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Vince Vaughn
The Typecasting: The smart-talking, sexually voracious, wiseass best friend of a more straight-laced co-star.
Examples: Swingers, Made, Old School, Wedding Crashers, Couples Retreat
Strangest Specific Detail: His friendly advice almost always consists of some permutation of, "get out there and get some ass".
Alec Baldwin
The Typecasting: Snarling, gravel-voiced hardass. Emphasis on the voice.
Examples: The Hunt For Red October, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Shadow, The Aviator, The Edge
Strangest Specific Detail: Never has a man's voice cast such a long shadow over his career. And in movies, a gravely voice equates to a supreme capacity to intimidate.
Hugh Grant
The Typecasting: Fish out of water English gent, incapable of striking up a relationship with a woman without landing himself in a series of "hilarious" misadventures.
Examples: Sirens, Four Weddings And A Funeral, The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain, Nine Months, Notting Hill, Mickey Blue Eyes, Love Actually
Strangest Specific Detail: The character is often willing to endure all manner of humiliations for remarkably irritating women. Andie McDowell, Jeanne Tripplehorn… we're looking at you.
Lea Thompson
The Typecasting: One half of an uncomfortably sexual '80s sci-fi relationship, usually involving somebody grossly inappropriate.
Examples: Back To The Future, Howard The Duck
Strangest Specific Detail: Lea's a gorgeous, likeable character in both films. Why then is she paired with her on-screen son and a freakish humanoid duck? Bizarre.
Ellen Page
The Typecasting: Precocious teenager who just can't seem to fit in, possibly on account of a sarcastic streak a mile wide.
Examples: Juno, Whip It, Smart People
Strangest Specific Detail: Despite being presented as an achingly hip representative of today's yoof, Page's characters never seem to have many mates. Too precocious, probably.
Katherine Heigl
The Typecasting: Successful career woman whose high maintenance personality thwarts her love life.
Examples: Knocked Up, The Ugly Truth, 27 Dresses, Life As We Know It
Strangest Specific Detail: None of her characters seem to have much in the way of self esteem. Odd, considering their beauty and career success.
Will Smith
The Typecasting: Non-threatening, wise-cracking law-enforcer / action hero… with attitude! Wicky wicky wa wa.
Examples: Bad Boys, Independence Day, Wild Wild West, Men In Black, I Robot
Strangest Specific Detail: Playing even the baddest of badasses with uniformly cuddly charm.
Julia Roberts
The Typecasting: An iron-willed, go-get-em female role model who demonstrates her inner vulnerability by indulging in at least one bout of silent weeping.
Examples: Pretty Woman, Notting Hill, Erin Brockovich, Ocean's Eleven, Mona Lisa Smile
Strangest Specific Detail: It's the fact that Julia's tears fall short of all-out bawling, in order to demonstrate just how much each one is costing her. Those are "hidden depths" right there.
Brian Cox
The Typecasting: Embittered single parent, driven to distraction by terrifyingly "gifted" offspring.
Examples: X-Men 2, The Ring
Strangest Specific Detail: His wife will have committed suicide on account of her child's freakish ability to place images in people's heads.
Jared Leto
The Typecasting: The guy who gets seven shades of shit knocked out of him, ether physically or metaphorically.
Examples: Fight Club, Requiem For A Dream, Lord Of War
Strangest Specific Detail: There's something about Leto's model good looks that directors seem to love tearing strips off. When he takes his punishment, he really takes it hard!
