Top Five "Cast Against Type" Film Roles

I don't know about you, but I really appreciate a movie with great casting. Casting directors in Hollywood all too often go with the safe choice for their hero, the romantic interest, the goofy friend, the villain. These are called stock characters, and the actors who find themselves always playing the same sort of character are "typecast" (Robert DeNiro as mobster, Samuel L. Jackson as BAMF, Owen Wilson as Dweeby but Sincere Nice Guy, etc).

When a film steps outside the safety of typecasting, it sometimes can end up disastrously. For example, John Wayne played Genghis Khan. Nuff said. However, there are a number of instances where the "wrong" casting decision was oh so right. Here are my five favorite examples.

5. Kate Winslet as the unstable extrovert, Jim Carrey as the reserved shy one in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind


This example is interesting because here you see two seasoned actors who are essentially using the others' style in their performance. Winslet plays the precocious and somewhat scatter brained Clementine, the foil to Carrey's Joel. A mopey outcast with a dry sense of humor, this is the type of role one would typically see played by, oh, I don't know, Michael Cera comes to mind (if this film were made in five years by less courageous filmmakers, I guarantee Cera would play this role). To have Joel played by Carrey gives him an edgier sadness. We yearn even harder to see him crack his trademark 20 million dollar grin. Conversely, the usually prim and proper Winslet inhabiting the character of Clem makes her seem all the more eccentric.

This casting decision works wonders in the film, particularly considering the mind-bending nature of he plot as a whole.

4. Tom Hanks as the mafia hitman in Road to Perdition


This often overlooked film features a few bold casting decisions, but most notable is Hanks as the protagonist Michael Sullivan, a gunman for the Irish mafia.

Hanks could have easily made a career similar to Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler, playing buffoons in 80's comedies. He switched it up in the 90's, taking on serious roles in Philidelphia and Forrest Gump, cementing himself as one of the top leading men of the era. But a GOOD guy leading man, not the action hero. We don't see Tom Hanks as an unsavory murderer; he only kills Nazis and the occasional convict, right? Oh, how wrong we were.

So why cast Hanks as Sullivan? If one looks at the character as an ordinary gangster, the decision appears flawed. Someone tougher, Jason Statham perhaps, could have fit the bill better. But Hanks lends an authenticity to the role, the everyman feel that most gangster types lack. This is especially important as the relationship between Sullivan and his son is the cornerstone of the film. Sullivan, as played by Hanks, is a family man who just happens to also be a ruthless murderer.

3. Heath Ledger as the psychopath covered in makeup in The Dark Knight


One of the unwritten rules of casting in Hollywood is if you are going to go to the trouble of casting an exceptionally good looking person, you had better make them look as good in the film as possible. If you want them to look ugly or scary, well there are plenty of ugly or scary looking people to cast (read: Steve Buscemi).

Christopher Nolan subverted this rule and went for quality acting over a look or a type when he went to Heath Ledger to play his Joker. And the effect is disturbing.

I have heard people argue that Jack Nicholson is still the best Joker but lets face it, Jack plays the Joker in EVERY role. If you are looking for a creep, everyone knows Jack is the one to go to. Heath, on the other hand, was the romantic lead, the studly bad boy, the gay shepard. Basically, the good looking leading man type.

Thats what makes his performance in The Dark Knight so entrancing. His face smeared with make up and marked by scars, the pretty face has been completely disfigured (metaphor perhaps for the eventual transformation of another character in the film).

2. Elisabeth Shue as the stripper with a heart of gold in Leaving Las Vegas


In 1995, a mere five years after Julia Roberts was a pretty woman, Elisabeth Shue was best known as the girl next door from such films as The Karate Kid, Adventures in Babysitting, and the Back to the Future trilogy. This background made her a strange choice to play Las Vegas hooker Sera, who is befriended by Nicolas Cage's alcoholic Ben.

It is this background, however, that gives her character the vulnerability necessary to make her sympathetic to the audience. Her plight, being forced to watch the slow demise of Ben, is heartbreaking, and she plays the character perfectly to elicit the same frustration from the audience.

1. Henry Fonda as an even slightly less than moral person in Once Upon a Time in the West


Ok, ok, as the BAD GUY. You know, the villain? The one you want the good guy to kill at the end? I know, its hard to believe, but Henry Fonda is a bad dude in Sergio Leone's greatest film.

Before working on Once Upon a Time in the West, Fonda was the everyman, the epitome of the good guy, playing such endearing roles as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath and Juror 8 in 12 Angry Men, along with a bunch of other honest men in a world gone wrong (Mr. Roberts, The Wrong Man, etc).

So why then would Leone choose this everyman as Frank, the villain of Once Upon a Time in the West?

A peek at the Frank's introductory scene will give us a clue.


McBain Massacre Scene

The camera pans around from behind, slowly revealing Fonda to be the man in charge of the group of killers. Imagine what that must have felt like for a viewer in 1968. To help, here is another Fonda clip:


Henry Fonda in 12 Angry Men

That is the Fonda people knew and mostly still remember. That is why his performance in Once Upon a Time in the West is so remarkable. Leone took a well established nice guy and made the audience want to see him strung up. Powerful stuff.