10 Actors Who Broke Typecasting In The Worst Way Possible
8. Melissa McCarthy - The Kitchen
Her Typecasting:
Melissa McCarthy major breakout performance came in Paul Feig's Bridesmaids in 2011. It's been ten years and McCarthy is still known as loud mouthed Megan, who famously pooped in a sink. Since then, McCarthy has been cast in variations of that same slapstick comedy type.
How She Broke It:
In 2019, 7 years after her breakout role, she snagged the part of mob wife Kathy in the highly anticipated movie The Kitchen. The story seemed an interesting take on the mafia genre; revolving around the women of the mafia over their male counterparts. McCarthy looked as though she was going to be flexing her acting chops, giving us emotional range and quiet contemplation; the opposite to her previous roles.
What Went Wrong:
Unfortunately McCarthy didn't actually show much acting range in this role. Apparently she believed that to distance herself from the loud mouthed, wacky characters she usually played, she had to strip all life out of her role. What should have been a career defining performance, came across as lazy and forgettable. McCarthy completely undid the work she'd done the year prior in Can You Ever Forgive Me, and because that film was far less mainstream, most audiences never got to see her range.