10 Actors Who Broke Typecasting In The Worst Way Possible

Breaking out of typecasting isn't always the best idea...

Spring Breakers
A24

Typecasting is sometimes an inevitability for an actor. You get your big break in a certain type of role and Hollywood just goes with it; better to be safe than sorry, right? Since the dawn of time, actors have struggled with the boxes they're put inside of, poking and prodding at the walls to see how restricting they are.

What's even worse is that now, with the new age of social media and tabloid press, actor's images and their performances seemingly blur. So that now, performers struggle to differentiate their work from their personal lives and are typecast appropriately for it... or, I guess, inappropriately.

With all these constraints, actors can suffer immensely trying to break out from their typecast-box. A lot of actors handle this fight with grace, like how Heath Ledger completely shattered the glass ceiling of his career when he landed, and completely owned, the role of the Joker in The Dark Knight Trilogy. Other actors... are not so lucky!

Even though so many performers have made the transition out of their typecast roles seem effortless, a ton of actors have learnt the hard way that making that switch is not as easy as it seems.

10. Elizabeth Berkley - Showgirls

Spring Breakers
United Artists

Her Typecasting:

Elizabeth Berkley was you quintessential girl-next-door. No seriously, she lived next door to the main character Zach in her breakout role in the NBC show Saved By The Bell. Berkley's character was smart, bushy-tailed and kind, she was the All-American Girl that everyone in the country knew and loved.

How She Broke It:

When Berkley finished up her stint on Saved By The Bell, she looked desperately for roles that would shed her of her "good girl" image. And boy did she find one. Berkley took the leading role in the 1995 movie Showgirls, in which she played a promiscuous and street-smart stripper.

What Went Wrong:

If you haven't heard about the catastrophic failure that was the movie Showgirls then you're probably under the age of 20. Showgirls was a critical and financial flop about a young girl whose street smarts lead her into the world of stripping. No one had a good thing to say about the movie, and it seemed that Berkey had ruined her career forever. Nobody in the industry took her seriously after that and she was forced to take lifetime movie roles and bit parts in cheesy tv shows.

Contributor

Lily thought it was about time she wrote Top Ten lists for people other than herself. She also owes her dog a lot of money so she thought it was about time to pay her dues. There is no tv show she likes that she hasn't seen at least twice.