Generally speaking, typecasting is viewed as a bad thing. It means an actor is boxed in a corner and only considered for one type of role; the audience and producers view them as having limited range. This might help them in the short term as they have a burst of popularity, but it will definitely hurt them later on as their specialty becomes tired and they try to branch out into new and different things. Nevertheless, there is a type of typecasting that can actually be used to someone’s benefits. It means people have formed a fanbase around a particular person’s style and expect that from them. It also means the audience more or less knows what they’re going to get, even as the person in question wraps that specialty into something completely new every time.
A great example of this is Danny McBride. Those who are familiar with his comedy know that he is a raunchy and profanity-driven actor. He has a particular style of being a sarcastic jerk who throws insults all the time. Arrogance and cockiness are his trademark. It was even a main feature of his personality when he played himself in the apocalyptic film This Is The End.
However, the types of characters McBride has played vary depending on the plot. This allows him to essentially be the same character in different forms. He can bring his trademark humor that fans expect to various situations and deploy it in different ways even though the style of it roughly remains the same. In The Righteous Gemstones, he’s a raunchy and sarcastic preacher. In Vice Principals he’s a raunchy and sarcastic educator. In Tropic Thunder he’s a raunchy and sarcastic special effects producer. So although Danny McBride is more or less typecast to embody the same sort of character in all of these roles, the situations and plots give him enough leeway to bring something new to the table every time.
Generally speaking, typecasting is viewed as a bad thing. It means an actor is boxed in a corner and onlyCOMICONRead More