4. There are two types of actors (not really but shh…just read this)

Ok, today I want to talk about actors and peoples’ reactions to them.  Have you ever noticed that you sometimes involuntary classify some actors differently?  This is not coming across properly at all so let me just use pictures.

 When you look at these two actors, what comes to mind. Did you say “Bradley Cooper and Daniel Radcliffe”? or did you say “Bradley Cooper and Harry Potter?” That’s what I’m talking about.  Now some of you would argue that Harry Potter was such an iconic role, but wait a minute.  Hasn’t Bradley Cooper had a few iconic roles too? Yet when you see him do you think the American sniper Chris Kyle, do you think Phil the pack leader in The Hangover movies, Pat from Silver Linings Playbook?  No, you just think “Bradley Cooper”.   He’s the actors that took on these roles.  That being said, Daniel Radcliffe is not any less of an actor than Bradley Cooper.  Radcliffe is excellent and has been in a number of other works in film and Broadway and has given extraordinary performances.  Is it because Harry Potter was a film series? I don’t know, maybe if I keep typing I’ll find an answer.

Let’s mention other actors.  I’ll give you 6, Robert Downey Jr., Jennifer Lawrence, Harrison Ford,  Elijah Wood, Sean Connery, and Kate Winslet.  What do they all have in common? There are vowels in their names- just kidding haha.  Lets break them down.  The first three, you can almost give them the title of the characters they’ve played.  Downey would get the name Iron Man, Lawrence would get Katniss Everdeen, and Harrison Ford would get either Han Solo or Indiana Jones.  These actors have played these characters in multiple, successful films. It’s not like no one’s ever heard of any of these characters, they’re iconic.  These actors are so much more than their roles though.  Robert Downey Jr. had already made a name for himself in Hollywood before donning the red and yellow armor.  Jennifer Lawrence was not exactly a household name before The Hunger Games was released, but she had done other work as Mystique in the X Men films, and she also was in Silver Linings Playbook the same year (2012) and won an Oscar for her portrayal of Tiffany.  Perhaps what helped Ford was that he was in two major franchises (Star Wars and Indiana Jones) but of course he has been in a number of other films and is just an iconic personality- WAIT THAT’S IT!  Another thing that ties the first three together is their attitudes. When you think Robert Downey Jr. you think snarky, fun, and cocky guy on the red carpet.  When you think Jenifer Lawrence, you think J-law, the regular girl who’s always hungry and isn’t very lady like.  When you think Harrison Ford, you think..grump. You can’t exactly put someone like Bradley Cooper in this group though.  He is known as nice, polite, charming, but he doesn’t really have a brand like these other three actors, and neither do most actors in Hollywood.  There are a choice few who really have the boisterous personality that gets attention.

The second group of three in the group I mentioned are obviously the actors that you think of a particular role they played.  Wood and Connery fall into the series trap, with The Lord of the Rings, and James Bond respectively.  What about Kate Winslet though? Well, lets be honest, a lot of people still associate her with Rose from Titanic.  It’s easy to do that though.  Titanic was incredibly successful so everyone and their mother saw it like 10 times.  It also doesn’t help that Kate Winslet also had a nude seen in that film.  It’s hard to erase that from the public’s memory.  Winslet has of course acted in a number of films, and was actually nominated for an Oscar this year,  for her role in Steve Jobs.  She was even the main villain in the Divergent films, yet we don’t look at her and say “look it’s Jeanine”.

There are also actors that we type-cast.  These actors are more part of the iconic actor group, instead of the iconic role group.    For example, people in the sixties weren’t shocked when John Wayne wasn’t casted for the lead in The Nutty Professor, just like today we wouldn’t be shocked if Chris Rock wasn’t picked to play the lead in this year’s historical drama.  John Wayne was the rough and tough cowboy, and Chris Rock is the funny, excited, goof ball.  The same thing happened with Robin Williams.  We always expected Williams to be the funny, heartwarming, silly hero.  When he was the deep and thoughtful therapist in Good Will Hunting you were probably pleasantly surprised, but also like “Hey, get back to making us laugh”.  Then One Hour Photo came out.  Robin Williams really took a different direction with that one.  I don’t know if this happens to you, but I always get kind of nauseous when a funny actor takes a more serious role.  When I saw Steve Carrell in Fox Catcher I was deeply disturbed.  I wanted my sweet Brick back, or my Michael Scott.  Some actors, when they take on roles other than what they usually take, it becomes funnier than anyone could have imagined.  Just think about how hilarious Robert DeNiro was in Meet the Parents.  The great man that once said “Are you talking to me?” actually say s “I have nipples Greg, could you milk me?”.  Just think about that for a minute.  It’s just too funny.

So what am I saying?  I think I know at this point, and what I’m saying is: there’s no one answer as to how some actors get put into which group.  It could be, but not always is, because of a series they were in.  Audiences see the same actor playing the same character over and over again, so it just sinks in that way.  Another reason could also be the timing of the movie.  Daniel Radcliffe grew up as Harry Potter, so that makes it so much harder for him to be seen as anyone else.  Like Kate Winslet’s case, it could also be because a film is so successful, or a very unique performance (we totally saw her naked..and that scene was long).  I’m just a college student with no experience in this field, so I can’t really give you a solid answer, but I will say this.  What we have to remember is to look at the motion picture as a whole, and not just the actor.  Thanks for reading, and please feel free to suggest some topics for posts in comments, or on my Facebook page.