Meta Casting: Difference between revisions

 

Compare [[Casting Gag]] (where the actor has a past history with the franchise or other actors), [[Actor Allusion]] (a nod to other roles they played), [[Ink Suit Actor]], [[Celebrity Paradox]], [[Reality Subtext]] and [[Enforced Method Acting]].

 

== [[Film]] ==

* [[Robert Downey, Jr.]]. was cast as ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]'' not only because he is a good actor, but has had problems in the past with drug abuse. That added extra weight to a man who is struggling to redeem himself for past mistakes; a man who is also known for having problems with alcohol.

** [[Samuel L. Jackson]] was cast as Nick Fury because Ultimate Nick Fury's character design was based on him anyway, and as part of using his likeness he got the role in a live action film using the character.

** Downey did it again in ''[[Sherlock Holmes (film)|Sherlock Holmes]]'', playing the titular ace detective with drug and adjustment problems.

*** ''[[Zodiac (film)|Zodiac]]'' as well.

*** ''[[A Scanner Darkly]]'', natch

* [[Bruce Willis]] in ''[[Unbreakable]]'' as a man who is struggling with the idea that he might be [[Made of Iron]] and no one else is. Thinking about John McClane while watching the movie makes it that much [[Deconstruction|more thoughtful.]]

** Subverted for great effect in ''[[The Sixth Sense]]'' - the audience expects a Bruce Willis character to [[Just a Flesh Wound|shrug off being shot]], so when [[The Reveal]] comes around, it's a big shock ([[It Was His Sled|if you manage to not be spoiled, anyway]]).

* [[John Wayne]] in ''The Shootist'' playing an aging gunfighter dying of cancer in a world where he realises he's an anachronism. What's more is that most everyone expected this to be his last film, and it was.

* [[Keanu Reeves]] as a drug addicted cop in ''[[A Scanner Darkly]]''. He's just [[Dull Surprise]]'d enough to seem plausible as a guy whose mind is slowly deteriorating from substance D.

* [[Lizzie McGuire|Hilary Duff]] in ''War, Inc'' where she plays a [[Idol Singer|pop star]] who is overly saturated as a sex symbol, which while not exactly descriptive of Duff's life and career it does come fairly close to use this trope.

** Perhaps it is a [[Casting Gag]] [[Take That]] to [[Madonna|some]] [[Britney Spears|of]] [[Jessica Simpson|her]] [[Janet Jackson|raunchier]] [[Christina Aguilera|predecessors]].

* Christopher Reeve in the ''[[Rear Window]]'' remake.

* ''[[School of Rock]]'' cast several child musicians, rather than child actors to play the young musician characters. [[Jack Black]] himself is part of [[Tenacious D]].

** Bonus points for the fact that the kid who played Larry (the pianist) had to go through the same classical-to-rock transition that the character did.

* ''[[The Wrestler]]'' casts Mickey Rourke, a down-on-his-luck actor looking for a comeback, as a down-on-his-luck wrestler looking for a comeback.

* [[Jesse Ventura]] in ''[[The Running Man (film)|The Running Man]]''. Retired hunter turns play by play commentator.

* The holographic operator of the Decepticon vehicles in [[Transformers (film)|Transformers]], "Moustache Man", is an actual pilot for the US military who was qualified to fly the various vehicles he appeared in. He even delayed his wedding to play [[Corrupt Cop|Barricade's]] Moustache Man at the request of Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg.

* [[Peter Sellers]] took this trope into his own hands and put a twist on it. He often commented in interviews that he had no real personality and was nothing beyond the [[The Goon Show|many]] [[The Pink Panther|colorful]] [[Doctor Strangelove|characters]] he played. After he read ''[[Being There]]'', he contacted author Jerzy Kosinski about getting a film adaptation made because he saw in it the role he was meant to play all along. That would be Chance the Gardener, a mentally-challenged man whose personality is so underdeveloped that he can only reflect other people's assumptions and desires, which makes each one of them see him as everything he or she ever wanted—a passionate-yet-discreet lover, a brilliant thinker, etc. The resultant performance is regarded as one of the greatest, if not ''the'' greatest, of his career, even though it is worlds removed from most of his other work tonally.

** On one of his first jobs, the casting director asked, "Can you act like a convict?", to which Trejo responded [[Deadpan Snarker|"Yeah, I think I can give it a shot."]]

*** [[Nightmare Face|There may be reasons other than his past]] for why Trejo is typecast this way.

* After her infamous Saks Fifth Avenue shoplifting debacle, Winona Ryder played in a movie called ''[[The Ten]]'', which was an [[Anthology Film]] that riffed on [[The Commandments|the Ten Commandments]]. The subject of Ryder's segment? [[Shouldn't You Stop Stealing?|"Thou Shalt Not Steal."]]

* ''[[Memento]]'' required a [[Smug Snake]] type character for the antagonist, so they hired Joe Pantoliano, whose career is virtually nothing but. {{spoiler|Except, of course, that his character is innocent of the crime he's killed for in the film's opening. The role relies heavily on his typecasting to make the audience assume he's the bad guy, when he's the closest thing the protagonist has to a real friend. Virtually anyone but a typecast actor would have given the audience room to doubt.}}

* T.I. took this route in his movie ''ATL'', in which he plays a struggling artist in [[Atlanta]]. He himself grew up in a poorer part of Atlanta.

* [[George Clooney]]'s character in ''[[Up in the Air]]'' is a charming bachelor with no plans of marriage. The part was specifically written for him.

* In ''[[Sunset Boulevard]]'', the character of Norma Desmond, a forgotten silent film star was played by Gloria Swanson, a forgotten silent film star. His butler, Max von Mayerling who used to be a leading silent film director is played by Eric von Stroheim, who used to be a leading silent film director.

* In ''[[Dreamgirls]]'', [[Beyonce Knowles]] plays Deena, one of the members of a [[The Sixties|'60s]] [[Girl Group]] who ends up getting promoted more than the other band members (partially because of her relationship with the manager) and even leads to one member being fired from the band. In real life, Beyonce was the [[Face of the Band]] for [[Destiny's Child]] and is the one who has had the most successful solo career afterwards. Some people feel that the only reason that's true is because Beyonce's father was the manager. What takes this to another level of meta is that Beyonce actually got top billing over Jennifer Hudson, even though Hudson's character is the main character of the story.