6 MORE Actors Who Broke Typecasting In The Most Epic Way

3. Denzel Washington - Training Day

His Type

For the majority of his career before 2001, Denzel Washington built a reputation as the heroes' hero. He may have played complex characters, as in Malcolm X, but his roles tended to be marked by innate wholesomeness. He was, for all intents and purposes, a good guy actor, bristling with charisma and self-confidence, but reassuring and safe and he could have gone his whole career without deviation.

How He Broke It

That all changed in 2001 when Washington grew a goatee - a sure sign of evil, as any Star Trek episode with an alternate universe version of a character proves - and became the ultimate badass crooked cop. He was as far removed from his inspirational, life-changing coach in Remember The Titans as was possibly conceivable and it added grit and depth to his acting persona that had thusfar been absent.

From there, he's played more complex, darker characters - while also playing wholesome, confident heroes - and the point is very much that his performance spectrum appears far broader.