Actors Trapped in Characters

Andrew Dice Clay began as a character on the stage. He ended as a caricature, after having spent decades committing to the bit. This sort of thing happens to artists. Musicians can't escape their greatest hits and are forced to play them for their fans, forever.

With actors, the pattern of being absorbed into the one hit role. Johnny Depp stopped being Johnny Depp and he is now Captain Jack Sparrow. Jeff Bridges is the dude. Robert Downey Jr. is Iron Man. Vin Diesel is Toretto. In some cases, an actor with actual talent cashes out for being a self-caricature (e.g., Pacino and Walken). In other cases, meagerly talented stars peak early and play a cookie-cutter (The Rock, Statham, Keaunu).

It is interesting to note how the human can become trapped by a role, not just type-casting, but a particular character, and that their public persona will often take on the semblance of the character. I am the character, the character is me. How many cases are there? How many have surrendered or embraced to being the character, like Legosi being Dracula?

Robin Williams, he's always playing it as Robin Williams in his films. Well maybe not in One Hour Photo, I don't know as I haven't seen that one.

That's true, but he was already cemented in his character as a comic before he took any roles. Some actors were actually actors before they got stuck in a particular image. Williams is a bit like Schwarzenegger in that they both started off playing themselves and eventually labored to prove that they can play other roles (Aftermath and Maggie for Arnie).

After playing Bronson, Tom Hardy getting consistently cast in the unstable, borderline psychotic role in everything.

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When did Pacino get lost? Was it Scent of a Woman? He slipped into a "Ooohhyahhh!!!" version of himself for a long time. From character actor to caricature only takes some success, boredom, and perhaps being surrounded by too many people who no longer tell you "no."

I was going to suggest the entire cast of Friends being trapped in their characters... but Courtney Cox at least managed to attach herself to Gale from the Scream franchise.
For me she's always just Gale Weathers rather than Monica.

A sticom like that I think pretty much leaves you playing that hit for the rest of your life. They were truly lucky to be cast in those roles. One job and FU money for the rest of your life.

True... I watched I Know What You Did Last Summer a couple years back and forgot Johnny Galecki was in it as the scumbag boyfriend.
I genuinely didn't buy him in the role after he'd been in BBT for such a long time.

Talking of Courtney Cox in Scream... I have difficulty seeing Neve Campbell and David Arquette in anything other than their respective Scream roles as well.

Should we really consider Vin Diesel as the talented actor who cashed out for becoming a self-caricature?

Joan Collins is a good example, except that she didn't cash out, she deliberately cultivated her Joan Collins alter ego. For better or worse it helped her to stay relevant.

Johnny Depp had played eccentric characters before Pirates therefore I think Jack Sparrow was the result, not the cause.

No, I'd put him in the latter category. He's not interesting. He is a Jason Statham.

The first person this thread made me think of was Will Smith but after what he did at the Oscars, it’s a moot point.

Causality is complicated. That stated, the success of Sparrow appears to have have given Depp a place to "live." I think it offers him a way to embrace his love of Hunter S. Thompson and the generally aesthetic (bedraggled hair over the face and eye liner) allows him to be plausibly shed the pretty boy good looks he, frankly, no longer has. He likes dipping into the character in public and the general aesthetic is one that he's embraced. He may have built the character through many quirky experiments, but I think Sparrow is kind of where he wants to "live." This is his "Yacht Rock" old man era.

He could always go the Mel Gibson route and attempt to reinvent himself as the villain. Frankly, I am tired of him. Next...

He can’t reinvent himself he’s cancelled like Cosby and Spacey

A lot of people would be happy to have Will Smith in their production. It's just that I don't think Smith would be willing to take a step down from the illustrious heights of his past.

Jerry Lewis comes to mind. He was pretty much the same "manic-man-child" character in every movie (the character he developed in his stand-up routine with Dean Martin) whether they were movies with his partner or movies on his own.

With a few exceptions maybe... as Buddy Love in The Nutty Professor (1963), Boeing Boeing (1965) and as Jerry Langford in The King of Comedy (1982) - many have said these characters were just Jerry playing himself.

And in Arizona Dream (1993) too. My favorite Jerry Lewis films are when he's not playing Jerry Lewis.

I'm not trying to usurp or hijack this excellent thread, but just want to point out that it reminds me of a different thread I created a while back.

Now, the topics are different but have some similarities and may actually crossover in some cases.

My thread was not about celebrities who became typecast or repetitively played the same type of character, but rather people who created a fictional character that the public thought was a real person (or the actor's actual persona), or a character where the public became very familiar with the character, but had virtually no knowledge about the person who played them.

https://www.movieforums.com/communit...ad.php?t=61675

OMG!
I've never seen it and never even heard of it.
Which is very weird for someone (like me) who's more than familiar with the majority of Jerry Lewis's movie roles!