Casting Against Type.

There are two movies that quickly come to mind, although the actors aren't favourites! The first is Robin Williams in 'One hour photo', where he plays a psycho, and then there's the original 'Posiedon Adventure', where Leslie Nielson plays a small part a captain of the ship! When I see a commedian in a serious role, I keep waiting for them to come out with a joke!

Jim Carey I think does well when outside of his normal comedy range. Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind and Man on the Moon were excellent examples.

Mind you I do not think an actor playing a homosexual would be considered a good role unless one shows the danger of that lifestyle. But many actors do stretch themselves and do not play to type. That is probably why television shows are canceled, because the leading actor finds that people are associating him with the role of the hero. I have watched the old movies on TCM and have seen one actor, D *ick Powell, who was a handsome leading man singer who switched to playing hard-boiled detectives such as Philip Marlowe. I also saw how Angela Langsbury could switch from playing a Philistine girl in "Samson and Delilah", to the evil manipulated woman in "The Manchurian Candidate", the housemaid in "Gaslight" and then went on to play the lead in "Murder She Wrote." The mark of a good actor is his or her ability to play any part.

I think that people know what they are good at, and it just doesn't fit most of the time when they are out of their genre of acting. But when they try something different, you can almost garantee they are out of ideas, and despirite. LOL The movie that comes to mind for me was One hour Photo too. The whole movie I was just waiting and waiting for Robin Williams to do something funny. Didn't happen.LOL Another one that somes to mind is Punch Drunk Love with Adam Sandler. Not a very funny movie to start with, and he just plays this depressed boring guy. Not him he is always so happy and funny.