivalent of the trope is often called "Faire son Tchao Pantin" since then. |
| 23 | * French-Greek director Creator/CostaGavras likes to ask actors who tend to work mostly in comedies to play in his serious films sometimes. That has happened with José Garcia in 2005's ''Film/TheAxe'' and Creator/GadElmaleh in 2013's ''Le Capital'', for instance. |
| 24 | * Creator/DickVanDyke: |
| 25 | ** In ''Film/NightAtTheMuseum'', Van Dyke played [[spoiler:the BigBad]]! |
| 26 | ** In ''Film/DickTracy'', Van Dyke played a corrupt D.A. in cahoots with Big Boy Caprice's mob, as a victim of extortion. |
| 27 | * Creator/ElijahWood, after numerous child roles and the heroic Frodo, seems to have concentrated on playing weirdos to shuck his wholesome image: |
| 28 | ** As the cannibalistic SerialKiller Kevin in ''Film/SinCity''. |
| 29 | ** His character in ''Film/{{Maniac|1980}}'' seems to make the above's Kevin look tame by comparison. |
| 30 | ** To a lesser degree, his character in ''Film/EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind''. Not a cannibal serial killer, but [[spoiler: stealing an unconscious woman's underwear and seducing her with her own erased memories]] aren't the activities of a man of sterling character. |
| 31 | ** And to add to that, the low-budget British film ''Film/GreenStreet'' has him as a rebellious American college dropout introduced to the world of [[FootballHooligans hooliganism]]. |
| 32 | ** In ''Series/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'' he plays a shiftless and kind of scummy loser/washed up GarageBand musician who makes an effective {{Foil}} for the heroic and upbeat title character he becomes an unwitting sidekick to. |
| 33 | * Music/FrankSinatra played against type in ''Literature/TheManchurianCandidate'', where he wasn't asked to sing a note. It established him as an ''actor'' not just a singer. Also his turn in ''Film/{{Suddenly}}'', where he plays a psychotic would-be presidential assassin. |
| 34 | * Creator/GerardDarmon: Malthazard in ''Film/ArthurAndTheInvisibles'' was quite a departure from his previous comedic roles. While he played a villain in the comedy ''Film/AsterixAndObelixMissionCleopatra'' (Criminalis), Malthazard is a way more serious kind of foe. |
| 35 | * Creator/HenryFonda was often typecast as straight-laced, heroic characters. However... |
| 36 | ** ''Film/OnceUponATimeInTheWest'', Creator/SergioLeone's second-to-last spaghetti western, features Fonda as a [[WouldHurtAChild child-murdering]] psychopath. Fonda initially didn't want to be in the movie, due mostly to the script's muddled attempts to describe a highly visual film, but changed his mind when Mr. Leone gave him this description of his introductory scene: "Picture this: the camera shows a gunman from the waist down pulling his gun and shooting a running child. The camera tilts up to the gunman's face and... it's Henry Fonda." |
| 37 | ** An earlier marked departure from his usual type was in ''Film/FortApache'' as [[spoiler: the unsympathetic martinet Colonel Thursday]]. He was also the antagonist of ''Firecreek'', but that character's a sympathetic AntiVillain. |
| 38 | ** ''Film/AdviseAndConsent'', arguably. His character, a nominee for Secretary of State with controversial political views, isn't very sympathetic. But then, [[GreyAndGrayMorality pretty much no one in the movie is]]. |
| 39 | * Creator/HughGrant is mostly known as the male lead of romantic comedies. In ''Film/TheManFromUNCLE2015'' he gets a chance to play a villain [[spoiler:who turns out to be TheMole for the [=MI6=]]]. This movie's director, Creator/GuyRitchie, seems to like casting Grant against his type as Grant would play a corrupt detective in ''Film/TheGentlemen'' and an arms dealer and gangster boss in ''Film/OperationFortuneRuseDeGuerre''. |
| 40 | * Creator/JackDouglas played a variant of his "Alf Ippititimus" character in all his ''Film/CarryOn'' apperances, barring ''Film/CarryOnEmmannuelle'', wherein he played his role completely straight. |
| 41 | * Creator/JackieGleason as the redneck Sheriff Buford T. Justice in ''Film/SmokeyAndTheBandit''. |
| 42 | * Creator/JamelDebbouze, a renowned French-Moroccan comedian, played a major role in French war drama ''Indigènes'' (released in the US as ''Film/{{Days of Glory|2006}}''), even getting several [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome crowners]] throughout the film. In the same film, Samy Nacéri, virtually unrecognisable from his better known role in the action comedy franchise ''Taxi''. |
| 43 | * Creator/JaneSeymourActress: |
| 44 | ** She is often known for playing sweet, sympathetic roles, yet she played the mean, but comical governess Fraulein Rottenmeier in the 1993 TV adaptation of ''Heidi''. |
| 45 | ** And let's not forget her as Linda Crandell, a black widow-esque seductress in the USA Network film released that same year, ''Preying Mathis''. |
| 46 | * Creator/JeffBridges, while a talented actor, usually has the part of the NiceGuy in movies, and age never really stopped that. There are, however, exceptions: |
| 47 | ** ''Film/JaggedEdge'', in which Creator/GlennClose defends him on a charge of savagely murdering his wife, although her investigator Robert Loggia is convinced he's guilty. [[spoiler: He's acquitted, but it turns out he did do it - and in the climax tries (and fails) to kill ''her''.]] |
| 48 | ** He's the villain of ''Film/IronMan1''. Part of what makes the reveal in this movie especially shocking is that he is still playing a nice guy! Though, this turns into FauxAffablyEvil in the end. |
| 49 | ** He also plays the part of Clu in ''Film/TronLegacy'', who is a fascist program version of Kevin Flynn, who he was also playing, but this one stands out more. |
| 50 | ** He is also the villain in the American remake of ''Film/TheVanishing''. |
| 51 | * Creator/JenniferAniston |
| 52 | ** ''Film/TheGoodGirl'' has her taking the lead role as a young woman trapped in a dreary, depressing life in a small Texas town. Her attempts to escape the crushing tedium result in terrible consequences with which she must live. Critics refer to it as Aniston's finest hour. |
| 53 | ** She also plays a cynical stripper in ''Film/WereTheMillers''. |
| 54 | ** She even tries her hand at villainy as one of the titular ''Film/HorribleBosses''. In this film she constantly harasses her employee (played by Charlie Day), and eventually gives him [[SexualExtortion an ultimatum]]: either he fucks her, or she'll fire him and [[WoundedGazelleGambit tell his girlfriend]] that ''he'' harassed ''her''. |
| 55 | ** In ''{{Film/Cake 2014}}'' she plays a depressed chronic pain sufferer who has hallucinations about her dead friend. |
| 56 | * Creator/JessicaLange, normally so sweet and honest, plays an absolutely monstrous character in Julie Taymor's version of ''Film/{{Titus}}''. Her equally evil and far creepier sons are played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Matthew Rhys, both of whom are normally cast as nice guys, Rhys in particular. Perhaps the greatest example of Playing Against Type in the film, however, is when Creator/AnthonyHopkins bakes both of them into a pie and [[ImAHumanitarian doesn't eat any himself]]. Jessica Lange also took a turn as the highly controlling, dominating EvilMatriarch in ''Film/{{Hush}}''. |
| 57 | * Creator/JoanSims was mostly known for playing nagging shrews, Cockney lasses, or upper-class ladies, a far cry from the butch Russian Captain she plays in ''Film/DoctorInTrouble''. |
| 58 | * Wrestling/JohnCena is well-known as a [[TheHero white-meat good guy]] and AllAmericanFace. In ''Film/{{F9}}: The Fast Saga'', he plays Jacob Toretto, an assassin and master thief who happens to be Vin Diesel's evil little brother. |
| 59 | %% * Creator/JonathanRhysMeyers played UsefulNotes/HenryVIII in ''Series/TheTudors'' and ''Music/ElvisPresley'', winning a Golden Globe for the latter. He also played Steerpike in ''Literature/{{Gormenghast}}''. That's multi-layered creepy right there. In Creator/WoodyAllen's ''Film/MatchPoint'', he played a sadistic cult-leader in ''Octane'', a cruel, bitter murderer in ''Film/{{Alexander}}'', a petulant ManipulativeBastard in ''Theatre/TheLionInWinter'' (TV version), and a cold, selfish borderline-megalomaniac in ''Film/VelvetGoldmine''. Admittedly, he has played quite a variety of 'nice guy' roles also, a number of which were pretty high profile...but whether the (admittedly insane) part of Chiron can truly be considered playing against type is debatable. |
| 60 | * Creator/JulieAndrews: |
| 61 | ** This is a plot point in ''Film/{{SOB}}'', in which an actress with a sugary-sweet reputation is asked to show her breasts in a soft-core film. Andrews took the role after ''Film/MaryPoppins'' and ''Film/TheSoundOfMusic'' typecast her. This was one of several films her husband Creator/BlakeEdwards directed her in that broke her out of this mold in various ways. (Others included ''Film/DarlingLili,'' ''Film/Ten1979'', and ''Film/VictorVictoria''.) |
| 62 | ** Her role in ''Film/TheAmericanizationOfEmily'' featured her as sexually active and America-hating. Further, her roles in ''Film/DarlingLili'' and ''Star'' had her character perform a striptease onstage! Its assumed ''Star'' and its eye raising adults only status was the basis of the film ''S.O.B.''. |
| 63 | ** A different example of this is in the live-action Eloise movies, where she plays Nanny, a [[BadlyBatteredBabysitter high-strung]] and over tired old woman who can't sing or dance. Rather a change from [[Film/TheSoundOfMusic Maria]] and Film/MaryPoppins. |
| 64 | ** She also plays Gru's emotionally abusive {{Jerkass}} mother in the ''Franchise/DespicableMe'' films. |
| 65 | ** Andrews also voices [[spoiler:a Lovecraftian sea kaiju]] in ''Film/{{Aquaman|2018}}''. |
| 66 | * Creator/KayFrancis was almost always cast for light-hearted comedies, soap operas, and melodramas. The reason for that is that she possessed a unique chic yet elegant air. The only exceptions are four drama films, including ''Film/{{Mandalay}}''. |
| 67 | * In ''Film/AFewGoodMen'', doing this revived Creator/KevinBacon's career - prior to this, he was only known for playing pretty boy teen hearthrobs, such as his lead role in ''Film/{{Footloose}}''. |
| 68 | * Creator/KurtRussell in ''Film/{{Grindhouse}}: Film/DeathProof'' has his typical charm, in spite of being a serial killer, though the twist that [[spoiler:he's a real wimp when it comes to actual physical confrontation is against type]]. |
| 69 | * Creator/WilfordBrimley was so frequently cast as gruff but lovable grandfather figures (e.g. ''Film/{{Cocoon}}'', ''Literature/TheHotelNewHampshire'',''The Stone Boy'', ''Film/StarWarsEwokAdventures'') that it was strange to see him play a villainous role as the corrupt and amoral head of security in ''Film/TheFirm''. |
| 70 | * Creator/MacaulayCulkin was ''so'' sick of being associated with Kevin of ''Film/HomeAlone'' and that damn cheek-slapping "AAAUGH!!!" that he decided to play a psychopathic boy who murdered his brother, [[KickTheDog shoots a dog for no reason]], and tries to murder his cousin in ''Film/TheGoodSon''. It didn't quite work. As an adult, he played a HollywoodAtheist in ''Film/{{Saved}}'' as well as Michael Alig, the controversial Club Kids founder who was ''convicted of manslaughter'' in ''Film/PartyMonster''. |
| 71 | * Speaking of ''Kingsman,'' Creator/MarkStrong played villains who betray England in ''Film/SherlockHolmes2009'' and ''Film/RobinHood2010'', and a villain-in-waiting about to betray the Green Lantern Corps in ''Film/GreenLantern2011'', so when he [[spoiler: turned out to be a totally trustworthy, loyal agent in ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'' it was a bit of a shock. Especially since the equivalent character in the comic the movie was based on ''was'' a traitor.]] |
| 72 | * Creator/MaryTylerMoore: |
| 73 | ** Played a manipulative mother who plotted with her son to murder a rich old woman in the TV movie ''Like Mother Like Son: The Strange Story of Sante and Kenny Kimes''. Also, she played a somewhat sympathetic EvilMatriarch in ''Film/OrdinaryPeople''. |
| 74 | ** Also opposite one-time TV husband Creator/DickVanDyke in ''Theatre/TheGinGame'' on PBS. |
| 75 | * Creator/PaulFord, a comedic actor known at the time almost exclusively for playing blustery buffoons plays one of the few sympathetic characters in ''Film/AdviseAndConsent'', the loyal and hard-working Majority Whip. |
| 76 | * Creator/SergioLeone also liked to use Italian actors atypically. |
| 77 | ** Aldo Giuffre, better known as a comedian than an actor, is the Union Captain in ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly''. |
| 78 | ** Creator/RomoloValli, comic relief in several Visconti films, plays the tragic revolutionary Villega in ''Film/DuckYouSucker''. |
| 79 | ** Gabriele Ferzetti playing a serious role in ''Film/OnceUponATimeInTheWest'' is less against-type, but seeing the star of ''L'Avventura'' in a Western still feels odd. |
| 80 | * Creator/PeterFalk is always a nice, quiet gentleman on screen - always kind and humorous, sometimes a bit rumpled and messy, very often [[Series/{{Columbo}} a cop who combines all of the above]]... Always - except, of course, for his turn in ''Murder, Inc.'', where he rapes, murders, assaults, robs, and threatens half of the cast, playing vicious mob killer Abraham Reles. Falk also played a VillainProtagonist {{Expy}} of UsefulNotes/FidelCastro in ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S3E6TheMirror The Mirror]]" and a mob boss in ''Film/RobinAndTheSevenHoods''. |
| 81 | * ''Literature/IntruderInTheDust'': Porter Hall, whose Wikipedia page describes him as being best-known for his "villains or comedic incompetent characters," plays Nub Gowrie, a menacing yet honorable hillbilly who displays powerful grief and determination in the aftermath of his favorite son's murder. |
| 82 | * Creator/RobertEnglund played both bumbling-but-harmless Willie in the original ''Series/{{V|1983}}'' and supernatural psycho Freddy Krueger in the ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'' franchise. The latter seems to have caused Englund to now be typecast as horror-film weirdos and psychos. |
| 83 | ** After ''Nightmare'', Englund would occasionally be cast in horror movies that had him play non-villainous roles. For instance, in ''Film/BehindTheMaskTheRiseOfLeslieVernon'' his character is a heroic {{Expy}} of [[{{Film/Halloween1978}} Dr. Samuel Loomis]] who is trying to stop the title killer, while in ''{{Film/Wishmaster}}'' he's a friendly (if overly materialistic) collector of antique art. |
| 84 | * Creator/RichardBoone was known for his cowboy and officer roles in [[TheWestern Western]] series and films, particularly the gentlemanly and cultured gunslinger Paladin in ''Series/HaveGunWillTravel''. The burly and gruff medieval warrior Bors in ''Film/{{The War Lord|1965}}'' is quite far from that. |
| 85 | * Creator/RobertDeNiro has made a career for the past ten or more years out of subverting, parodying, or deconstructing the tough-guy cred he had accumulated over a long and illustrious career. Examples include ''Film/AnalyzeThis'' and ''Film/{{Stardust}}''. |
| 86 | * Creator/RodneyDangerfield, best known as a boorish underdog who gets no respect, played an abusive father in ''Film/NaturalBornKillers.'' Even though he retained much of his trademark schtick, it's still a little jarring to watch--although given the LaughTrack in the scene, the jarring nature of Dangerfield's presence was probably intentional. |
| 87 | * After breaking out in ''Film/PulpFiction'', Creator/SamuelLJackson got typecast as street-smart angry black men and powerful men of authority. In ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'' he plays a nerdy, goofy computer programmer who is nauseated by violence and has a hilarious lisp. |
| 88 | * Creator/TyBurrell is best known as the lovable {{Cloudcuckoolander}} dad Phil Dunphy on Series/ModernFamily. In Film/TheSkeletonTwins, he portrays Rich, the former teacher of Milo (Creator/BillHader). During the course of the movie, we find out Rich had sex with Milo when Milo was his 15-year-old student. |
| 89 | %% |
| 90 | %% |
| 91 | %% The examples list is alphabetized until here, if you add new examples, try to put them above in alphabetical order. It's the creator who determines that, not the films. |
| 92 | %% |
| 93 | %% |
| 94 | * On the subject of ''Series/IClaudius'', Lucius Sejanus, bastard extraordinaire, as played by... [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Captain Picard]]? |
| 95 | ** Captain Picard WITH HAIR! |
| 96 | ** And Creator/PatrickStewart is a well-respected classical actor -- at the time he took the role of Picard, ''that'' was seen as playing against type. |
| 97 | ** Or try Creator/PatrickStewart as the flaaaaaaaamingly CampGay interior decorator Sterling in ''Jeffrey'', which came out about a year after ''The Next Generation'' ended. He made the line "We're the Pink Panthers!" as convincing as his "I will make them PAY!!!" rant in ''First Contact.'' And he looked adorable in a pink beret and short shorts. |
| 98 | *** That wasn't even the only time, he was also a charmingly gay theatre director in ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' who was in love with the title character himself. "Is there anything this man ''can't'' do?" |
| 99 | ** Don't forget his appearance as Karla, the head of UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre, in ''Film/TinkerTailorSoldierSpy'' and the sequel. |
| 100 | *** A part he played memorably without actually saying anything. Now ''that's'' great acting! |
| 101 | ** There's also the time where he voiced Napoleon in ''Film/AnimalFarm1999''. It's... hard to imagine him as an absolutely ruthless and irredeemable dictator, to say the very least. |
| 102 | ** And check him out in the BBC's 2010 telecast of ''Macbeth''. It would be hard-pressing to see him give any darker performance for any darker a role. |
| 103 | ** ''Film/LAStory'' as the evil French Maitre'D. |
| 104 | --->'''Carlo:''' Is this part of the New Cruelty. |
| 105 | --->'''Maitre'D:''' I'm afraid it is. |
| 106 | ** And ''then,'' as if he was specifically trying to one-up this list, he played the leader of a gang of murderous neo-Nazi skinheads, spitting out vile racials slurs, in ''Film/GreenRoom.'' |
| 107 | * Creator/RobinWilliams branched out from his straight slapstick routine to regularly appear in serious, TearJerker roles such as ''Film/DeadPoetsSociety'', ''Film/GoodWillHunting'', and ''Film/WhatDreamsMayCome'', after initially breaking into drama as a complicated Soviet defector musician in ''Film/MoscowOnTheHudson''. He then began to mix in far darker roles such as in ''Film/OneHourPhoto'', ''Film/{{Insomnia}}'', and, [[AffablyEvil to a lesser degree]], ''Film/AugustRush''. |
| 108 | * Creator/JimCarrey broke through with a string of wildly over-the-top comedic characters. Even staying within his niche, he upset audience expectations with ''Film/TheCableGuy'' by playing a humorously disturbed villain rather than a whimsical buffoon. Eventually he got TomHanksSyndrome and went after critical respect with a number of serio-comic roles such as ''Film/TheTrumanShow'' and ''Film/EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind'' and a few serious dramas such as ''Film/TheMajestic''. |
| 109 | ** ''WesternAnimation/AChristmasCarol2009'' does a great job of highlighting both Carrey's comedic and dramatic strong points. Carrey takes Scrooge very seriously, and it doesn't come off as a caricature. Scrooge comes off as Dickens intended: a stingy curmudgeon. |
| 110 | ** In ''Film/TheNumber23'', he plays a guy (a dad, no less) that is actually [[spoiler: a psychotic killer who wrote a book about himself being obsessed with the number 23]]. |
| 111 | ** And in ''Film/KickAss2'', where he plays Colonel Stars and Stripes, an ex-mob enforcer (with a Brooklyn accent) turned born-again Christian. |
| 112 | * Creator/KateWinslet: |
| 113 | ** In ''Film/EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind'', she played the more "wacky" Carrey-like character, and turns out to be a deconstruction of the ManicPixieDreamGirl. |
| 114 | ** She also played the main villain in ''Film/{{Divergent}}'', despite being primarily known for playing romantic leads. She also tends to do a lot of period pieces, so a movie set in a dystopian future seems out of place for her. According to her, she took the role partially because she wanted to do something drastically different. |
| 115 | * In ''Film/TheEvilDead1981'', Creator/BruceCampbell's character is a {{Final G|irl}}uy who screams a lot and spends surprising amount of time getting caught under bookcases. Ironically, it's ''the same character that took over his career,'' meaning that he ended up typecast as a character who started out as the exact opposite of his normal reputation. |
| 116 | * Creator/TomHanks was well-known for playing sly, comedic characters in '80s comedies. [[TomHanksSyndrome And then came a little film called]] ''Film/{{Philadelphia}}'', and [[InspirationallyDisadvantaged another film called]] ''Film/ForrestGump''. Since then he became better known for playing upstanding men of integrity in such films as ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan'', Film/TheGreenMile and ''Film/CatchMeIfYouCan''. He subverted this new reputation with ''Film/RoadToPerdition'', in which he played a mob hitman (though still a [[HitmanWithAHeart pretty sympathetic one]]). |
| 117 | ** While the film overall wasn't too well-received, he broke out of both types at once when he played the powerful CEO of a sprawling, Facebook-like corporation in ''Film/TheCircle2017'' and mixed heartfelt charisma with manipulative cunning to create a sleazy bastard you still really ''wanted'' to like. |
| 118 | ** Although on the surface it looks like it should be right in his wheelhouse as a romantic comedy co-starring Creator/MegRyan, ''Film/YouveGotMail'' was criticized for casting Hanks as a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, consciously patterned after [[Literature/PrideAndPrejudice Mr. Darcy]]. Some viewers found Hanks simply ''too likable'' to be believable as the smug heir to a ruthless corporation, who takes a cruel joy in forcing small bookstores out of business. |
| 119 | --> Awww, another independent bites the dust! ''(finger guns)'' |
| 120 | ** When you get right down to it, Sheriff Woody in ''Franchise/ToyStory'' isn't a typical Hanks role, either (presumably, it's often overlooked due to being an animated film). Woody is a good guy at heart, yes, and he's a toy based on a heroic archetype (a lawman of the Wild West), but prior to his CharacterDevelopment, he's also petty, selfish, and insecure about his age and his status as Andy's favorite. |
| 121 | ** His role of Col. Tom Parker in "Film/{{Elvis 2022}}" is nothing short of a dubious, highly manipulative conman, a far cry from his earlier roles of morally upright men. |
| 122 | * Creator/MichaelCaine often played characters of the LovableRogue[=/=]FirstPersonSmartass type when younger, making his cold-blooded SociopathicHero in ''Film/{{Get Carter|1971}}'' fairly out of character. His character in ''Film/{{Zulu}}'' is also against type, seeing as he is an OfficerAndAGentleman, whereas Caine usually played lower class Cockney characters. Caine averted playing against type as Alfred the butler in Creator/ChristopherNolan's ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'' trilogy by ''making'' it his type, keeping his Cockney accent. Then again, he's a butler with an interesting past. |
| 123 | * Prior to ''Film/{{Airplane}}'', Creator/LeslieNielsen, Creator/LloydBridges, Creator/RobertStack, and Creator/PeterGraves were well-known as serious dramatic actors. Nielsen spent the rest of his career [[LeslieNielsenSyndrome spoofing his former rep]]. Lloyd Bridges later appeared in both ''Film/HotShots'' comedies. |
| 124 | ** Speaking of ''Airplane!'', there's also Barbara "[[Series/LeaveItToBeaver June Cleaver]]" Billingsley as the jive talking old lady. |
| 125 | ** A double example in Leslie Nielsen: he played the darkly humorous villain Richard in the "Something To Tide Your Over" segment of the horror movie ''Film/{{Creepshow}}''. It feels like a perfect Venn diagram overlap of the two sides of his career: simultaneously funny and compelling. |
| 126 | ** Before ''Airplane!'', Nielsen played a one-shot colonel on ''Series/{{Mash}}'', who is convinced by Hawkeye and Trapper to go on medical leave for battle fatigue. Technically a comedic role, he plays the OnlySaneMan and is gaslit into taking leave. |
| 127 | * When Creator/TimBurton cast Creator/MichaelKeaton as ''Film/{{Batman|1989}}'', audiences were dubious because Keaton was best known for his comedic roles, even though he just starred as a recovering drug addict in the drama ''Clean and Sober'' a year earlier. Burton already had a working relationship with Keaton and thought he would fit as the somewhat out-of-sync and antisocial Bruce Wayne that the script called for. Since that time, Keaton has played other menacing and even villainous characters. And one [[CampStraight Sexually Ambiguous]] [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory3 Ken Doll]]. |
| 128 | * When Creator/HeathLedger was cast as the Joker in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', he was best known for playing hunky, romantic characters in films such as ''Film/TenThingsIHateAboutYou'', ''Film/AKnightsTale'', and ''Film/{{Casanova}}''. Even his dramatic breakout role as a hunky, closeted gay rancher in ''Film/BrokebackMountain'' didn't stray all that far from his niche. Audiences had no idea what to expect from Ledger playing the downright evil [[ComicBook/TheJoker Joker]]. And both the gay rancher and the Joker provided the page image. [[CrazyEnoughToWork In the end, it worked]] [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward pretty damn well.]] |
| 129 | * Creator/JohnnyDepp was perceived as merely a teen idol - then he played ''Film/EdwardScissorhands'', an almost textbook example of TheGrotesque, for Creator/TimBurton. This is regarded as the turning point of Depp's career, so much so that eccentrics ''are'' his type whenever he works with Tim Burton. Also, Anthony Michael Hall was cast against type in that film as [[JerkJock the brutish Jim]]; he was best known at the time for his nerdy roles. And a threefer in the young actors was Creator/WinonaRyder who had previously been known for moody adolescent roles in ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'' and ''Film/{{Heathers}}'' so the GirlNextDoor role as Kim was something quite different for her. |
| 130 | ** The innocent, childlike Scissorhands has become a retroactive "against-type" role for Depp, with his gradual shift into eccentric {{Guile Hero}}es. |
| 131 | ** Depp is known for playing [[LargeHam hammish]] and [[CloudCuckoolander eccentric]] characters, especially in the last decade. In ''Film/{{Transcendence}}'', he's assuming one of his most subdued and realistic roles to date. Too subdued. Borderline [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey HAL-9000]] subdued. |
| 132 | * A Depression-era movie of ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' cast Creator/JamesCagney as Bottom. |
| 133 | ** Not to mention the fact that Cagney made his bones as a dancer and eventually made the transition to dramatic criminal roles. |
| 134 | ** Given his history as Hollywood's go-to actor for tough guys, it is telling that he won his Oscar for playing Broadway producer George M. Cohen in ''Film/YankeeDoodleDandy''. |
| 135 | ** One of his last roles before his retirement was in the film ''Film/OneTwoThree'', a rare comedy role for Cagney, in which he plays the manager of a Coca Cola company in Germany, dealing with Russian officials, an unhappy wife and the Boss' daughter falling in love with a Commie. HilarityEnsues. [[SincerityMode Really, it does!]] |
| 136 | * Creator/JimmyStewart was widely considered the most wholesome leading man in show business, but he subverted his type with a few roles, most by Creator/AlfredHitchcock. |
| 137 | ** In ''Film/RearWindow'', the character L.B. Jefferies has bitter ideas about marriage and a touch of voyeurism in him. |
| 138 | ** He plays a StrawNihilist, albeit a rather amiable and charming one, in ''Film/{{Rope}}''. |
| 139 | ** Stewart's '50s Westerns, directed by Anthony Mann, generally cast him as a tough, hard-bitten loner. |
| 140 | ** In ''Film/{{Vertigo}}'' he plays an obsessive, borderline psychotic AntiHero. |
| 141 | ** In ''Film/AnatomyOfAMurder'', he plays a lawyer, who is likeable enough, but there is an unsettling scene where he meets his client in jail, tells him that he has no defense other than insanity, and then leaves him alone to think about "how crazy he was." |
| 142 | ** His George Bailey in ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'' starts out as a typical nice-guy role, then gradually morphs into an embittered, desperate near-suicide before snapping back for the happy ending. |
| 143 | ** An earlier (and milder) example is his casting as hard-bitten reporter Mike Connor in ''Film/ThePhiladelphiaStory''. Mike is much more cynical and worldly than typical Jimmy Stewart characters of the time. However, he turns out to be a romantic at heart, and as the movie progresses he displays more and more of Stewart's boyish charm. It became Stewart's only Oscar-winning performance. |
| 144 | ** Another early role was in ''Film/AfterTheThinMan'', in which he seems to be a typical Stewart character, but at the end is revealed to be a psychotic scheming murderer. |
| 145 | ** ''Film/TheGreatestShowOnEarth'' offers a two-for-one: he plays a mysterious and secretive clown who never removes his makeup, even between shows...because he's secretly a doctor on the run from the law for participating in the assisted suicide of his wife. |
| 146 | * Creator/CaryGrant as the villain in Hitchcock's ''Film/{{Suspicion}}''. Or Grant, known for roles in romantic comedies, being cast also by Hitchcock in espionage thrillers like ''Film/{{Notorious|1946}}'' and ''Film/NorthByNorthwest''. |
| 147 | * Invoked by the director of ''Film/FromHereToEternity'', who deliberately cast the two female leads against type: |
| 148 | ** The bitter prostitute (though the Hays Code insists she's a nightclub hostess) Lorene (real name Alma) is played by Donna Reed - who was best known for wholesome GirlNextDoor roles, her most famous one being George Bailey's saintly wife in ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife''. |
| 149 | ** Karen Holmes, the depressed officer's wife who has multiple affairs with his soldiers, is played by Creator/DeborahKerr. She had spent her first years in Hollywood playing {{English Rose}}s in {{Costume Drama}}s such as ''Film/ThePrisonerOfZenda'', ''Film/BlackNarcissus'', ''Film/YoungBess'', ''Literature/QuoVadis'' etc. She took the role precisely to shake up her image. |
| 150 | * Creator/EvePlumb, better known as Jan on ''Series/TheBradyBunch'', played a teen prostitute in the film ''Film/DawnPortraitOfATeenageRunaway''. |
| 151 | * Action icon/sex symbol Creator/SeanConnery is best known for playing badass characters with a lot of grit to them. In ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'', however, he plays Indiana's father as a bumbling, somewhat aloof, academic pacifist who survives with creativity rather than action skills. Interestingly, he got named "sexiest man alive" the same year ''Last Crusade'' was released. |
| 152 | * Creator/TonyCurtis became famous with heroic roles. In ''Film/SweetSmellOfSuccess'', he played a skeevy press agent. |
| 153 | ** He plays the title role in ''The Boston Strangler'' a decade later! |
| 154 | ** He also had a notorious reputation for starring in comedies, which didn't stop him from having a major supporting role in Creator/StanleyKubrick's ''Film/{{Spartacus}}''. |
| 155 | * Before ''Film/{{M}}'', Creator/PeterLorre was best known for his comedic roles. That must have been a jarring transition. While speaking about his career, Lorre once noted that he filmed a comedy around the time of ''Film/{{M}}'' (he may have specifically mentioned ''Die Koffer des Herrn O.F.''), and that ''Film/{{M}}'' just happened to be released first. He speculated that, had the release dates been reversed, he would have had a career as a comedian instead of a villain. |
| 156 | * After ''Film/{{Amelie}}'', a film overflowing with sweetness and cuteness, Audrey Tautou starred in ''He Loves Me He Loves Me Not'' as [[spoiler: a violent erotomaniac]]. The first half of the film mirrors ''Film/{{Amelie}}''; the second half... |
| 157 | * While it isn't a huge change, as the film is still pretty creepy, Creator/VincentPrice somewhat played against type in ''Edward Scissorhands'', given that while his reputation is for LargeHam villains, in that movie he was a kindly scientist. |
| 158 | ** See also ''The Whales of August'', where he plays a kindly (if mooching) old man and love interest to Lillian Gish. |
| 159 | ** After ''Film/HouseOfWax1953'' established Price as That Guy Who Plays Villains, this was subverted in two Creator/WilliamCastle movies (''[[spoiler: Film/HouseOnHauntedHill1959]]'' and ''[[spoiler: Film/TheTingler]]'') where Price is set up as the obvious villain, only for the real baddie to be revealed as someone else in the final act, and suddenly, Vincent is the hero. |
| 160 | ** He also played the heroic sidekick in a single Golden Age 3D film, ''Film/SonOfSinbad''. |
| 161 | ** A borderline example would be ''Film/WitchfinderGeneral''; although Price plays yet another villain in this movie, his character isn't the LargeHam MagnificentBastard he usually plays. |
| 162 | * Compare Creator/AllisonJanney's role as the press secretary on ''Series/TheWestWing'' with her role as a nail stylist in ''Film/{{Juno}}''. It makes it about 20 times funnier. ''Series/TheWestWing'' would probably be the time she's playing against type, as she's been in many comedies like ''Film/DropDeadGorgeous'' and ''Private Parts''. Janney would then earn an Emmy for her role in the sitcom ''Series/{{Mom}}.'' |
| 163 | * Creator/SethRogen got known playing wise-cracking characters who are often stoners. In ''Film/DonnieDarko'', however, he plays the school bully (though this was before his type was established), and in ''Film/ObserveAndReport'' he plays a darkly unbalanced, bi-polar security guard. He is also ''Film/TheGreenHornet''. And in ''Film/PineappleExpress'', while Rogen still plays a stoner, James Franco winds up as a bigger stoner than him. |
| 164 | * Pretty much the career of Creator/AnthonyPerkins. Prior to ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' he was known for playing sensitive young men and was an almost teen idol. After ''Psycho'', him ''not'' playing a creepy psychopath was considered him playing against type. |
| 165 | ** Like a nerdy scientist in Disney's ''Film/TheBlackHole''. He gets eviscerated in a surprisingly horrific scene. |
| 166 | ** Post-Psycho Perkins playing InspectorJavert of all people.. |
| 167 | * Between ''Film/{{Swingers}}'' and ''Film/{{Made}}'', Creator/VinceVaughn dabbled in dramatic works such as ''Film/TheCell'' and villainous creepy roles such as the evil stepfather in ''Film/DomesticDisturbance'' and the role of Norman Bates himself in the 1998 Gus Van Sant remake of ''Psycho''. During the phase, Creator/RogerEbert once said of Vaughn, "[He] plays a creep better than just about anybody else." |
| 168 | * Creator/JamesCromwell, the go-to guy for militant, ball-busting characters (he's the tall, intimidating evil exec of any movie that needs it), can soften up on occasion, from his signature role as the stern but human farmer in ''Film/{{Babe}}'' to the eccentric, rock-and-roll loving scientist in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact''. |
| 169 | * Creator/ArmandAssante in ''Film/FatalInstinct''. Normally he plays serious, even grim characters. In this comedy spoof he played his role absolutely straight and was ''hilarious''. He had already tried out a somewhat goofy role in ''Belizaire The Cajun'', where he is the title character - a Cajun folk healer and (sometime) womanizer in 1850s Louisiana. Although the film is primarily serious, the character of Belizaire is [[BewareTheSillyOnes something of a joker but ends up being the hero of the film - and the cause of death for the villain]]. |
| 170 | * Creator/GeorgeClooney, in the (paraphrased) words of Creator/QuentinTarantino when he cast him for ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'', went from "playing a doctor in an [[Series/{{ER}} Emergency Room]] to playing a guy that ''puts'' people in the emergency room". Also, Clooney heavily bearded, overweight, and tired in ''Film/{{Syriana}}''. |
| 171 | ** Creator/TheCoenBrothers' film ''Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou'', in addition to providing a CareerResurrection for Clooney after ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' flopped, helped to define his image as a fast-talking LovableRogue with a heart of gold - a type that ''Film/OceansEleven'' would help to cement a year later (humourously, in both movies he played a guy who gets out of jail at the beginning and is trying to get his estranged wife back). Sixteen years later, the Coen Brothers made ''Film/HailCaesar'', where he plays a dimwitted, easily manipulated, AmbiguouslyGay film star. |
| 172 | * Creator/SylvesterStallone's attempted forays into comedy with ''Rhinestone'', ''Film/StopOrMyMomWillShoot'', and ''Film/{{Oscar|1991}}''. He also made a stab at acting credibility by playing an overweight and schlubby loser in ''Film/CopLand'', which went a lot better than his comedy work. |
| 173 | ** He tried again in ''Film/SpyKids3DGameOver'', as an aging villain... [[AdamWesting and it worked]]. |
| 174 | ** An early example is his role in ''Film/DeathRace2000'', in which he plays a mouthy LargeHam villain. |
| 175 | ** He made a strictly non-action performance in ''Film/ReachMe'', where he played a blog editor who serves as an antagonist. |
| 176 | * Mex Urtizberea was cast in the deadly serious movie ''Valentin'' after doing comedy for years in the sketch show ''Magazine For Fai''. |
| 177 | * After doing nothing but comedy for his entire career, Alfredo Casero starred in the drama ''Todas Las Azafatas Van al Cielo''. |
| 178 | * Creator/WillFerrell has built his career on playing buffoonish or {{Jerkass}} comedy characters. But then he made a surprisingly emotional turn as a mild-mannered accountant in ''Film/StrangerThanFiction''. He also starred in ''Film/EverythingMustGo'' as an alcoholic who get thrown out of his house and decides to sell all his possessions that have been chucked out as well. |
| 179 | ** ''Film/{{Elf}}'' is a bit of a playing-against-type role for him, too; while he's still a bit of a buffoon in there, it's more "good-natured but exuberant ManChild" instead of "lecherous jerkass." |
| 180 | ** Speaking of ''Elf'', you can make a case for tough-guy Creator/JamesCaan playing the straight man father figure to Will Ferrell's man-elf, his deadpan delivery leading to some laughs as well. |
| 181 | ** Creator/EdAsner, who plays jolly old St. Nick himself in this movie, is better known for his curmudgeonly old characters like Lou Grant. |
| 182 | ** Ferrell then both plays his original type straight and subverts it simultaneously in ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie''. The LEGO character "President Business" is as LargeHam as they come, while [[spoiler:The boy's dad that inspired the Business character]] is a rather stuffy accountant-type personality, more concerned with keeping things the way they were than [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone allowing his son to express his creativity]]. |
| 183 | * ''Film/BatmanBegins'' had Creator/LiamNeeson, usually cast as the noble hero, as the villainous Ra's al Ghul, and Creator/GaryOldman, usually cast as the villain (or at least violently conflicted anti-hero) as the heroic Jim Gordon, Batman's sole ally among the Gotham City police. |
| 184 | ** Creator/GaryOldman in ''Film/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'', where he is very much a subversion of himself. He is set up to be the villainous Gary Oldman we all know, [[spoiler:but when he finally appears, the big twist is that he was GoodAllAlong.]] |
| 185 | * Speaking of Gary Oldman, he and Creator/TimRoth were {{typecast|ing}} as some of the all-time toughest villains and badasses of TheNineties, but played totally against type as the title characters of ''Theatre/RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead'', where Oldman is an innocent ManChild and Roth is a neurotic paranoiac. Meanwhile, Richard Dreyfuss' character is kind of a badass. |
| 186 | ** Tim Roth interestingly subverted his "type" by playing a clever ex-con... in the fluffy Creator/WoodyAllen musical ''Everyone Says I Love You''. |
| 187 | ** Also, there's Tim Roth's comic turn in ''Film/FourRooms''. |
| 188 | * Creator/RalphFiennes is widely known for his villainous roles like Voldemort in ''Film/HarryPotter'' series, or the Nazi war criminal in ''Film/SchindlersList''; he was also cast as the romantic lead in the RomCom ''Film/MaidInManhattan'' as a likable and sweet politician, and in ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' as Gareth Mallory, a ReasonableAuthorityFigure [[spoiler:and Olivia Mansfield's successor as M]]. He also did a turn as the eccentric, CampStraight, SophisticatedAsHell JerkWithAHeartOfGold Gustave H. in ''Film/TheGrandBudapestHotel''. |
| 189 | * Creator/BradleyCooper, best known for nice guy roles like Will Tippin from ''Series/{{Alias}}'', plays one of the most despicable {{Romantic False Lead}}s in romantic comedy history in ''Film/WeddingCrashers''. He jokes that he got the part because the director had never seen ''Alias''. It seems like he's decided that it's his new type. He didn't exactly play sympathetic characters in ''Film/HesJustNotThatIntoYou'' or ''Film/TheHangover'' either. And to top it off, he also plays the obsessive, borderline-psychotic protagonist in ''Film/TheMidnightMeatTrain''. |
| 190 | * Creator/DustinHoffman's career and reputation as one of the supreme American actors began when he shed his image as the innocent Benjamin in ''Film/TheGraduate'' and played the disreputable Ratso in ''Film/MidnightCowboy''. |
| 191 | * Creator/JohnCandy did a few serious roles, like the sleazy lawyer Dean Andrews in ''Film/{{JFK}}''. Even his role in ''Film/PlanesTrainsAndAutomobiles'' can be seen as this, as the role of Del Griffith has much more dramatic heft than anything else he had done up to that point. |
| 192 | * Creator/JoshPeck did this in ''Film/TheWackness''. In an earlier role ''Film/MeanCreek'' he played a cruel, foul mouthed bully; before this he was usually the comic relief. |
| 193 | * Creator/DonaldPleasence, typically cast as slimy villains, reinvented himself as the heroic Dr. Loomis in ''Film/{{Halloween 1978}}''. Interestingly, Creator/JohnCarpenter's original choice for the role was the equally villain typecast Creator/ChristopherLee, and [[Film/{{Halloween 2007}} Rob Zombie's remake]] did the same thing by casting Creator/MalcolmMcDowell in the role. |
| 194 | ** Pleasence was quick to point out, however, the role of Loomis re-typecast him. Whereas people had previously seen him only as a villain, he remarked that after the first two ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'' films, he found himself being cast solely as rescuers. |
| 195 | ** Pleasence also played the overweight, incompetent President of the United States in another John Carpenter film, ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork''. |
| 196 | ** Earlier in his career, Pleasence played one of the [=POW=]s in ''Film/TheGreatEscape'' and an anti-Hitler conspirator in ''Film/TheNightOfTheGenerals''. |
| 197 | * While he never came out and gave this as the exact reason, Creator/ChristopherLee has gone on the record as saying that one of the few regrets he has about his career was turning down the role of Dr. Loomis. Probably because it would help him shake off the villainous reputation he's picked up (mostly for his endless ''[[Film/HammerHorror Dracula]]'' movies and ''[[Film/TheWickerMan1973 The Wicker Man]]'', and revived by ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' and ''Franchise/StarWars''). Lee gets to play a character with a sensitive side in Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', and in the biopic ''Jinnah'' (where he plays Mohammad Ali Jinnah, founder of modern Pakistan) but... that's really about it. And he did get to play the odd horror hero in movies like ''Film/HorrorExpress'', ''Film/TheDevilRidesOut'', ''Film/CryptOfTheVampire'', and ''[[Film/TheHowling Howling II]]''. |
| 198 | ** There's also Lee as a gentlemanly gunsmith in ''Hannie Caulder'', as an ultimately heroic businessman in ''Airport '77'', as an American businessman with a (non-villainous) secret in ''Serial'', as an elderly, sympathetic psychiatrist in ''Triage'', as duplicitous good guy Mycroft Holmes in ''Film/ThePrivateLifeOfSherlockHolmes'', as a seemingly abusive father who's merely trying to protect his daughter from the influence of his deceased and decidedly wicked wife in ''Film/TheHouseThatDrippedBlood'', and a rare friendly alien in ''Series/{{Space 1999}}''. |
| 199 | ** In perhaps a stroke of luck for the man, his very last onscreen role was a RoleReprise as Saruman in ''Film/TheHobbitTheBattleOfTheFiveArmies'' - as in, prior to Saruman's FaceHeelTurn. The "making of" documentary dedicates a good chunk to him explaining just how passionate he was about selling Saruman as a good guy. |
| 200 | ** One of Lee's final roles - and one he must have enjoyed for this exact reason - was playing the kindly owner of a train station bookstore in ''Film/{{Hugo}}''. |
| 201 | * Done for comedy/irony in ''Film/TrickOrTreat'', a horror movie based around the moral panic over Satanic messages in rock and roll records. [[Music/{{KISS}} Gene Simmons]] plays the school DJ, while a very subdued Music/OzzyOsbourne is a moralizing, anti-rock fundamentalist. |
| 202 | * Creator/PeterCushing, also considered for the role of Dr. Loomis in ''Film/{{Halloween 1978}}'', would not have been against type, as he was best known for playing Dr. Van Helsing in the Film/HammerHorror ''Dracula'' movies, starting with ''Film/HorrorOfDracula''. However, he played an extremely evil version of the title character in Hammer's ''Franchise/{{Frankenstein}}'' movies, starting with ''Film/TheCurseOfFrankenstein'' (with the exception of the ironically named ''Evil of Frankenstein'', where he's the hero). And younger audiences might know him best for [[Film/ANewHope blowing up Alderaan]]. |
| 203 | ** He and Christopher Lee had their roles inverted in the Hammer film ''Film/TheGorgon''. Cushing plays an obsessive doctor, trying to keep the town's dark secret covered up - bordering on outright {{Yandere}} at times. Lee plays the protagonist's good natured colleague who helps save the day. |
| 204 | *** Peter Cushing first tried this in AARU/Amicus' two Dalek movies in the mid-'60s, in which he played "Dr. Who" as a CoolOldGuy / FunPersonified science-hero. |
| 205 | * ''Film/HushHushSweetCharlotte'' casts Olivia de Havilland - known for playing TheIngenue and heroic good girls as the BitchInSheepsClothing who tries to drive her cousin to insanity by {{Gaslighting}} her. |
| 206 | * Creator/DannyDeVito is usually cast as {{Jerkass}} or JerkWithAHeartOfGold characters, so seeing him play Creator/AndyKaufman's friendly, grounded-in-reality agent George Shapiro in ''Film/ManOnTheMoon'' is an interesting change of pace. In the same film, Creator/VincentSchiavelli (best known for oddball-if-not-creepy roles such as the Subway Ghost in ''Film/{{Ghost|1990}}'') appears as an uptight ABC executive, and Andy's sharp-but-down-to-earth girlfriend Lynne Margulies is played by Music/CourtneyLove. |
| 207 | * Elizabeth Berkley, fresh off of ''Series/SavedByTheBell'', tried to go radically against type in ''Film/{{Showgirls}}''. It was widely considered a poor choice at the time. It still is. ''Showgirls'' completely [[StarDerailingRole derailed]] her film career before it could even start. |
| 208 | * Throughout the Spanish-speaking world, Sergi Lopez was largely known as a family friendly, comedies-and-melodramas kind of a guy. In ''Film/DirtyPrettyThings'', however, he plays the villain, an organ-smuggler who preys on desperate immigrants. When Creator/GuillermoDelToro was casting ''Film/PansLabyrinth'', producers worried that Lopez wouldn't work as the villain, Captain Vidal. Ironically, the English-speaking world is probably most familiar with these two roles and Vidal is now consistently cited as one of the most despicable characters in recent cinema, and one of the greatest examples of a ClassicVillain in fiction. |
| 209 | ** His turn toward villainous roles started with the title role in the French film ''Harry - He's Here to Help''. Let's just say that Harry's advice for the protagonist takes a [[StrawNihilist sinister turn]]. |
| 210 | * Sir John Gielgud as [[DeadpanSnarker Hobson]] in ''Film/{{Arthur 1981}}''. Gielgud was best-known for playing stoic figures like [[Film/ChimesAtMidnight King Henry IV]], which lent him just the right amount of dignity to play a ServileSnarker [[TheJeeves Jeeves analogue]]. |
| 211 | * Creator/GregoryPeck, known for playing noble and dignified characters (such as [[Film/ToKillAMockingbird Atticus Finch]]), had a few villains on his resume. |
| 212 | ** A racist gunslinger in ''Film/DuelInTheSun'', with Joseph Cotten playing his likeable brother. |
| 213 | ** He played unlikeable AntiHeros in two other Westerns, ''Film/TheGunfighter'' and ''The Bravados''. |
| 214 | ** Captain Ahab in ''Film/MobyDick''. |
| 215 | ** Most famously, Peck played Josef Mengele in the 1978 film ''Literature/TheBoysFromBrazil''. |
| 216 | ** In one of his last movies, Old Gringo, he plays, in the words of co-star Creator/JaneFonda, a "complete son of a bitch." |
| 217 | * The movie [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102603/ Oscar]] has Creator/TimCurry as GeniusDitz Dr. Thornton Poole, most likely the least evil character he has ever played. That, or [[WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys Nigel Thornberry]] (see [[PlayingAgainstType/WesternAnimation Western Animation]]). |
| 218 | ** ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'' sees Curry, known for playing [[LargeHam hammy]] flamboyant villains as the subdued, [[AFatherToHisMen paternal]] [[DesignatedVillain villain-in-name-only]] Dr. Petrov. |
| 219 | * Creator/HugoWeaving (Agent Smith from ''Film/TheMatrix''), Creator/GuyPearce (Aldrich Killian from ''Film/IronMan3''), and Creator/TerenceStamp (General Zod (!) from ''Film/SupermanII'') played {{Drag Queen}}s in ''Film/TheAdventuresOfPriscillaQueenOfTheDesert''. |
| 220 | ** Similarly, Creator/PatrickSwayze and Creator/WesleySnipes took up similar roles in ''Film/ToWongFooThanksForEverythingJulieNewmar''. While their co-star Creator/JohnLeguizamo is a comedian who's no stranger to performing in drag, Swayze and Snipes were ''way'' out of their element. |
| 221 | * Dean Jones plays the cruel, selfish veterinarian in ''Film/{{Beethoven}}'' (one critic notes that in his Disney heyday, Jones would've been the sympathetic family man lead - as was the case in the [[AnimatedAdaptation animated TV series]], where he voiced dad George[[note]]played by Charles Grodin in the movie[[/note]]). |
| 222 | * Double playing against type in ''Film/ThreeTenToYuma1957'' (1957): Creator/GlennFord, usually cast as a nice guy, plays a villain, and Van Heflin, in his career playing mostly villains, is the good guy. |
| 223 | * ''Film/ThreeTenToYuma2007'' is also an example, as it has Creator/RussellCrowe (best known for playing heroes in movies like ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' and ''Film/MasterAndCommander'') as a MagnificentBastard villain. |
| 224 | * Jan Malmsjö as Bishop Vergerus in Bergman's ''Film/FannyAndAlexander''. If IMDB is anything to go by, in his native Sweden he had been known up to this point only as a song-and-dance man, while Bishop Vergerus is... anything but. |
| 225 | * Creator/AdamWest's first post-''Series/Batman1966'' role was as nightclub owner and retired assassin Johnny Cain in ''The Girl Who Knew Too Much.'' West intentionally took the role in hopes that it would erode his TypeCasting. Of course, [[AdamWesting we all know how well that worked]]. |
| 226 | * Done ''three'' times in ''Film/DoubleIndemnity''. Creator/FredMacMurray, these days best known as family man [[Series/MyThreeSons Steve Douglas]], plays a glib murderer. Edward G. Robinson, usually either a villain or anti-hero, plays a fatherly JerkWithAHeartOfGold. And Creator/BarbaraStanwyck, who usually played the sweet but plucky heroine in romantic comedies, starts the film as if she might be reprising that role here as Phyllis Dietrichson. [[FemmeFatale She's not.]] She's [[ManipulativeBastard really]] [[ConsummateLiar not]]. |
| 227 | ** Another [=MacMurray=] example is ''Film/TheApartment'', where he plays Jack Lemmon's cheating, corrupt douchebag of a boss. |
| 228 | * Creator/GerardButler. Just look at the guy's filmography. He's been a vampire, [[Film/ThreeHundred the king of Sparta]], [[Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera2004 The Phantom of the Opera]], [[ActionHero Marek]] in the movie version of ''Timeline''...anyone else have anything to add? |
| 229 | ** Chauvinist morning show correspondent in ''Film/TheUglyTruth''? |
| 230 | ** [[WellDoneSonGuy His role]] in ''Dear Frankie'' could possibly be considered this. |
| 231 | ** ''Film/LawAbidingCitizen''. IronWoobie on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge. |
| 232 | * Creator/AlanRickman played against type in his 1990 romantic comedy ''Truly, Madly, Deeply'', in which plays the ghost of the lead character's boyfriend. He also plays a saintly romantic hero in ''Sense and Sensibility''. In most of Rickman's other roles, he plays dour, stodgy, or villainous characters. Or dour, stodgy, villainous characters. |
| 233 | * God save us all from [[Creator/TobeyMaguire Tobey Maguire]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds when he goes utterly and frighteningly berserk]] as a ShellShockedVeteran-type soldier in ''Film/{{Brothers 2009}}''. |
| 234 | * For ''Film/DrJekyllAndMrHyde'' in 1941, Creator/IngridBergman was supposed to play the sweet girl and Lana Turner the bad girl, but Bergman was tired of playing sweet girls and requested a switch. |
| 235 | * Creator/MattDamon's and Creator/HeathLedger's parts in ''Film/TheBrothersGrimm'' were originally meant to be the other way around. |
| 236 | ** On the topic of Matt Damon, he was mostly known for his dramatic roles, like in ''Film/GoodWillHunting'', before being cast against type as the action hero [[Film/TheBourneSeries Jason Bourne]] |
| 237 | * Swedish actor/director Hasse Alfredson, mostly known as a comedian with improvised monologues as his forte, played viciously against type in ''The Simple-Minded Murderer'' (which he also directed), where he's a cruel sociopathic Nazi sympathizer. |
| 238 | * Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme: |
| 239 | ** Van Damme plays against type ''[[CharacterAsHimself as himself]]'' in ''Film/{{JCVD}}''. |
| 240 | ** He did one better in ''Film/{{Replicant}}'', playing both his usual ass-kicking character (a serial killer in this case) and an innocent, child-like clone of same. |
| 241 | ** He did it again in ''Film/TheExpendables2'', playing the villain. |
| 242 | * Swedish actor Peter Haber is hugely famous in Sweden for two roles, grizzled, but noble ByTheBookCop Martin Beck in the ''Film/{{Beck|1997}}'' films, and bumbling, [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Homer Simpsonesque]] but sweet-natured Papa Rudolf in the "Sune"-series. So it come as a ''huge'' surprise when he played Martin Vanger in [[Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy ''Men Who Hate Women'']] (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo). For our American friends, picture Fred Rogers in the same role, and you understand how jarring the casting choice was to a Swedish audience. |
| 243 | * Liz White is best known for her role in ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}'' as the caring and sympathetic policewoman Annie Cartwright but played very much against type as the titular child murdering ghost in ''Film/TheWomanInBlack''. |
| 244 | * Spanish actress Creator/MaribelVerdu had never played a comic book character prior to ''Film/{{The Flash|2023}}'', where she portrayed Nora Allen. |
| 245 | * Whenever Creator/MorganFreeman plays a villain role. Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{Dreamcatcher}}'' anyone? Or how about ''Film/{{Wanted}}''? And then there's his role as "Boss" in ''Film/LuckyNumberSlevin''! |
| 246 | ** Freeman got his first Oscar nomination for playing a nasty, violent pimp in 1987's ''Street Smart'', a role that must come as a surprise for audiences who had previously known him mainly for his role as Easy Reader on ''Series/TheElectricCompany1971''. |
| 247 | * Creator/JohnTravolta as cross-dressing, whale-sized mother in movie adaptation, ''Film/{{Hairspray|2007}}.'' Despite early success with ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'', Travolta never really moved out from under the shadow of his [[Series/WelcomeBackKotter Vinny Barbarino]] character, and so failed to establish a film career until he was cast as a hitman in ''Film/PulpFiction''. |
| 248 | * Sir Creator/AlecGuinness in an over-the-top comedy role as the [[TheButlerDidIt blind butler]] in ''Film/MurderByDeath'' would surprise anyone only familiar with his work in the epics of Creator/DavidLean and/or the ''Franchise/StarWars'' films. But in fact, he was once best known as one of England's great comic actors, with such highlights as his epic eight roles in the black comedy ''Film/KindHeartsAndCoronets'' (from kindly vicar to insolent old woman) and the gang leader in the original version of ''Film/TheLadykillers1955''. |
| 249 | * In Bollywood, former action star Creator/JackieShroff as spiritual guru [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jackie_saibaba.jpg Shirdi Sai Baba]] in ''Malik Ek''. |
| 250 | * Arjun Rampal as a villain in ''Film/OmShantiOm''. |
| 251 | * Big B himself, Creator/AmitabhBachchan, in ''Aankhen''. |
| 252 | ** And his first Hollywood role as AffablyEvil Wolfsheim in ''Film/TheGreatGatsby2013'' is a far cry from the tough gangster roles of his prime. |
| 253 | * Before his iconic role as Private Detective Sam Spade in ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon1941'', Creator/HumphreyBogart had mainly been playing either psychotic or cowardly villains. Casting him as a romantic lead character in ''Film/{{Casablanca}} (1942)'' was also considered an unusual choice by studio excecs. (An incredulous Jack Warner: "Who'd want to kiss Bogart?" Creator/IngridBergman: "I would!") |
| 254 | ** He also went against his hard-boiled, cynic, cool persona in ''Film/{{Sabrina|1954}}'', playing an awkward, withdrawn workaholic. |
| 255 | ** And again in ''Film/TheCaineMutiny'', playing an experienced but unstable martinet of a naval officer who slowly goes to pieces. |
| 256 | * ''Film/StarTrek2009'' featured several examples: |
| 257 | ** Creator/EricBana, who got his start in Australia as a comedian and went on to play hunky hero types in Hollywood, plays [[BigBad Nero]]. |
| 258 | *** Watch ''Film/{{Chopper}}'', Eric Bana can really play [[VillainProtagonist screwed up]]. |
| 259 | ** Creator/JohnCho, best known as one half of ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle'', plays badass action Sulu. |
| 260 | ** Creator/KarlUrban, probably best known as Éomer from ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'', as TheMcCoy. |
| 261 | ** Which probably nagged him the titular role in the ''Film/JudgeDredd'' remake, which is slowly turning into his new type now. |
| 262 | ** And the biggest one of all, Creator/ZacharyQuinto - then best known for playing a super-powered SerialKiller on ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' - as Spock. |
| 263 | * Creator/JamieFoxx surprised some people by playing a nerdy taxi driver in ''Film/{{Collateral}}'', though he played several weasely characters in his earlier career. |
| 264 | ** And then he [[Film/{{Ray}} played]] Music/RayCharles... |
| 265 | * Creator/TomCruise has a fairly tight niche playing powerful, self-confident men with varying levels of JerkAss. He surprised some audiences by playing a straight villain in ''Film/{{Collateral}}'', though he had already played a villain in ''Film/InterviewWithTheVampire''. Cruise's role as the fat, balding foul-mouthed villain Les Grossman in ''Film/TropicThunder'' also surprised people, as it was a rare venture into comedy. |
| 266 | * ''Film/{{Precious}}'', has Mo'Nique as the title character's abusive mother, which is very much against type for her. She's usually a SassyBlackWoman in comedies. Likewise, she departs from her usual routine in ''Film/{{Shadowboxer}}'', a dark crime thriller where she plays a WomanScorned. |
| 267 | ** Music/MariahCarey also plays against type in the film. See the glamorous diva play an ''unglamorous'' social worker. So much indeed that her BeautyInversion provides the image example for the trope. |
| 268 | * The thriller ''Film/TheWatcher'' criss-crossed actor types by casting Creator/JamesSpader as the cop and Creator/KeanuReeves as the serial killer. In the same year, Reeves also played an abusive redneck boyfriend in ''Film/TheGift2000''. Spader has played a number of sympathetic characters, though he was known for his creep roles at the time. |
| 269 | ** Spader also had this back in 1990 when ''Bad Influence'' cast the normally (even then) JerkAss Spader as a nice guy and Rob Lowe (!) as the villain. |
| 270 | ** And in 1994 when he played the {{Adorkable}} archaeologist Dr. Daniel Jackson in ''Film/{{Stargate}}''. |
| 271 | * Andy Griffith, best known as either kindly small-town sheriff [[Series/TheAndyGriffithShow Andy Taylor]] or no-nonsense defense attorney [[Series/{{Matlock}} Ben Matlock]], got his first big acting break as Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, a superficially charming con man drunk with power in Elia Kazan's ''Film/AFaceInTheCrowd''. Griffith became so engrossed in the role that he started incorporating his character's mannerisms into his everyday life, and became so disgusted with himself that he refused to play villains ever again. He broke this streak in the late 1980s, playing a heartless judge who sentences an adolescent girl to hard time in federal prison in a TV movie made at the height of his ''Matlock'' fame. |
| 272 | * ''Film/SouthlandTales'' features a few intentional invocations of the trope. Schlubby comic Creator/JonLovitz plays a murderous corrupt cop. Comedienne Cheri Oteri plays an anarchist. |
| 273 | * ''Film/ThreeThousandMilesToGraceland'': Creator/KevinCostner, normally the hero, plays a psychopathic who in threatens to kill a fellow robber (David Arquette!) for ''[[SeriousBusiness suggesting]]'' that Music/FrankSinatra could take Music/ElvisPresley in a fight. |
| 274 | * Creator/HarrisonFord spends most of ''Film/WhatLiesBeneath'' as Michelle Pfeiffer's concerned husband[[spoiler:, until we discover he murdered the young girl whose ghost haunts Pfeiffer]]. |
| 275 | ** Ford also played an unlikable character in ''Mosquito Coast'', which he says was one of the reasons for the film's financial failure. He was a scientist who, while well-meaning, yells at Brendan Fraser, in ''Film/ExtraordinaryMeasures''. |
| 276 | ** While not unlikable per se, his roles in more drama/comedic or family films such as ''Regarding Henry'' and ''Film/WorkingGirl'' were not the usual everyman action hero that Ford is normally cast as. |
| 277 | ** And he's plays the thoroughly unsympathetic [[ManipulativeBastard Colonel]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist Hyrum]] [[TheChessmaster Graff]] in the film adaptation of ''Film/EndersGame''--which is, oddly enough, a famous GenreDeconstruction of [[SpaceOpera the kinds of stories]] that [[Franchise/StarWars Ford's most famous film]] [[GenrePopularizer made popular]]. |
| 278 | ** Though pre-stardom, Ford's scheming corporate assistant in ''Film/TheConversation'' also counts. |
| 279 | * Tom "Tiny" Lister, usually typecast in his movie appearances as the ScaryBlackMan (for example Zeus in ''Film/NoHoldsBarred'' and the [[OneSceneWonder unnamed convict]] who resolves the remote dilemma in ''Film/TheDarkKnight''), made a rather decent go as the President of Earth in Luc Besson's ''Film/TheFifthElement''. |
| 280 | * Creator/AmyAdams: |
| 281 | ** She became famous for playing perky cuties such as ''{{Film/Enchanted}}'', ''{{Film/Junebug}}'', ''Film/MissPettigrewLivesForADay'', ''Film/NightAtTheMuseum'', ''Film/SunshineCleaning'' etc. However this was actually against type for her; early in her career she played bad girls and villains in various TV shows. She was even Catherine in ''Cruel Intentions 2''. |
| 282 | ** After getting typecast as cuties, David O Russell put her in ''Film/TheFighter'' as a HardDrinkingPartyGirl who gets into fights. She then played a scarily creepy LadyMacbeth in ''Film/TheMaster''. |
| 283 | * In ''Film/LakePlacid'', we see Creator/BettyWhite (previously the sweet, ditzy Rose Nylund on ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'') as Mrs. Delores Bickerman, a [[SirSwearsalot foul-mouthed]], possibly insane local who [[spoiler: fed her husband to a giant crocodile]]. Also see ''The Golden Girls'' entry [[PlayingAgainstType/LiveActionTV here]]. |
| 284 | * Jesse Metcalfe played the eponymous [[TheCasanova casanova]] of ''Film/JohnTuckerMustDie''. He earlier played Van Mcnulty, a bigot determined to hunt down and kill everyone with superpowers, with Clark Kent marked as big game, on ''Series/{{Smallville}}''. |
| 285 | * Alan Arkin often plays an Everyman or the OnlySaneMan-- and is absolutely ''terrifying'' as the psychotic Harry Roat in ''Theatre/WaitUntilDark'' (1967). |
| 286 | * The famously beautiful Creator/UmaThurman doesn't ''seem'' to be doing this in ''Film/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', then comes TheReveal that her character is [[spoiler: Medusa]]. Not to mention her role as Poison Ivy in ''Film/BatmanAndRobin.'' |
| 287 | * Similar to Carrey, Creator/AdamSandler started out playing childish buffoons, then he graduated to romantic comedies, than turned serious in ''Film/PunchDrunkLove'' and ''Film/ReignOverMe''. Neither one was financially successful, so he's reverted to the middle ground between immature idiot and KavorkaMan. |
| 288 | ** Oddly enough, his role in ''Punch Drunk Love'' wasn't actually all that different from his better-known roles: man child with social issues who is awkward around women and has a bit of a violent streak. It was just that it was no longer played for laughs. |
| 289 | ** His role in ''Film/UncutGems'', as Howard Ratner, an amoral jeweler and [[TheGamblingAddict gambling addict]], is a far cry from the comedic roles he is known for. |
| 290 | * Creator/GlennClose, the go-to actress for [[AmbitionIsEvil power hungry]] female tyrants, {{Manipulative Bitch}}es and heartless villainesses in general, plays the 'nice girl' in ''Film/TheNatural'', as well as Mona Simpson in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. She's also the ReasonableAuthorityFigure in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014''. Also her role as Sarah, the wife atoning for her own infidelity in ''Film/TheBigChill''. |
| 291 | * Creator/GeorgeCarlin played an atypically serious role in Creator/KevinSmith's ''Film/JerseyGirl'', as a grandfather who takes sick leave to care for his granddaughter that her father's been neglecting. |
| 292 | ** It is also worth mentioning his turn as one of the narrators of ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'', which was quite a change from his reputation as an off-color comedian. |
| 293 | * Played for laughs in ''Film/JayAndSilentBobStrikeBack'' where Creator/MarkHamill is the Cocknocker, a supervillain with a massive right fist. |
| 294 | * Ironically, Creator/MarkHamill's StarMakingRole as Luke Skywalker in ''Franchise/StarWars'' turned out to be this, since he spent the bulk of his career playing villains. |
| 295 | * On a similar note, Creator/DanielRadcliffe has become known for playing eccentric weirdos, making his earlier, iconic role as Film/HarryPotter a retroactively unusual case of him playing a straightforward hero. |
| 296 | * Creator/RupertGrint (best known as [[Film/HarryPotter Ron Weasley]]) admitted that he made a conscious effort to play against type in the Irish teen drama ''Film/Cherrybomb2009'', in which he can be seen swearing, drinking, stealing, having sex, and snorting cocaine. |
| 297 | * Beverley Mitchell, best known as the middle daughter in ''Series/SeventhHeaven'', plays a jigsaw victim in ''Film/SawII''. |
| 298 | * Shahid Kapur, often associated to romantic movies like ''Film/JabWeMet'' and ''Film/Vivah'', plays a gangster in ''Film/{{Kaminey}}''. |
| 299 | * Haylie Duff, usually in teen comedy roles like her sister Hilary, played a frontier-era doctor in ''Love Takes Wing'' and ''Love Finds A Home''. |
| 300 | * And it's not like Music/HilaryDuff hasn't played against type herself, as anyone who's seen ''Film/WarInc'' (an overlysexed Middle Eastern pop star who stuffs scorpions down her pants for fun? You never got that on ''Series/LizzieMcGuire'') or ''Greta'' will testify. |
| 301 | * Creator/GinaGershon mostly plays {{Manipulative B|astard}}itches, raunchy seductresses, and several other villainous types. But in ''Series/UglyBetty'', she plays a campy, hilariously over-the-top cosmetics mogul. |
| 302 | * Creator/PeterSellers never really had a type per se, but by the end of the 1970s his best-known role by far was LargeHam FunnyForeigner Inspector Clouseau in the slapstick series ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'', so seeing him as the serene, subdued Chance in the satire ''Film/BeingThere'' was a real change of pace (he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar). |
| 303 | * Stand-up comedian and comic actor Dane Cook as the bitter, abrasive "Mr. Smith" trying to blackmail the title serial killer in ''Film/MrBrooks''. |
| 304 | * Prior to playing a HookerWithAHeartOfGold in ''Film/LeavingLasVegas'', Elisabeth Shue was primarily associated with having a GirlNextDoor image. |
| 305 | * Creator/AlyssaMilano wished to shed her "good girl" image from her days as Samantha from ''Series/WhosTheBoss'', so she played sex-crazed maniacs in ''Film/EmbraceOfTheVampire1995'', ''Film/Fear1996'', ''Film/PoisonIvy 2: Lily'', and the ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' episode "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S1E17CaughtInTheAct Caught in the Act]]", as well as numerous television roles where she played very sexual characters. Given her, shall we say, ''consistency'' in preferred roles, and the time she and her mother sued porn sites for distributing images of Alyssa not because they wanted the pictures removed, but because they wanted a cut of the profits, one could argue that she was playing against type back in her "good girl" days. |
| 306 | * Creator/ChrisFarley played the more level headed sidekick (usually reserved for David Spade) in ''Film/AlmostHeroes'', rather than the IdiotHero. |
| 307 | * UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, who usually played the Best Friend or B-Movie Hero types, was a brutal, vicious crime kingpin in his last film, ''Film/{{The Killers|1964}}''. |
| 308 | * Creator/HalleBerry in ''Film/MonstersBall''. She played a HollywoodHomely down-on-her-luck waitress who often physically and verbally abused her overweight son (who later gets hit by a car and dies), lost her convicted murderer of a husband (played by Sean "P. Diddy" Combs) to the electric chair, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and then infamously banged Billy Bob Thornton]]. This role won her an Oscar. |
| 309 | * Creator/JuliaRoberts' Oscar-winning turn as the trash-talking, trampy-dressing Erin Brockovich was a departure from her usual characters. ''Film/MaryReilly'' was also a different role for her - a period drama in which she played a dowdy and repressed FakeIrish Victorian maid. Critics were impressed with the former role, but not the second one. |
| 310 | * Creator/HughJackman became an international star from playing Wolverine in the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'', a role he played for 18 years. But it was actually a departure from his usual wheelhouse of musicals and dramas. He won a Tony in 2004 for ''Theatre/TheBoyFromOz'' and was nominated for an Oscar in 2012 for ''Film/LesMiserables2012''. Besides Wolverine, he rarely plays grizzled action heroes. [[https://amp.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/8opvvm/difference_between_marketing_for_men_and_women/ You need only compare]] his cover of ''Muscle and Fitness'' where he portrays Wolverine, versus his cover of ''Good Housekeeping'' where he's his normal self. |
| 311 | * Creator/JakeGyllenhaal: action hero? In ''Film/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime'', yes. Complete with a quite-decent {{Fake Brit}}ish accent. |
| 312 | * Creator/ZacEfron, he of ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'', ''Film/{{Hairspray|2007}}'', and ''Film/SeventeenAgain2009'' fame, as a young man tormented by the death of his kid brother in ''Film/CharlieStCloud''. |
| 313 | ** And his (former) squeeze, the usually sweet and demure Music/VanessaHudgens, as a kickass gun-toting babe in ''Film/SuckerPunch'' and a stripper in ''Frozen Ground''. (Not to mention her roles in ''Film/SpringBreakers'', ''Film/MacheteKills'', ''Gimme Shelter'' and even ''Film/{{Bandslam}}''. It's getting to the point that playing someone sweet and demure -- like Kailani in ''Film/Journey2TheMysteriousIsland'' -- is Playing Against Type for her.) |
| 314 | ** In a WhatCouldHaveBeen example, Efron expressed interest in starring in an American adaptation of ''Manga/DeathNote'', whose protagonist Light Yagami is a murderous WellIntentionedExtremist with [[AGodAmI a God complex]]. Though [[QuestionableCasting fans were vehemently against the idea]], they admitted that he at least ''looked'' like Light. |
| 315 | * Creator/WoodyAllen's ''Film/{{Scoop}}'' has two examples; sex symbol Creator/ScarlettJohansson plays a nerdy bespectacled student journalist investigating a murder, and Creator/HughJackman plays [[spoiler: the murderer]]. |
| 316 | ** Scarlett has been through at least ''two'' type changes. Initially, she played NiceGirl heroines in films such as ''Film/LostInTranslation''. Then, starting with ''Film/ThePrestige'', she started playing duplicitous, untrustworthy or outright villainous characters. It's getting to the point where playing a NiceGirl heroine - like Kelly Foster in ''We Bought A Zoo'' - is Playing Against Type for her.) |
| 317 | * David Suchet, who starred as Literature/HerculePoirot in [[Series/{{Poirot}} the TV series]] from 1989 until it ended in 2013, appeared in ''Film/ExecutiveDecision'' in 1996, playing the BigBad moustacheless Muslim terrorist. |
| 318 | ** He was also the BigBad in ''Film/IronEagle'', though he did still have a moustache- if a more sedate one- in that one. |
| 319 | * Creator/AshtonKutcher as an action hero in ''Film/{{Killers}}''. It was still a comedic role. He played it straight in ''Film/TheButterflyEffect'' and ''Film/TheGuardian''. |
| 320 | * Creator/SeanPenn, who nowadays is known for being a dramatic actor, in his early acting career was known for his comedic roles most notably as Jeff Spicoli a pot smoking hippie surfer in ''Film/FastTimesAtRidgemontHigh''. At one point he was considered to be a has-been, due to a combination of inability to escape that typecasting and [[Music/{{Madonna}} some personal problems]]. |
| 321 | * Creator/PhilipSeymourHoffman, usually known for playing villains or tragic types, made a nice romantic turn as a limo driver in ''Jack Goes Boating'', a film that he also directed. |
| 322 | * Creator/GeoffreyRush, Oscar winner for ''Film/{{Shine}}'' and longtime dramatic actor (to this day) outright re-defined his career as Barbossa in the ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' series. |
| 323 | * Creator/MichaelMadsen, known for [[Film/KillBill playing]] [[Film/ReservoirDogs malevolent]] [[Film/SinCity bad guys]], played the kindly adoptive father in ''Film/FreeWilly'', which rather confused his younger fans who saw him in that ''first'' and then were later horrified to see Glenn hacking off a cop's ear. Earlier he played a nice guy in ''Film/ThelmaAndLouise'' and actually acknowledged how rare it was for him not to play a villain. And he's TheHero in ''Film/{{Species}}''. |
| 324 | * Creator/FredricMarch was best known for playing light comedy and minor romantic parts when Robert Mamoulian cast him in the title roles of ''Film/DrJekyllAndMrHyde1931'', in which he was so terrifying that he won the first (and for sixty years only) Best Actor Oscar for a horror role. |
| 325 | * After playing oldest sister D.J. Tanner on the happy-go-lucky family sitcom ''Series/FullHouse'', Candace Cameron was subsequently cast as a victim of a physically abusive relationship in the Lifetime movie ''No One Would Tell.'' |
| 326 | ** Fred Savage, who's best known as Kevin Arnold from ''The Wonder Years'' and as the grandson from ''The Princess Bride'', earned his spot on this list by co-starring with Cameron as her abuser. |
| 327 | * David Arquette is associated with goofy comedic roles, but starred in the Holocaust drama ''Film/TheGreyZone''. |
| 328 | * ''Film/JackieBrown'': [[Creator/RobertDeNiro Robert [=De Niro=]]] as a slovenly hoodlum. Also, Sid Haig, who usually plays villains in B-movies, has a small role as a judge. |
| 329 | * Comedian Chi [=McBride=] as the serious but kind FBI agent in ''Film/MercuryRising'', who is the immediate superior to Creator/BruceWillis' undercover expert. |
| 330 | * Creator/DanielleHarris, usually a FinalGirl or victim in horror films, turns out to be the killer in ''Film/BloodNightTheLegendOfMaryHatchet''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkIKhtRKn2Y It is awesome]]. |
| 331 | * Creator/KathyBates as a milquetoast housewife in ''Literature/{{Fried Green Tomatoes|AtTheWhistleStopCafe}}''. |
| 332 | * [[InvertedTrope An earlier role]], but Creator/MaggieGyllenhaal as a {{Satan}}-worshipping {{Cloudcuckoolander}} in ''Film/CecilBDemented''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVSt-VkuLJk And it is also awesome.]] |
| 333 | * Creator/RobSchneider is probably better known for playing {{Funny Foreigner}}s or one kind of ButtMonkey or another. Well, in ''Film/TheBenchwarmers'', not only is he a competent, respectable, dignified male lead who often serves as TheOnlySaneMan compared to other more zany characters, his character is an excellent baseball player with genuine depth as a ReformedBully trying to atone for his past actions. The film had its problems, but Rob's performance was quite a welcomed break from the norm. |
| 334 | * Creator/LeonardNimoy (besides playing Spock from the show ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'') was actually famous for voicing [[WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie Galvatron]], one of the most vile and despicable Decepticons that ever lived. However, he was cast as the noble and wise Autobot Sentinel Prime in ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon''. |
| 335 | ** Subverted by the fact that [[spoiler: Sentinel turns out to have been EvilAllAlong]]. |
| 336 | ** For that matter, Creator/PatrickDempsey. That's right. [[Series/GreysAnatomy Dr. McDreamy]] is playing a slimeball businessman who [[spoiler: sold out to the Decepticons in order to ensure his own survival.]] |
| 337 | ** Nimoy was also specially cast as [[Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers1978 Dr. David Kibner]] in an attempt to break him out of typecasting. |
| 338 | * Creator/AnthonyHopkins, typically known for serious or villainous roles, portrayed the happy-go-lucky motorbike racer Burt Munro in ''The World's Fastest Indian''. Hopkins was on record saying that the role of Burt Munro was one of his most enjoyable, because Munro's outlook on life was not much different to his own. |
| 339 | ** Another excellent but often-overlooked role of his is Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, the extremely eccentric health guru of ''Film/TheRoadToWellville.'' |
| 340 | ** Actually the reverse is just as true- Before ''Film/SilenceOfTheLambs'' Anthony Hopkins was better known for playing quite mild-mannered woobieish characters such as Pierre in ''Literature/WarAndPeace'' and Frederick Treeves in ''Film/TheElephantMan'' and even afterwards he continued in those roles such as in ''Film/TheRemainsOfTheDay'' and ''Film/{{Shadowlands}}'' (where he played a very woobieish Creator/CSLewis). The thing was that for all his acclaim on stage and in those roles he couldn't give a toss about them and yearned for the speed and glamour of big budget cinema. Also in interviews it's quite hard to imagine that this very self-effacing, shy, sweet man with a soft Welsh lilt and not an ounce of ego could have it in him to play someone like Lecter. |
| 341 | * Creator/JamieLeeCurtis did this twice. The start of her film career was playing the FinalGirl in the original slasher films, then she did an about face and played a prostitute in ''Film/TradingPlaces''. The 1985 ''Perfect'' made her a sex symbol but that didn't work out so well and she switched to playing quirky housewife characters in various genres. |
| 342 | * Bubbly and cheerful Creator/ReeseWitherspoon who stars in ''Film/LegallyBlonde'' and similarly feelgood romantic comedies plays the violent, white-trash and vicious [[VillainProtagonist Vanessa]] in ''Film/{{Freeway}}''. Also ''Film/{{Election}},'' where she plays a frumpy, overachieving, manipulative and psychotic bitch. |
| 343 | * Comedian Jackie Vernon, best known as the voice of WesternAnimation/FrostyTheSnowman, played a psychotic and cannibalistic serial killer in ''Microwave Massacre''. |
| 344 | * Creator/AdrienBrody, best known for playing nerdy characters or appearing in dramatic roles, did action turns in ''Film/KingKong2005'', ''Film/{{Predators}}'', and ''The Experiment''. |
| 345 | * Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter used to play proper English ladies. Then she starred in ''Film/FightClub'', and now she's always playing [[Film/HarryPotter batshit]] [[Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet insane]] [[EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette women]] who [[LooksLikeCesare look like Cesare]]. (Although that may also have been related to her marriage to Creator/TimBurton.) |
| 346 | * Roy Cheung is best known for playing psychopathic triad gangsters and other villains, such that his role as a Shaolin monk in ''Film/TheInfernalAffairsTrilogy'' was very much this. |
| 347 | * Creator/SteveCarell, who always either plays a dimwitted buffoon or a nuanced [[TheEveryman Everyman]], in ''Film/LittleMissSunshine'' as a gay, suicidal Proust scholar, and in ''Film/TheWayWayBack'' as a {{Jerkass}} boyfriend and nominal villain. Even these might not prepare you for his chilling performance in ''Film/{{Foxcatcher}}''. |
| 348 | * James Fox usually plays {{Upper Class Twit}}s (like Veruca Salt's dad in ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory''), but did an excellent (and surprising) turn as a vicious working-class gangster in ''Film/{{Performance}}''. |
| 349 | * Creator/ShahRukhKhan, the UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} megastar, managed early on his career to play really evil characters in ''Film/{{Darr}}'', ''Film/{{Baazigar}}'' and worst of all, ''Film/{{Anjaam}}'', in which he scared several people shitless. Somehow he managed to glide over to the romantic-interest/hero roles, which is pretty rare because in indian cinema "Once a villain, always a villain". If something, Shah Rukh Khan is better known as one of the few indian actors that ''doesn't'' have a type, as he can pull romantic or action hero roles the same way he can pull a villain ones. |
| 350 | * Creator/JackieChan in ''Film/ShinjukuIncident''. When watching this movie, don't expect him to pull off any of his high flying kung fu or watching him act like the comedic quirky hero he's normally seen as. |
| 351 | ** His role in ''Film/{{The Foreigner|2017}}'' is also a significant departure for him. Jackie Chan is still playing the hero, sure, but his character is spurred into action when a terrorist attack claims the life of his daughter. Don't expect much AmusingInjuries going in. |
| 352 | * Creator/AlbertBrooks, always known for playing comedic protagonists or the neurotic comic relief, played the ruthless and sinister crime lord Bernie Rose in ''Film/Drive2011''. |
| 353 | * Creator/SarahPaulson is generally known for her comic work, but shows up as a OneSceneWonder in ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' as a scientist who delivers a horrible message before being killed. She was deliberately cast in a dramatic role because Creator/JossWhedon feels that comedy is the harder of the two. |
| 354 | ** She was also quite convincing as a manipulative bitch in a couple episodes of ''Series/{{Deadwood}}''. |
| 355 | * Creator/EdwardNorton is known mainly for his leading man roles. Yet somewhere in his filmography you find the ''Film/TheItalianJob2003''. He also plays the main villain in ''[[Film/TheBourneSeries The Bourne Legacy]]''. |
| 356 | ** Norton is also known for playing gritty, moody, unidealized characters. ''Film/DeathToSmoochy'' casts him, opposite Creator/RobinWilliams, as a [[IncorruptiblePurePureness squeaky-clean]], naively optimistic children's entertainer. |
| 357 | * Creator/RyanSeacrest played himself as a smarmy, carping, foul-mouthed narcissist in ''Film/KnockedUp'', in stark contrast to his likable, wholesome, nice-guy image. |
| 358 | * Inverted with Creator/MichaelCaine in ''Film/{{Zulu}}''. He would go on to play working class Cockney characters throughout his career and plays a snobby aristocratic officer with a posh accent in this movie -- his first. |
| 359 | * Known for his comedic roles in ''Film/KnockedUp'', ''Film/{{Superbad}}'', and ''Film/GetHimToTheGreek'', Creator/JonahHill stars in the drama ''Film/{{Moneyball}}'', and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. |
| 360 | * Creator/EddieDeezen is one of the ultimate nerds on film... which is why he was naturally cast as a ''bully'' in ''Film/{{Laserblast}}''. [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Mike and the Bots]] had fun with this. |
| 361 | ** In ''I Love You, Eddie Deezen'', he's the straight-up, no-fooling romantic lead. |
| 362 | * ''Film/TheApartment'' has two: Jack Lemmon, known for playing comedic secondary characters, plays the still somewhat comedic, but also dramatic lead, and Fred [=MacMurray=], who at the time was widely recognized as the dad from ''Series/MyThreeSons'', played his adulterous, selfish, and all-around asshole of a boss. |
| 363 | * The producers of ''Film/Flightplan2005'' cast Creator/SeanBean specifically to make viewers think he was part of the villainous plot. |
| 364 | ** Same with Rufus Sewell in ''Film/TheTourist''. [[spoiler:Actually his character is just a Red Herring.]] |
| 365 | * The African-American anthology horror film ''Film/TalesFromTheHood'' has ''Series/InLivingColor's'' Creator/DavidAlanGrier playing a brutal man who abuses his girlfriend and her son. |
| 366 | * When the first ''Film/{{Tremors}}'' movie was beginning production, the studio was pushing for Creator/MichaelGross as Burt Gummer. Gross was then coming off the successful ''Series/FamilyTies'' (where he played Steven Keaton, an ex-flower child and the calm patriarch) and the studio was hoping his fame would be an asset. Of course, Burt was characterized as a conspiracy theorist with an itchy trigger finger. Casting was hesitant to say the least, but Gross wowed them at the audition (and he wound up being the only actor to be in every part of the ensuing franchise). |
| 367 | * Creator/JamesBelushi as AxCrazy criminal and {{Domestic Abuse}}r Frank in 1997 SF thriller ''Retroactive''. |
| 368 | * A.J. Buckley is mostly known for playing nerdy, sarcastic types, both in ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' and ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', but contrast them to one of his earliest roles as the psychotic JerkJock Chug in ''Film/DisturbingBehavior''. |
| 369 | * Music/MileyCyrus, aka Series/HannahMontana, played troubled teens in ''Film/TheLastSong'' and ''Film/{{LOL}}'', and plays a hardnosed police officer hiding undercover as a college student in the upcoming ''So Undercover''. Two new rumored projects will have her playing a young woman who can see into other people's dreams in paranormal ''Wake'', and as the daughter of a super spy in action film ''Family Bond''. |
| 370 | * Creator/ChrisEvans is best known for playing characters who are smart alecs and/or pretty boys such as [[Film/FantasticFour2005 Johnny Storm]]. So it came as quite a shock to see him play the serious, strait-laced NiceGuy ComicBook/CaptainAmerica in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'' and ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}''. [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct Surprisingly, he made it work.]] |
| 371 | ** Chris Evans also plays a hilariously douchey evil ham in ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld''. |
| 372 | ** Want something very out of character? Two words: ''Film/FiercePeople''. |
| 373 | * Sticking with the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' has one of the major villains be played by [[spoiler: Robert Redford, of all people.]] |
| 374 | * Creator/JetLi |
| 375 | ** He is known for playing the heroic badass in many a martial-arts action flick, has played villains in ''Film/LethalWeapon4'', ''Film/TheOne'', ''Film/War2007'' and ''Film/TheMummyTombOfTheDragonEmperor'', though his villainous roles are sometimes subverted. |
| 376 | ** The biggest example of Li playing against type was in the Hong Kong film ''Film/OceanHeaven'', which is a romantic drama in which Li plays a janitor at an aquarium and father to a special needs child, and he doesn't bust a single martial arts move. |
| 377 | * Creator/DenzelWashington is known for playing the moral leading man in most of his films. So much so, that he was challenged to play a villain role by other actors. When he talked about it with his family, one of his sons also wanted to see if he could pull it off. Along comes ''Film/TrainingDay'', where Washington plays a corrupt police officer. He won an Oscar for the role. |
| 378 | * Matthew Fox has largely played either nice guys or conflicted heroes, most notably in ''Series/PartyOfFive'' and ''Series/{{Lost}}''. In 2012's ''Film/AlexCross'', he plays a psychopathic professional hitman who kills (among other people) [[spoiler: the main character's wife.]] Fox even went so far as to lose 35-40 pounds and followed an incredibly strict exercise regimen, to the point that his body looked like it was nothing but muscle and bone. Needless to say the character was about as far from Charlie Salinger and Jack Shephard as he could get. |
| 379 | * 1992's ''Film/CaptainRon'' is a comedy starring Creator/KurtRussell and Martin Short in which a dedicated family man buys a boat captained by a total lunatic. ''Short'' is the family man and ''Russell'' is the lunatic. |
| 380 | * Creator/EmmaWatson, known for her roles as intellectual feminists such as Belle in ''Film/BeautyAndTheBeast2017'',[[note]]And Hermione Granger[[/note]] has done or is doing this no less than twice: as ManicPixieDreamGirl Sam in ''Film/ThePerksOfBeingAWallflower'', and as brainless VillainProtagonist Nicki in Sofia Coppola's ''Film/TheBlingRing''. She also portrays an AxCrazy, sailor-mouthed ("''I'm not fucking around!''") version of herself in ''Film/ThisIsTheEnd'' and a ManipulativeBitch who tries to ruin her family's reputation in ''Film/{{Regression}}''. |
| 381 | * Neville Brand is well known for numerous tough guy and gangster roles. But he played a humane, even lenient, prison guard in ''Film/TheBirdmanOfAlcatraz''. |
| 382 | * In ''Film/{{Lincoln}}'', Creator/SallyField, who's known for playing sweet, motherly characters, plays Honest Abe's bitter, controlling and highly unstable wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. This isn't Field's first time bucking typecasting. She followed ''Film/{{Gidget}}'' and ''The Flying Nun'' with the shockingly dark and horrifying ''Sybil'', which won her an Emmy, then followed the lighthearted ''Film/SmokeyAndTheBandit'' with the gritty and dramatic ''Norma Rae'', which won her her first Oscar. Basically, Sally Field has made a career out of playing against type. |
| 383 | * Creator/SteveMartin, universally known for comedy roles, played a completely noncomedic but AffablyEvil role in ''Film/TheSpanishPrisoner''. |
| 384 | * Rebel Wilson, who has made a career out of playing the LowerClassLout, plays a doctor in Creator/MichaelBay's ''Film/PainAndGain''. |
| 385 | ** Creator/DwayneJohnson almost backed out of the role of Doyle, not because it wasn't an interesting character to play but it was so removed from where his comfort zone was. Even as an AntiHero he would still have some noble and heroic qualities so playing someone who goes so far south was intimidating. |
| 386 | * Creator/DavidCronenberg likes to do this with actors such as Creator/ViggoMortensen in a deconstruction of his square-jawed heroic pigeonhole he found himself in after ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' in ''Film/AHistoryOfViolence''. He also gave teen heartthrob Creator/RobertPattinson a chance to do something very different in ''Film/{{Cosmopolis}}''. |
| 387 | * Creator/JamesMcAvoy is typically known for portraying {{Wide Eyed Idealist}}s and/or intellectuals, but he does occasionally break out from the cookie-cutter mold Hollywood has placed him in. |
| 388 | ** You wouldn't expect a slim, 5'7", non-macho actor be the star of an action movie, but he got to do just that in ''Film/{{Wanted}}''. |
| 389 | ** In ''Film/{{Trance}}'', it's disconcerting to learn that his character is a [[spoiler:homicidal {{Domestic Abuse}}r]]. |
| 390 | ** Many people were surprised to see him as the greasy, racist, misogynist, homophobic, fast-food and drug junkie cop Bruce Robertson in ''Film/{{Filth}}''. |
| 391 | ** ''Film/{{Split}}'' gave him the opportunity to stretch his acting muscles as a creep with dissociative identity disorder with over 20 personalities who kidnaps three teenage girls and locks them in his basement. |
| 392 | * ''Film/{{Scream}}'': |
| 393 | ** In ''Film/Scream3'', despite the cast including Creator/LanceHenriksen, the killer is played by [[spoiler: Scott "Noel from ''Series/{{Felicity}}''" Foley]]. |
| 394 | ** ''Film/Scream4'' offered what ''was'' a straight example when it first came out, but turned into a subversion as time went on and the actor in question underwent a type of TomHanksSyndrome. The mastermind behind the massacre is played by [[spoiler:Creator/EmmaRoberts, who at the time was a TeenIdol best known for the Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} KidCom ''Series/{{Unfabulous}}'' and for assorted family films and teen comedies. Nowadays, though, she's best known for her AlphaBitch roles on ''Series/AmericanHorrorStory'' and ''Series/ScreamQueens2015'', meaning that newer audiences are more likely to expect her to be the killer. The film marks something of a turning point in Roberts' career, in fact, as she began taking on these AlphaBitch roles immediately after this one.]] Joe Reid, [[https://www.polygon.com/2019/10/25/20925479/scream-movies-characters-cast-ranked writing]] for ''Polygon'', referred to TheReveal as "the precise moment in time when [[spoiler:''Film/NancyDrew'' Emma Roberts evolved into ''American Horror Story'' Emma Roberts]]." |
| 395 | * Go watch the film ''Triple Dog'', which stars Britt Robertson as Chapin. Then compare Chapin to Robertson's three most commonly known roles ([[Series/TheSecretCircle Cassie Blake]], [[Literature/AvalonHigh Allie Pennington]], and [[Series/LifeUnexpected Lux]]). You should notice a rather striking difference. |
| 396 | * Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa became a matinee idol in silent movies playing romantic leads. He's best-known today as the villainous Colonel Saito from ''Film/TheBridgeOnTheRiverKwai''. |
| 397 | * Jean-Pierre Melville's ''Film/LeCercleRouge'' features Andre Bourvil, a famous French comic actor, playing a ruthless police inspector. It's considered by many his best performance. |
| 398 | * The 2010 version of ''Film/TheKillerInsideMe'' (the book was filmed before in 1976) allows Creator/CaseyAffleck, Creator/JessicaAlba and Creator/KateHudson to take a rather drastic break from the roles they're known for [[spoiler: (and not only because the latter two get KilledOffForReal)]]. |
| 399 | * Alba does this again in ''Film/Awake2007'' as the sweet fiancee of ailing millionaire Hayden Christensen [[spoiler: who wants to kill him for his money]]. |
| 400 | * And again in the little-seen ''An Invisible Sign'' (as a troubled math teacher - one of her few roles which ''doesn't'' call for her to be as sexy as all hell). |
| 401 | * Donald O'Connor was well known for his comedic roles in (most of) the Francis the Talking Mule films and ''Film/SingingInTheRain'', and being the romantic lead in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUmITtRCcH4 many]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bfZs1AGCRQ musical]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDRIymlU60A comedies]]. It is very strange to hear him in the radio drama from ''Suspense'' called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qZwaQy67Us Smiley]]" where he plays a creepy psychopath with a vendetta against women. |
| 402 | ** ''Suspense'' was good at casting actors (most of whom were known for comedy) against type. For instance, Jim and Marion Jordan, better known as Fibber [=McGee=] and Molly, played a couple held hostage by a killer in the episode "The Killer In The Backseat". On top of that, show runner Elliot Lewis was otherwise known as a comedic actor- best known for playing Frankie Remley on the Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. |
| 403 | * ''Neighbors'', Creator/JohnBelushi's last film, originally cast him as one half of a loud, brash couple who move in next door to milquetoast Creator/DanAykroyd - but they decided to swap roles, resulting in two people Playing Against Type for the price of one. |
| 404 | * ''Film/TheWorldsEnd'', the final film in Creator/EdgarWright and Creator/SimonPegg's [[ThematicSeries "Three Colors Cornetto"]] trilogy, reverses the traditional dynamic between Creator/SimonPegg and Nick Frost that the [[Film/ShaunOfTheDead first]] [[Film/HotFuzz two]] movies started. While Pegg and Frost still play [[OddFriendship a pair of mismatched friends]] [[VitriolicBestBuds who give each other hell]], Frost is the comparatively straight-laced one this time (playing a responsible WhiteCollarWorker), with Pegg as the AdultChild slacker who goads him into mischief. |
| 405 | * Speaking of Pegg: |
| 406 | ** ''Film/HotFuzz'' was made after Pegg's type had been established as an amiable but fairly directionless slacker in ''Series/{{Spaced}}'' and ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead''. In ''Fuzz'', he plays a humourless and overly-driven police officer who is MarriedToTheJob. |
| 407 | ** The Australian film ''Kill Me Three Times'' casts him as a ruthless hitman, although, given that the film is a BlackComedy, the character still has a lot of Pegg's trademark [[DeadpanSnarker snarky charm]]. |
| 408 | * Music/SelenaGomez, [[Series/PrettyLittleLiars Ashley Benson]] and the above-mentioned Music/VanessaHudgens in ''Film/SpringBreakers'', as a part of a group of friends who rob a bank to pay for their spring break, then get caught up in the affairs of a drug and arms dealer who bails them out of jail and attempts to use them as partners in crime. Miss Gomez also plays a teenage car jacker in the 2013 film ''Film/{{Getaway}}''. |
| 409 | * Creator/EmilyOsment, best known for playing [[Series/HannahMontana Miley Stewart's]] awkward skater girl BFF Lilly Truscott, appeared in a action web series called ''Cleaners'' with Creator/EmmanuelleChriqui, as one of a pair of contract killers on the run. If posts on her Twitter page are any indication, she will definitely be doing plenty of kickboxing. |
| 410 | ** She also appeared in the film ''Kiss Me'', a drama where she played the best friend of a teenage scoliosis victim coming of age. |
| 411 | * When people first hear about Film/MadDogAndGlory, a film about a struggling nebbish of a comedian and a mobster starring Creator/BillMurray and Creator/RobertDeNiro, they are very much in for a surprise as to who is playing who. |
| 412 | * ''Film/DjangoUnchained'': Heart-throb and charismatic leading man Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio plays a disgusting villain. In addition, Creator/ChristophWaltz, normally known for his villain roles, plays a CrazyIsCool CulturedBadass who becomes a mentor to the title character. |
| 413 | * Creator/KieferSutherland typically plays macho roles such as [[Series/TwentyFour Jack Bauer]], David from ''Film/TheLostBoys'' and Ace Merrill from ''Film/StandByMe'', but also played a geeky scientist in ''Film/DarkCity''. He also voiced the creepy sniper in ''Film/PhoneBooth''. |
| 414 | * Creator/MatthewBroderick, who usually plays the NiceGuy or OnlySaneMan, had played a SmallNameBigEgo-type IdiotHero in ''Film/InspectorGadget1999'' as well a VillainProtagonist in ''Film/DeckTheHalls''. |
| 415 | * Jesse Eisenberg who plays an {{Adorkable}} BadassBookworm had play the TooDumbToLive IdiotHero in ''Film/ThirtyMinutesOrLess''. He plays that type of character again in ''Film/AmericanUltra''. |
| 416 | * Charlie Day, who's more famous as the insane and mentally deficient {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Charlie on ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'', plays the brilliant and excitable Dr. Newton Geizler on ''Film/PacificRim''. He's joked that he found it fun playing someone who can actually read. He would later follow this up with the slimy, villainous arms dealer Acapulco in ''Film/HotelArtemis'', a character who's definitely ''not'' as likeable as his previous roles. |
| 417 | * A year after playing a sexually voracious DepravedBisexual in ''Film/BasicInstinct'', Creator/SharonStone played a very sexually repressed DamselInDistress in ''Film/{{Sliver}}''. She went from someone who proudly didn't wear underwear to someone who had to be coaxed into removing her panties. Still a year later, she played the even more repressed IceQueen[=/=]StepfordSmiler wife of an architect in the film ''Intersection''. She specifically asked for the role of the wife rather than the mistress to get away from the image set forth by the ''Film/BasicInstinct'' role. |
| 418 | * Creator/TildaSwinton typically plays IceQueen roles who - if they aren't villainesses - are still rather mean. In ''Film/TheCuriousCaseOfBenjaminButton'' she plays a ShrinkingViolet who teaches the protagonist about love. |
| 419 | * Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn were both doing this in ''Film/BringingUpBaby''. Grant normally played cool suave guys but plays a bumbling nerd. Hepburn was normally a PluckyGirl but instead played a zany ManicPixieDreamGirl. |
| 420 | * Sara Paxton in ''Film/{{Aquamarine}}''. Before that she was either a troubled teen or an AlphaBitch. In fact she was originally approached to play the AlphaBitch Cecilia but insisted on playing the eponymous character who is a GenkiGirl {{Pollyanna}} (as well as being a ''mermaid''[[note]]Sara Paxton is a huge mermaid lover[[/note]]. Also in ''Film/TheLastHouseOnTheLeft'' where she plays a shy teenage girl that ends up as a rape victim. |
| 421 | * Chad Michael Murray, Creator/ElishaCuthbert and Creator/ParisHilton in ''Film/{{House of Wax|2005}}''. Chad Michael Murray was previously known for teen heartthrob roles in ''Series/OneTreeHill'', ''Film/ACinderellaStory'' and ''Film/{{Freaky Friday|2003}}''; here he plays a juvenile delinquent who smokes, drinks, steals cars and beats the living crap out of the bad guys. Cuthbert had just come off playing a porn star in ''Film/{{The Girl Next Door|2004}}'' which had all but solidified her as MsFanservice; here she played the FinalGirl. Paris had essentially either cameo'd in films or played characters that were basically herself (''Film/{{Nine Lives|2002}}''); her character Paige is a small town girl who worries about an unplanned pregnancy. |
| 422 | * Creator/ErnestBorgnine, who was best known for starring in ''Series/McHalesNavy'', took on the role of a Satanic occult leader in ''Film/TheDevilsRain'' in order to push himself out of his comfort zone and play something completely different from what was expected. |
| 423 | ** There's also his breakthrough role in ''Film/{{Marty}}''. Before then, Borgnine was typecast as a sneering villain in flicks like ''Film/FromHereToEternity'' and ''Film/VeraCruz''. Afterwards, Borgnine's roles became much more diverse. |
| 424 | * Creator/SharltoCopley, who's previous characters have been nebbish, wacky and non-threatening, plays a hulking, AxCrazy, sociopathic [[TheDragon enforcer for a tyrannical government]] in ''Film/{{Elysium}}''. And he absolutely owns the role. |
| 425 | * David Faustino is known for playing awkward teenage boys on sitcoms. It's quite a shock to see him as a racist JerkJock in the Creator/DisneyChannel film ''Perfect Harmony'' and as the voice of Mako on ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''. |
| 426 | * Creator/TyronePower acquired the rights to ''Film/NightmareAlley1947'' precisely so he could play the heartless, unscrupulous lead, as opposed to his usual heroic swashbucklers. |
| 427 | * Creator/WillSmith who always plays the badass in action films plays [[TheDitz a complete moron]] in ''WesternAnimation/SharkTale''. |
| 428 | * Creator/NeveCampbell in the 90s had a habit of playing ShrinkingViolet teenage roles (''Series/PartyOfFive'', the ''Scream'' films etc.). Her character in ''Film/TheCraft'' starts out the same way - but the power goes to her head, turning her into a BetaBitch. |
| 429 | * Creator/SarahMichelleGellar is nearly always the good girl (she is Buffy after all). Her characters always tend to be wholesome anyway. At least until ''Film/CruelIntentions'' where she plays a RichBitch who manipulates everyone, tries to seduce her stepbrother and makes out with another girl in public for no good reason. Also around the same time she was filming ''Buffy'' season 2, she played two Distressed Damsels in ''Film/{{Scream 2}}'' and ''Film/IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer''. [[spoiler: And she gets slaughtered in both.]] |
| 430 | * Creator/RoseMcGowan is always the DeadpanSnarker. Her role in one of the ''Grindhouse'' films (''Film/DeathProof'') is true to that. But in ''Film/PlanetTerror'' her character Cherry Darling is a ditzy ActionGirl. |
| 431 | * Creed Bratton was a flower power era rock musician whose later acting career culminated in AdamWesting as the sleazy quality control manager on ''Series/{{The Office| US}}''. He did a 180 as the title character's tragically ill uncle in the indie comedy ''Terri''. |
| 432 | * Creator/SigourneyWeaver as a MrsRobinson? In ''{{Film/Heartbreakers}}'' yes. |
| 433 | ** Likewise Creator/JasonLee tends to be loud foul-mouthed ManChild characters. In ''Heartbreakers'' he's the OnlySaneMan. |
| 434 | ** And a three-fer for ''Heartbreakers''. Creator/JenniferLoveHewitt tends to play wholesome characters or else an InnocentFanserviceGirl. She's a straight up MsFanservice in the film - also doubling as a JerkWithAHeartOfGold. |
| 435 | * Creator/KurtwoodSmith got his start playing villainous jerkasses like Clarence Boddicker in the original ''Film/RoboCop1987'' and even when not playing villains, his characters are still abrasive, like [[Series/That70sShow Red Foreman]]. Yet he also played the Federation President in ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'', a ReasonableAuthorityFigure. |
| 436 | ** He also played the AntiVillain in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'''s "Year of Hell". |
| 437 | * Inverted with Creator/JenniferGarner. Based on her recent work, it's hard to believe that she got started playing Badasses in ''Series/{{Alias}}'' and ''Film/{{Electra}}''. |
| 438 | * In ''Film/AllMonstersAttack'', Hideyo Amamoto, who normally played gangsters, henchmen, or otherwise villainous roles, played a fatherly toy maker. |
| 439 | * For those who know Richard Attenborough as [[Film/JurassicPark John Hammond]], [[Film/MiracleOnThirtyFourthStreet Kris Kringle]] or from heroic military roles like ''Film/TheGreatEscape'', consider that his StarMakingRole came as vicious gangster Pinkie Brown in ''Film/BrightonRock''. Or his portrayal of real-life serial killer John Reginald Christie in ''10 Rillington Place''. |
| 440 | * In ''Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus (1991)'', Creator/CharlesBronson, known for extremely violent action roles, plays a newspaper writer depressed over the death of his wife, who receives a letter from a little girl asking if Santa Claus is real, and decides to answer it. |
| 441 | * Creator/BenWhishaw as the titular bear in ''Film/{{Paddington|2014}}''. He's more known for Shakespeare roles, and playing anti-heroes, than being in family friendly movies. |
| 442 | * ''Film/RunningScared1986'' stars Creator/BillyCrystal and Gregory Hines as {{Cowboy Cop}}s. |
| 443 | * ''Film/{{Cinderella 2015}}'': |
| 444 | ** Creator/CateBlanchett is normally a heroic leading lady, here she's the WickedStepmother. She commented on people's reactions when she told them she'd be in the film - as most assumed she meant she was playing the lead [[DawsonCasting even though she'd have been far too old...]] |
| 445 | ** Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter takes a break from playing dark nutcases (though the ''nutcase'' bit could be debatable!) to play the FairyGodmother. |
| 446 | ** Sophie [=McShera=] had been known as doe-eyed {{Cute Clumsy Girl}}s in ''Series/WaterlooRoad'', ''Series/{{Galavant}}'' and ''Series/DowntonAbbey'' (the latter two of which she also played maids). A bullying aristocrat like Drizella is a little different for her. |
| 447 | * Creator/JohnCusack who would play the StraightMan or OnlySaneMan in film plays an [[SmallNameBigEgo egotistical]] ManChild in ''WesternAnimation/{{Igor}}''. |
| 448 | * Music/{{Rihanna}}, she of the sexually charged and/or violence-infused lyrics, copious amounts of marijuana consumption, and topless photo shoots, voices a young girl in ''WesternAnimation/Home2015'', a family movie. |
| 449 | * Creator/MargaretHamilton remains most notorious as the Wicked Witch of the West in ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', but she normally was a character actress specializing in New England harridans (e.g. her bit part in a Vermont drugstore in ''Film/NothingSacred''). The Witch's alter ego in ''Oz'', Miss Gulch, is also clearly a harridan, although she's not from New England. |
| 450 | * Creator/LeeVanCleef was usually typecast as villains until 1965's ''Film/ForAFewDollarsMore'', which put him in a heroic role to play off Clint Eastwood in an anti-hero role. ''FAFDM'' was such a hit that Van Cleef was able to secure a lot of hero roles for the rest of his career. He still returned to his old type from time to time, including, most notably, ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'', ''Film/DayOfAnger'' (which plays so fast and loose with this trope regarding him, it's hard to tell what kind of subversion he pulled off), and ''Film/KidVengeance'', but FAFDM marked a notable 180 in his character type. |
| 451 | * ''Film/ItsAMadMadMadMadWorld'' was a rare foray into slapstick for Creator/EthelMerman, and also one of her few non-singing appearances in anything. |
| 452 | * Creator/OwenWilson, who always played a laid-back character, plays a cynical sociopath in ''WesternAnimation/FreeBirds''. |
| 453 | * Creator/JaiCourtney was previously known as Varo, quite possibly the only genuine NiceGuy in ''Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand''. So in ''Film/{{Divergent}}'' he's playing DrillSergeantNasty Eric. |
| 454 | * Blake Lively, known as a variation of EveryoneLovesBlondes or otherwise perky seductresses, really shocked critics with ''Film/TheAgeOfAdaline''. She plays a woman that never ages and has lived a hundred years watching various friends and lovers dying around her. Earlier in her career she also played a coke-sniffing con woman in ''{{Film/Hick}}'' as well as a trashy alcoholic in ''Film/TheTown''. |
| 455 | * ''[[Film/Sisters2015 Sisters]]'' has Creator/TinaFey as a hot-tempered, foul-mouthed woman who [[ManChild hasn't really progressed from her days as a partying teenager]], while Creator/AmyPoehler is the neurotic, nerdy character you usually would expect Fey to play. In fact, it's been said that the two of them basically swapped their roles from ''Film/BabyMama''. |
| 456 | * Creator/ChanningTatum has been best known to audiences as meatheads, romantic leads or lovable DumbMuscle types. He has however played around with those images in a few films: |
| 457 | ** ''Film/AGuideToRecognizingYourSaints'' had him as an abused ManChild who gets into fights and eventually [[spoiler: goes to prison by clubbing a teenager to death]]. |
| 458 | ** ''Film/StopLoss'' and ''{{Film/Foxcatcher}}'' show him resenting his DumbMuscle status in comparison to [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter his more talented and respected peers]]. |
| 459 | ** ''Film/TheHatefulEight'' as [[spoiler: a sociopathic monster]]. |
| 460 | ** ''Film/HailCaesar'' initially looks like it's playing to his type, by casting him as a Gene Kelly-esque dance star of ambiguous sexuality, and indeed, his dance scene is as spectacular as you'd hope. But then he turns out to be [[spoiler: a Soviet spy]]. |
| 461 | * Creator/KeiraKnightley tends to be a SpiritedYoungLady in various period dramas, but went radically against type as a ditzy pothead in ''Film/SeekingAFriendForTheEndOfTheWorld''. To a lesser extent she had a smaller role in ''{{Film/Everest|2015}}'' as the protagonist's concerned wife (complete with fake New Zealand accent) in an ensemble drama, and in ''Film/TheNutcrackerAndTheFourRealms'' she played the Sugar Plum Fairy as a ManipulativeBitch. |
| 462 | * When Creator/JessicaBiel heard that Creator/LivTyler had dropped out of ''Film/TheIllusionist2006'', she decided to take action. Best known for playing MsFanservice or ActionGirl parts, she drove to the audition in full 19th century costume to convince them to cast her. She won the part of an Austrian duchess and critics were [[SugarWiki/SheReallyCanAct stunned]]. |
| 463 | * Creator/LilyJames typically plays the EnglishRose or TheIngenue in PeriodPiece {{Costume Drama}}s. ''Film/BabyDriver'' is her first major onscreen role where she portrays a FakeAmerican waitress in a non-period drama film. |
| 464 | * The 2010 film ''The Perfect Host'' gave David Hyde Pierce the unusual opportunity to play against type as a very disturbed nutball while simultaneously [[AdamWesting sending up]] [[Series/{{Frasier}} the stuffy upper-class twit]] roles he's best known for. |
| 465 | * Fans of Creator/VincentPrice's horror movie career will be surprised by his role in 1944's ''{{Film/Laura}}''. Far from the creepy-yet-sophisticated, Mid-Atlantic-accented character of his later-career typecasting, here he plays a gold-digging country bumpkin who speaks in a southern drawl not far from Price's native Midwestern accent. (The character hails from Kentucky, whereas Price himself was born not so far away in Saint Louis, Missouri.) |
| 466 | * In ''Film/UnfaithfullyYours'', Rudy Vallee, one of the most famous crooners of Hollywood's golden age, plays the conductor main character's brother-in-law—who hates music. |
| 467 | * The music video for Stolen City's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksYre7Av4OE "Faces"]] features Irish actor John Duggan - best known as either cops or hardasses - as the protagonist's caring father. |
| 468 | * ''Film/LoganLucky'': The lead actors are new to the kind of situational comedy displayed in the film. |
| 469 | ** Creator/DanielCraig plays what is probably his first overtly comedic movie role, Joe Bang, a wacky redneck DemolitionsExpert. Pretty far from his usually serious roles and Film/JamesBond. |
| 470 | ** Ditto for Creator/ChanningTatum and Creator/AdamDriver. |
| 471 | * Peter Boyle (see Live-Action TV) played the father of Creator/BillyBobThornton's character in ''Film/MonstersBall''. It's a chilling performance as an irredeemable racist, a world away from [[Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond Frank Barone]]. |
| 472 | * Owen Wilson, who usually portrays the role of someone mellow or friendly, plays the mean nurse Neil King in ''The Wendell Baker Story''. |
| 473 | * Tichina Arnold is normally a comedic actress best known for sitcom roles like Pam from ''Series/{{Martin}}'' and Rochelle from ''Series/EverybodyHatesChris''. In 2008 however, she played the title character in ''Film/TheLenaBakerStory'', which is about the 1945 execution of a black housekeeper who killed her white employer when he tried to rape her, but the all-white-male jury convicted her of capital murder anyway. The movie is every bit as humorous as it sounds. |
| 474 | * In ''Film/{{Platoon}}'', Creator/OliverStone intentionally cast Creator/TomBerenger, who mostly played good guys, as the ruthless, sadistic Sgt. Barnes and Creator/WillemDafoe, who primarily played villains, as the heroic, compassionate Sgt. Elias. The casting worked and both of them received Oscar nominations for their roles. |
| 475 | * Cameron Diaz portrays a homely woman [[spoiler:who later on falls in love with another woman]] in ''Film/BeingJohnMalkovich''. |
| 476 | * Creator/PaulRudd |
| 477 | ** His character Cactus/Bill in ''Film/{{Mute}}''. He usually plays comedic goofballs, and at first, it looks like he might be playing a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who performs surgery for the mob to make money to raise his daughter, and that he might help the main character out by helping him find his missing girlfriend. Then it turns out that [[spoiler:the girlfriend is the mother of Cactus's daughter, and he killed her so that he could keep her take her to the U.S. with him, so he's been the antagonist all along]]. |
| 478 | ** His role as Moe Berg in ''Film/TheCatcherWasASpy'' is uncharacteristically serious, playing a very withdrawn man who lives in the closet due to being gay in the early [=20th=] Century. |
| 479 | * Creator/JackBlack is famously known for playing obnoxious loud mouths in over the top comedies but...: |
| 480 | ** In ''Film/{{King Kong|2005}}'' (2005), he plays Carl Denham, an ambitious, and extremely amoral filmmaker. |
| 481 | ** In ''Film/{{Bernie}}'' (2011), he plays a kind Christian funeral director who sings gospel music and is beloved all in his small Texas town [[spoiler:despite killing someone]]. Some of Black's hammier qualities still show up when Bernie sings, which just serves to make him seem like a shy, reserved person who also happens to be really into performing. |
| 482 | *** Ironically enough, that film was directed by Creator/RichardLinklater, who previously worked with Black on the comedy ''Film/SchoolOfRock''. |
| 483 | * ''Film/CloudAtlas'': You could make arguments for a lot of parts actors play in the movie. Seeing Tom Hanks playing characters as sleazy, or downright villainous, as [[{{Slimeball}} the Hotel Manager]], [[DeadlyDoctor Dr. Henry Goose]] and [[AxCrazy Dermot Hoggins]] is a delightful surprise. Hugh Grant plays both a CorruptCorporateExecutive and a ''[[ImAHumanitarian cannibal tribesman]]''. |
| 484 | * ''Film/{{Rosita}}'' was made specifically because Creator/MaryPickford was only ever type-casted as cute, {{Plucky Girl}} children. She wanted to play an adult role for once, so she decided to act in a film based off of the historical novel ''Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall''. The director didn't want to adapt that, so she instead wanted to do Myth/{{Faust}}. However, Mary's own mother made her quit that one because it was too graphic. They ended up adapting a French play where Mary Pickford plays a dancer named Rosita who becomes the mistress of a king. ''Rosita'' ended up very successful despite it being so odd for Pickford, however a few years later Pickford [[CreatorBacklash turned against the film]] and dubbed it a "famous failure" (despite it making over a 1 million USD in 1920s money). Speculation is that Mary herself disliked the film precisely because it went against type. When Mary attempted to break type again in the 1930s, her career fell down the wayside. |
| 485 | * Creator/BradDourif, Hollywood's go-to guy if you need a psychopath or off-kilter character, in a very rare comedic role as the well-meaning but not too bright cop in ''Amos and Andrew''. |
| 486 | * Creator/EddieRedmayne usually plays adorkable, socially awkward nice guys....except in ''{{Film/Hick}}'', where he is a creepy (and possibly rapist) cowboy. There's also his role as the [[MoodSwinger mood-swinging]], ''utterly'' [[TheCaligula unhinged]] EvilOverlord Balem Abrasax in ''Film/JupiterAscending''. |
| 487 | * Thanks to a FreakyFridayFlip, all of the leads do this in ''Film/JumanjiWelcomeToTheJungle'', since they're playing high school kids in adult bodies. You've got Dwayne Johnson as a cowardly germophobe, Kevin Hart as a (formerly) tall athlete, Karen Gillan as an introverted nerd, and Jack Black as a phoneaholic teenage girl. |
| 488 | ** Similarly, ''Central Intelligence'' had "The Rock" and Hart doing dissimilar characters (not only from their typecasts, but from their ''present selves'') in their youth: Johnson was an overweight nerd while Hart played the jock character. |
| 489 | * Creator/BenMendelsohn is known for playing smug and overconfident villain types. Examples include Orson Krennic in ''Film/RogueOne'', Nolan Sorrento in ''Film/ReadyPlayerOne'', Dagget in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' and Skrull leader Talos in ''Film/CaptainMarvel2019''. [[spoiler: That last one is a subversion, though, as the supposedly villainous Talos turns out to be GoodAllAlong]]. |
| 490 | * Creator/JackieEarleHaley, who is better known for playing various creeps and weirdos, as the goofy hippie Dukes in ''Film/SemiPro''. |
| 491 | * Creator/DanStevens usually appears in period piece dramas made in Britain or America. He's also taken on other roles to shed him of his image as Matthew Crawley in ''Series/DowntonAbbey'' such as morally ambiguous characters in ''Film/TheGuest'' and ''Film/AWalkAmongTheTombstones'' or a flamboyant Russian singer in ''Film/EurovisionSongContestTheStoryOfFireSaga''. |
| 492 | * Robert Carradine is best known for playing [[Film/RevengeofTheNerds nerds]] or [[Series/LizzieMcGuire the dad]]. In ''Film/BodyBags'' [[spoiler: he's a serial killer armed with a machete and sledge hammer]]. |
| 493 | * ''Film/VioletAndDaisy'': James Gandolfini plays a kind man who deliberately got a hit put out against him after robbing a gang, a very different role from the ones he usually played. |
| 494 | * ''Film/KnivesOut'': |
| 495 | ** Creator/ChrisEvans, best known for playing IdealHero ComicBook/CaptainAmerica in the MCU, plays the loutish and foulmouthed BlackSheep of the Thrombey family [[spoiler:who turns out to have been the villain, who has a severe case of EvilCannotComprehendGood to boot.]] |
| 496 | ** Creator/MichaelShannon, who usually plays unstable and intimidating authority figures, plays the petulant, pathetic weakling Walt. |
| 497 | ** Creator/AnaDeArmas usually plays a MsFanservice, but here she plays a ChasteHeroine. |
| 498 | ** M. Emmett Walsh, who normally plays sleazy and villainous characters, plays an elderly and amiable security guard. |
| 499 | ** Creator/JaedenMartell, best known for playing AllLovingHero [[Film/It2017 Bill Denbrough]], plays a {{Jerkass}} alt-right G.I.F.T. troll. |
| 500 | ** Creator/DanielCraig, who made a name for himself playing one of the most serious and intense versions of Film/JamesBond to date, and was otherwise known for pretty dramatic roles leading up to that, plays a quirky and affable detective with a jaunty Kentucky accent, a role that gets even more quirky and comedic in the [[Film/GlassOnion sequel]]. |
| 501 | * Creator/BillyZane as the titular superhero in ''Film/ThePhantom1996''. At this point in his career, he was mostly known for playing creeps, or villains. Or villainous creeps. |
| 502 | * In ''Villains'' Creator/BillSkarsgard, who normally plays psychos and villains, plays an {{Adorkable}} [[StupidCrooks Stupid Crook]] [[LovableRogue who risks his life to save a little girl from a pair of dangerous psychopaths.]] |
| 503 | * In ''{{Film/Switchback}}'', Creator/DannyGlover plays a serial killer. |
| 504 | * Creator/WalterMatthau, the cantankerous Jewish-American comedic actor plays a swashbuckling pirate captain in ''Film/{{Pirates}}''. |
| 505 | * Creator/ArielWinter is known for playing sweetheart characters, such as the title character of ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'' and Marina from ''WesternAnimation/JakeAndTheNeverlandPirates'', so it's pretty surprising that she voiced Chrissy Damon, a SpoiledBrat who sings a shockingly inappropriate song for a girl her age in ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooStageFright''. |
| 506 | * Prior to her UsefulNotes/AcademyAward winning turn as a prostitute in ''Literature/ElmerGantry'', Shirley Jones was primarily known for playing sweet, wholesome good girls in musicals like ''Theatre/{{Carousel}}'', ''Theatre/TheMusicMan'', and ''Theatre/{{Oklahoma}}''. |
| 507 | * Creator/JohnWayne was famous for playing rugged yet honorable [[TheWestern Western]] heroes, and to many exemplifies the archetypical "white hat" good guy. In ''Film/TheSearchers'' he plays the ruthless AntiHero Ethan Edwards, who despite appearing on the outset to be a typical Wayne hero is gradually revealed to be deeply morally compromised and mentally unstable. He is implied to be a criminal, he is strongly implied to be in love with his brother's wife (and may be the true father to his niece), he shoots men in the back and shoots at retreating enemies, he slaughters buffalo to deprive the Commanche of food, he scalps a Commanche war chief, he is openly racist and dismissive towards his part-Indian adoptive nephew, and worst of all he spends most of the movie planning to [[spoiler:murder his 14-year-old niece, who has been abducted by the Commanche and assimilated into their culture.]] It is widely regarded as the greatest role of his career and his very best performance, and it is [[CreatorsFavorite his personal favorite]]. |
| 508 | ** To say nothing of playing UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan in Film/TheConqueror. |
| 509 | * ''Film/{{Quicksand}}'' is a 1950 American FilmNoir that stars Creator/MickeyRooney and portrays a garage mechanic's descent into crime. The film provided Rooney with an opportunity to play against type, performing in a role starkly different from his earlier role as the innocent "nice guy" in MGM's popular ''Film/AndyHardy'' film series. |
| 510 | * While the less well-known, but polite actor Creator/MichaelERodgers is known to star in some non-kids' films and TV shows, he ended up playing a fun-loving, lazy, humorous, nice, and cheerful cousin to [[Creator/AlecBaldwin Mr. Conductor]] in the children's film ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndTheMagicRailroad'', and he had a lot of fun making it. He also tried voice acting, voicing in a few video games as villanous characters. |
| 511 | * Creator/MelanieScrofano is best known for her role as the eponymous ActionGirl [[TheGunslinger Gunslinger]] protagonist of the UrbanFantasy series ''Series/WynonnaEarp''. In ''Film/ReadyOrNot2019'', however, she plays Emilie Le Domas, a [[TheDitz ditzy]], [[AddledAddict coked-up]] heiress who is the subject of a RunningGag concerning her absolutely dreadful marksmanship, in which she keeps [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally shooting the maids]] to the point that the rest of the family eventually prohibits her from carrying any guns. |
| 512 | * Creator/JohnWaters1948 had played dramatic roles before, but to the target audience of ''Film/TheRealMacaw'' and their parents, he was likely best known for hosting ''Series/PlaySchool'' for nearly twenty years. In that sense, his role as a greedy museum curator who WouldHurtAChild was quite the departure. |
| 513 | * Creator/SteveBuscemi, best known for playing criminals and low-lifes, played the dorky and harmless NiceGuy Donnie in ''Film/TheBigLebowski''. He also played a HeroAntagonist in ''Film/AnimalFactory'', though the character was still something of a {{Jerkass}}. In ''Film/SpyKids2IslandOfLostDreams'', he plays a timid MadScientist who turns out to be GoodAllAlong. |
| 514 | * The 2021 Irish film ''Spears'': |
| 515 | ** Bobby Calloway is either villains, {{Cloud Cuckoo Lander}}s or else stoic soldiers. He plays Jeff, who's TheCharmer and relies on manipulation and duplicity in comparison to the more action-oriented Cormac. He's also the only one of the protagonists who objects to harming people for revenge. |
| 516 | ** Rebecca Rose Flynn was known for the dramatic GirlNextDoor roles, or else the GenkiGirl protagonist of ''WebVideo/TheGumdrops'' (itself against type for her). She plays Rachel - a mysterious FemmeFatale. |
| 517 | * Creator/MalcolmMcDowell is best known for Antihero roles such as [[Film/AClockWorkOrange Alex Delarge]] or [[ChewingTheScenery Scene Chewing Villains]] whom you just LoveToHate. Even in non-villanous roles, his characters still typically ooze irony and BlackComedy. However, in the 1976 WWI war drama film ''Aces High'', he portrayed a StoicWoobie air force major who was tortured by the thought of the young pilots he had to send into war. Ironically, his first major Hollywood role was an owlish, good natured H.G. Wells in ''Film/TimeAfterTime''. The actor also notes that when he was cast in the role of a racist South African police chief in Morgan Freeman's 1993 film ''Bopha'' (a role he took because he was excited about opportunity to work with Creator/MorganFreeman), he acknowledged the social issues central to the film's theme, thus, out of respect for the material, he acted the role in a more "no-nonsense" manner than his fans are used to seeing. |
| 518 | * Creator/BobOdenkirk spent the first thirty five years of his career as a comedy writer and actor and barely worked out at all. He then spent two years intensively training so he could convincingly play a RetiredBadass who goes on a rampage in ''Film/{{Nobody}}'', doing a lot of the fight scenes and stunts himself. |
| 519 | ** Creator/ChristopherLloyd, also known for a long career as a comic actor, also gets to have some fun as Hutch's RetiredBadass father. |
| 520 | * Tris Coffin, best known for his [[DarkIsEvil black hat]] roles in old Westerns, plays a jetpack-wielding superhero in ''King of the Rocket Men''. |
| 521 | * Hero or villain, Creator/LeeVanCleef's characters were usually the confident, focused type. In ''Film/TheBravados'', his character, Alfonso Parral, was a pathetic, desperate thug. |
| 522 | * Creator/PaulHenreid, usually cast as a romantic lead, decided to produce ''Film/HollowTriumph'' himself, so that he could play a bad guy for once. |
| 523 | * Creator/JimVarney, best known as the lovable and family-friendly character Film/ErnestPWorrell, plays a violent, incestuous alcoholic in the 1997 film ''100 Proof''. |
| 524 | * Perhaps similar to Shirley Jones in ''Literature/ElmerGantry'', Creator/ElisabethShue prior to her own [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Academy Award]] nominated portrayal of a prostitute in ''Film/LeavingLasVegas'', was primarily known for playing [[NiceGuy nice]], [[TokenWholesome wholesome]] GirlNextDoor types of a [[EmbodimentOfVirtue virtuous]] attribute. |
| 525 | * Creator/TiffanyHaddish, usually known for raunchy comedies, was cast in a dramatic role in the 2021 Creator/PaulSchrader film ''The Card Counter''. Her performance as kindhearted gambler La Linda, who hires and falls in love with the broken lead played by Creator/OscarIsaac, was critically acclaimed. |
| 526 | * Creator/AnnaLynneMcCord, a blonde bombshell known for playing AlphaBitch roles when she was younger and FemmeFatale roles when she grew up, also starred in ''Film/Excision2012'' as Pauline, a [[BeautyInversion dowdy]] [[CreepyLonerGirl teenage outcast]] with all manner of freaky, twisted thoughts whose growing insanity [[spoiler:eventually causes her to kill her DelicateAndSickly sister in a delusional attempt to cure her illness]]. And she is ''terrifying''. |
| 527 | * Creator/TomArnold is best known for his comedic roles, making his roles as a prison rapist in ''Film/AnimalFactory'' and a child molester in ''Film/GardensOfTheNight'' a shock, [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct especially since he pulls them off chillingly well.]] |
| 528 | * Thanks to his appearance giving him a perpetual DeathGlare, Creator/AmrishPuri got typecast into villainous roles (most famously outside of India as the evil Thuggee priest Mola Ram in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom''). In ''Film/{{Gandhi}}'', he plays Dada Abdullah Hajee Adab, president of the Natal Indian Congress who demanded equal rights for Indians in South Africa and who was a mentor and ally of UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi's. |
| 529 | * The late Creator/BruceForsyth, best known for being a British TV presenter and family entertainer, did this when he portrayed villainous spiv Swinburne in ''Film/BedknobsAndBroomsticks'', which is quite a contrast from his best known duties. |
| 530 | * Creator/GlennHowerton is best known for being [[Characters/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphiaDennisReynolds Dennis Reynolds]], who is at least FauxAffablyEvil enough to be endearing no matter how outlandish his schemes and ego get. In ''Film/{{BlackBerry}}'', about the eponymous smartphone, he plays Research In Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie, coming across as a completely unlikable {{Jerkass}} CorruptCorporateExecutive who ultimately resigned from the company after engaging in [[WhiteCollarCrime high-level stock fraud]] to [[EveryManHasHisPrice attract talented engineers from all over the world]]. And unlike Dennis, there’s no shred of irony in anything he does. |
| 531 | * Creator/NickOfferman, best known for playing hardcore libertarian Ron Swanson in ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'', plays an authoritarian dictatorial PresidentEvil in ''Film/CivilWar2024''. |
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