Playing Against Type/Live-Action TV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Playing Against Type in Live-Action TV include:

  • Andy Griffith, best known as either kindly small-town sheriff Andy Taylor or folksy defense attorney Ben Matlock, went years without playing villainous characters after he rose to fame on television, but broke the streak in the early 1980s when he was cast as John Wallace in Murder in Coweta County; the movie was the true story of John Wallace, a wealthy but sadistic landowner who kills one of his sharecroppers for stealing his cattle (by he and his goons beating up the hapless farmer, then pistol whipping him so hard he caused his gun to discharge), and it took a hard-nosed sheriff (Johnny Cash) to bring him to justice. A year before Matlock debuted, Griffith played Judge Julius Sullivan, a callously cruel judge who sentences two teen-aged girls to prison for a minor crime. After Matlock, Griffith returned to roles against type, playing the sociopathic JackMacGruder in the made-for-TV film Gramps; MacGruder turns even more sinister in his attempts to sexually molest his grandson, Matthew, and physically makes his true character known to anyone who stands in his way. In each of his three "bad guy" roles, Griffith retained his "small-town character" traits, making each of these roles even more memorable.
  • Nathan FIllion turned up as the villainous Caleb in Buffy the Vampire Slayer after playing roguish hero Captain Malcom Reynolds on Firefly. Not to mention the Jerk Jock Designated Hero Antagonist Captain Hammer in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
  • When the Stephen King miniseries The Langoliers was made, most people thought that the Ax Crazy Craig Toomey would be played by Dean Stockwell. Instead, it was played by Balki!
    • Speaking of Stephen King miniseries', his own take on The Shining contains two examples of Playing Against Type; Steven Weber (famous at the time for playing goofball Brian Hackett from Wings) played the slowly losing his mind Jack Torrence, and Rebecca De Mornay (famous for being typecast as psychotically dangerous women) played the very meek and demure wife Wendy.
  • Battlestar Galactica did this wonderfully with Dean Stockwell as Brother Cavil.

Let's get this genocide on the road.

  • Ben Browder of Farscape fame played an Ax Crazy man on CSI: Miami who set a fire that he intended to put out to prove he was good enough to join the fire department after their psychological screenings declared him unfit. The fire gets out of control and people died. His declarations that he's "A hero" are particularly disturbing as he did put out the fire, but seems unaware that people frown on that whole murder thing.
  • The British show Upstairs, Downstairs was loaded with actors playing against type, including Angela Baddeley, Jean Marsh, Rachel Gurney, Gordon Jackson, and Meg Wynn Owen. Angela Baddeley was so aristocratic in Real Life that her name appeared in Burke's Peerage, yet she played a servant convincingly.
  • Marc Warren, best known for playing a Loveable Rogue With a Heart of Gold on Hustle, stars in the TV adaptation of Hogfather as nightmarish Willy Wonka-like hitman Jonathan Teatime. And he's also played Count Dracula. Shiver. What's particularly interesting about the Hogfather role was that Warren himself thought up that presentation of Teatime and was actually hired with the expectation that he would play the character as something like a psychopathic Danny Blue.
  • Fred Savage (yes, the Fred Savage of The Wonder Years, The Princess Bride, and The Wizard (film)) once played a charismatic rapist on an episode of Law and Order Special Victims Unit.
    • He and his TV brother Jason Hervey also switched characterizations on an episode of Justice League, with Savage playing the angry Hawk and Hervey playing the gentler Dove.
    • Fred Savage also played an abusive boyfriend (stereotypically a wrestler) opposite Full House's Candice Cameron in a Lifetime Movie of the Week.
    • He also played a lecherous professor on Boy Meets World who harasses Topanga and tries to get Corey kicked out of college for defending her (That of course would be Corey played by Fred's real-life younger brother Ben Savage).
    • Not to mention a clarinet-playing heroin addict in The Rules of Attraction.
    • Then factor in he's directed several episodes of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia...
  • Speaking of the Law and Order franchise, Fred Savage isn't the only one doing that trick. If we go to SVU, Melissa Joan Hart played a teacher raped by her student and Jerry Lewis played Detective John Munch's mentally impaired uncle Andy. And in the original, Chevy Chase played an anti-Semitic Manipulative Bastard who made his son kill a Jewish woman he had a grudge against.
    • Don't forget Dean Cain. To see Superman playing a serial rapist...Brrrr.
      • Scott Peterson. That is all.
      • Also Stephen Colbert as the killer in an episode of L&O: Criminal Intent, as well as Whoopi Goldberg as a "Ma Barker" type gangleader, and Michael York as a metrosexual Charles Manson! Even Julia Roberts got to play a killer in Law and Order once (she took the part because she was dating Benjamin Bratt at the time). The Law and Order franchise is arguably the best place for established "good guy" actors to show that they can play villains.
    • Try and unhear The Fonz sneering "shut up, you stupid bitch" after being revealed to have plotted his wife's assault.
    • Adorable child actor Elle Fanning also played the part of an abused child who turned out to be a sociopathic liar and wound up setting one of the detectives' apartments on fire so they could stay together forever. It was very creepy.
      • Dakota Fanning (Elle's older sister) played an abused child with an entirely different twist in CSI: she was the product of incestuous rape, and her mother/"sister" had the rest of the family killed when her father in both senses of the word turned his attention to her.
      • In the same vein, notoriously sweet, good-girl actress Hilary Duff (best known as Lizzie McGuire, and for being as nice IRL as she is in most of her roles) played a neglectful, hard-partying teen mother in an episode of SVU.
      • On Criminal Intent, Neil Patrick Harris played a serial killer who ate part of his victims.
    • Christopher Meloni went in the other direction, playing the coach in Gym Teacher: The Movie on Nickelodeon.
      • And a cynical pediatrician on Scrubs, as well as oddball mutant Freakshow in Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle and another oddball KKK leader in the sequel.
      • Plus the oddball camp cook in Wet Hot American Summer.
      • And the Flamboyant Gay hotel clerk in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which is particularly funny in contrast to his previous appearance in a Terry Gilliam film, Twelve Monkeys - as a cop.
      • Let us not forget the role he was best known for before he played Stabler: Depraved Bisexual Chris Keller on Oz. Not only does he treat Murder the Hypotenuse as a commandment regarding his lover, Beecher, he broke Beecher's arms and legs because Beecher had rejected him.
      • Arguably, his dramatic roles are the initial Playing Against Type for him, as through his initial stages of acting, his background was actually in comedy.
    • Let's not forget the original Playing Against Type actor that Law and Order exhibited: The late, great Jerry Orbach. Originally a Musical Theatre star, he was then-best known for playing sleazy Amoral Attorneys (so like Billy Flynn, a role he originated); In fact, he even played a defense lawyer on L&O before they recast him. Turning him into a jaded, snarky Lawful Neutral detective was an unexpected masterstroke, and he stayed attached to the show until his untimely death.
      • Orbach had played a very similar character to Briscoe in the 1981 film Prince of the City. Right before L&O, he played a sinister Mob type in Crimes And Misdemeanors.
    • A currently active one: Anthony Anderson's Kevin Bernard. Last longest role was as Complete Monster Antwon Mitchell on The Shield.
    • And then, of course, there's Richard Belzer, who before becoming Detective John Munch (on Homicide) was most widely known for his stand-up comedy.
  • Whoopi Goldberg, mentioned above, also played against her own sassy black woman stereotype when she played the immortal free-spirited bartender Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
  • Speaking of TNG, you owe it to yourself to watch the episode of Extras with Patrick Stewart. He's got some wonderful ideas for a screenplay.
  • And Dwight Schultz as the timid engineer Barclay, a few years after playing the clinically insane "Howling Mad" Murdock on The A-Team.
  • Andrew Sachs, known to most as the clumsy waiter Manuel of Fawlty Towers, played as a twitchy crafty paedophile in The Bill.
  • Pauline Quirke, known for her comedic fat lady role in Birds of a Feather, literally turned heads in her role as a serial killer in a crime drama called The Sculptress.
  • Christopher McDonald who always plays smarmy, Jerkass characters showed up in Stargate Universe, in a row everyone expected to be a smarmy, Jerkass self interested Senator as quite a few politicians have been before him in the franchise. Then he turns out to be smart and noble and ends up performing a Heroic Sacrifice to save the crew.
  • Bob Saget, best known as playing Danny Tanner on Full House and serving as the original host of Americas Funniest Home Videos, was and still is an incredibly vulgar stand-up comedian. He once stated in an interview he took the "clean" jobs because he needed the money for his family.
    • So does he need the money again, now that he's the narrator in How I Met Your Mother?
    • He also seemed to enjoy the dissonance and shock value that comes from people who only know his "wholesome" work discovering his stand-up comedy.
  • Phil Silvers, famous for playing fast-talking swindlers, appears in an episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalkers as a Jewish retiree scraping by on his pension in a decaying neighborhood. He's a thousand miles away from Sergeant Bilko and also completely convincing.
  • Lost has Dominic Monaghan of The Lord of the Rings fame playing Mancunian failed rock-star heroin addict Charlie Pace. Though as the show progressed and he kicked the junk, he seemed to revert to a lovable (albeit taller) hobbit.
  • Another example from Lost is Yunjin Kim, who gained fame in Korea playing Action Girls, but her character in Lost, Sun, is pretty much The Woobie.
  • Prior to The Golden Girls, Betty White had played raunchy Sue Ann on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, while Rue McClanahan had played The Ditz on Maude. Thus Betty was originally considered for Blanche and Rue was considered for Rose. Neither actress wanted to play such a similar role, so they suggested the switch. As a result, younger viewers are astonished to see their prior series.
    • Betty White probably shocks a lot of people with her dirty mouth when she appears in skits on the The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
      • ...as her former one-time MTM "rival" Cloris Leachman did on Dancing With the Stars and the roast of Bob Saget.
      • White's career has cycled through types a few times. The role of Sue Ann itself was playing against the type she'd established in various programs in the 1950s and 1960s. Then, having reestablished herself as the super-nice one on Golden Girls, she's spent the 1990s and 00s playing against it: for example, in her guest appearance in Everwood, where her character was slightly racist; or on Boston Legal, where she killed a man; or on Ugly Betty, where she played herself as a manipulative gambling addict ("All that Golden Girls money went right down the nickel slots!"), or Kitty's Jerkass mother in That '70s Show.
      • One of the drawing points of the film Lake Placid was the chance to see Betty White play a foul-mouthed role.
  • Criminal Minds enjoys casting former child and teen stars as crazed killers. James Van Der Beek (as a multiple personality stricken home invasion murderer) and Frankie Muniz (as an insane comic book artist turned gang member butcher) appeared in the second and third seasons, respectively. In the fourth season, Luke Perry and Wil Wheaton appeared as unsubs. As one cast member joked:

Matthew Gray Gubler (Spencer Reid): I'm always getting held hostage by teen idols - first James Van Der Beek was a guest star and held Reid hostage, and this time it's Luke Perry. I actually saw Scott Baio out front, and I swear he looked at me.

    • Comedic actors are not immune, either: Jamie Kennedy played a cannibalistic serial killer in the third season episode "Lucky", and George Costanza (Jason Alexander) played a mastermind manipulator in the fourth season episode, "Masterpiece".
      • Alexander also played against type with a surprisingly low-key turn as an ice-cold, utterly amoral supergenius on Star Trek: Voyager.
        • At the height of Seinfeld, Alexander went way against type as a charming, charismatic mentalist on Remember WENN, written by his longtime friend Rupert Holmes.
    • The pilot episode features DJ Qualls as one half of a serial killing partnership. Qualls had, to that point, mostly been known for playing awkward comic relief characters.
    • Jackson Rathbone played a janitor suspected of murdering a number of young men and the janitor's female split personality who was the actual killer. He was absolutely brilliant. It almost makes you cry when you see what he was reduced to in Twilight.
    • Try picturing Gideon delivering that immortal line: "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." This troper never even realised it was the same actor.
    • Criminal Minds just had French Stewart as a serial killer. Bad Gadget!! Bad, bad Gadget!
      • Stewart also played a pretty skeevy informant in an episode of Castle.
    • Mitch Pileggi as the shotgun-wielding remorse killer in "Normal". No, not Skinner!
  • Prior to 3rd Rock from the Sun, John Lithgow mostly played serious villains.
  • After playing a sugary-sweet, innocent maternal character in La Ninera, Florencia Pena played the greedy, dysfunctional, politically incorrect mother in Casados Con Hijos. Guillermo Francella, whose roles as fathers are always of the Greg Brady type, was cast as the drunken, idiotic and also greedy and dysfunctional father.
    • The same happened in the Chilean version of Casado con Hijos. Javiera Contador plays the mother, and she actually was known as The Ingenue heroine in several telenovelas...
  • Another Chilean case in the 80's. Deceased lead actor Tennyson Ferrada was typecast as sweet and gentle grandpa-type mentors, but then La Última Cruz (The Last Cross) came... and he played the Magnificent Bastard Big Bad patriarch.
  • Dianne Wiest, more usually known as the sweet, motherly type (for just a few among many examples, consider: the preacher John Lithgow's wife in Footloose, the mother in The Lost Boys, and conservative senator Gene Hackman's wife in The Birdcage), instead gets to appear as the wonderfully menacing, insane, and monstrous Evil Queen in The Tenth Kingdom. As she put it herself in the behind-the-scenes featurette, "It's quite delicious really. I get to kill anybody who gets in my way, so you'd better stay away from me. Otherwise you might end up dead."
    • She also then appeared as the hard-bitten D.A. in charge of Sam Waterson's prosecutor's office on Law and Order.
  • Michael Kostroff built his career with film after film where he played a heroic crusading lawyer. Then comes The Wire where he played Maurice Levy, Baltimore's go-to attorney for drug dealers and one of the most vile and unlikable characters in a show that deals almost exclusively with Black and Grey Morality.
  • Michael Shanks' main role for the past decade or so has been the nerdy, courageous archeologist Daniel Jackson, in Stargate SG-1. Then you've got Burn Notice, where he's cast as Victor, a psychotic, amoral super-scary spy, who has it in for the protagonist. It's great to watch.
    • Before that, he played the part of a psychopathic date rapist stalker in Judicial Indiscretions, in which he is definitely not redeemed at the end, though he is (sort of) in Burn Notice.
    • He was also a spy in 24, and a criminal in Eureka who nearly destroyed the entire town through his arrogance. And let's not forget his role as the sociopathic Balance of Judgement and his insane avatars in Andromeda.
    • While still a heroic character, his role as Carter Hall/Hawkman on Smallville is nearly the complete opposite of Daniel Jackson in terms of personality.
  • Done to a large extent in Roots, which largely cast actors known for positive, wholesome roles as its nastier characters, including Robert Reed, Ralph Waite, Lorne Greene, Burl Ives, Sandy Duncan, and Chuck Conners. It also went the other way by casting Ed Asner, best known as the gruff, surly Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, as a slave ship captain who is conflicted and tortured about his trade.
  • Wil Wheaton did this on not one but two CBS shows in the 2007/08 season, guest starring as a selfish comic book creator (who shoulders a cosplaying Klingon out of his way) in an episode of Numb3rs and as the aforementioned baddie of the week in Criminal Minds. A few years earlier, he played a crazy homeless guy on CSI.
    • Not to mention a (more comedic) douchebag version of himself on The Big Bang Theory to the point where he is now Sheldon's arch nemesis.

"WHEATON!!!"

  • Eric Peterson, famous for the series Street Legal, spent most of his career playing wise, smarter characters. Contrast his role as the cranky, short tempered, yelling at butterflies Oscar Leroy on Corner Gas
  • Similar to the Fred Savage example above, Alan Tudyk (who is probably best remembered as the adorable pilot Wash, from Firefly), played a child molester on CSI.
    • Contrast his role as Doc in 3:10 to Yuma with his appearance on Dollhouse. Dude's got range.
      • As mentioned above, Dollhouse averted this trope with Alan Tudyk. Tudyk's first appearance on Dollhouse was as a stoner architect not unlike Wash. It turned out to be Playing Against Type after all, though, because he was actually the Joker-esque psycho Alpha.
    • Also playing against type was Summer Glau, playing Bennett. While she had previous roles that solidified her as the Trope Codifier for small, badass women, Bennett was distinctly meek and un-badass. Of course, she still played up other aspects of Summer's previous characters.
  • Hugh Laurie was known in England for his comedy, particularly his cheerfully stupid roles in Blackadder and Jeeves and Wooster. Then he adopted an American accent to play a cynical, near-Heroic Sociopath genius in the American drama House. Thanks to the different accents, some people still can't quite accept Bertie Wooster and House as the same actor. It was also lampshaded in some of the FOX promos for the series, when the announcer announces Hugh Laurie's name, he then says derisively "You idiot!" before announcing that he's the star lead of House.
    • He played a cynic in Sense and Sensibility. The character is very similar to his House character, but is actually a decent person. And he doesn't have an American accent, obviously.
    • Don't forget that he also played an extremely loud-mouthed and scary IAD officer in dirty cop drama Street Kings.
  • The Shield is famous for its resurrection of Michael Chiklis's career, let alone allowing him to pretty much escape being typecast as the "stern, but lovable father figure" after his previous long-running series The Commish. It also re-energized the career of comedic actor Anthony Anderson, whose tenure on the show as ruthless Machiavellian drug kingpin helped open up new acting opportunities for him, ultimately culminating in him landing a main character role on Law and Order.
    • Michael Chiklis now stars in No Ordinary Family where he plays a nice guy once again. However, instead of a tough cop he now plays an insecure part time police sketch artist and it is the wife who is the successful scientist and breadwinner.
    • The Commish also to a point, as before that he was best known for his portrayal of John Belushi in Wired, the ill-conceived bio of his life. In fact, many industry insiders considered his career over before it really started because of that movie.
  • An in-show example of this occurs in the Christmas Special of The Worst Witch where nasty, scary and mean Miss Hardbroom is cast as the kind and benevolent Fairy Godmother in the pantomime of "Cinderella".
  • An example could be made of William Hartnell when he took on the role of Doctor Who in 1963, after decades of playing "Hard Men" and Barking Sergeant Majors.
    • Also Christopher Eccleston, better known at the time for his roles in serious dramas.
    • Jon Pertwee was mostly known for Goons-esque comedy roles before being cast as the suave Gentleman Adventurer-style Third Doctor.
      • Catherine Tate was well known for being a catchphrase driven comic (which is played pretty straight in her previous appearance in the Christmas special)- she surprised everyone by pulling off a serious role in the fourth series
  • Ashley Johnson. Southern prostitute. That is all.
  • Rik Mayall, known in the UK for his insane and violent roles in The Young Ones and Bottom, as well as The Comic Strip Presents and other similar shows, did a non-comedic and largely straight performance as a police detective in an episode of Jonathan Creek, the first acting role he took after a serious head injury. He is also the narrator of a children's show called Jellikins / Jellabies, which is a show aimed at 2-6 year olds.
  • Brenda Song's breakout role was on Nick's One Hundred Deeds for Eddie Mcdowd where she played an Asian and Nerdy character. Now she pretty much always plays Asian Airheads. Way more bizarrely, she's a bitchy, sociopathic girlfriend of the lead of The Social Network, who goes to such extremes as lighting a bed on fire. And makes it believable. Whoa, She Really Can Act.
  • Jenna Leigh Green is best remembered for playing a certain cheerleader on Sabrina the Teenage Witch. However, in the Cold Case episode "Wednesday's Women", Green plays the younger version of an undercover schoolteacher who taught African-Americans kids in the Jim Crow-era South who feels guilty in recruiting her best friend who ends getting murdered after they're found out.
  • Clancy Brown is very often a villain, with roles including a sadistic guard in The Shawshank Redemption, The Antichrist in Carnivale and Lex Luthor in Superman the Animated Series and Justice League - even his role as Mr. Krabs in SpongeBob SquarePants is a pretty big Jerkass. So, it's kind of surprising that in the legal drama The Deep End, his firm partner character is the nice one who is benevolent to the associates, and it's the other partner who is the unpleasant Amoral Attorney.
    • Don't forget Highlander. The Kurgan is the strongest - and nastiest - of all the immortals.
    • He originally auditioned for the role of Superman himself in Superman the Animated Series.
    • In Earth Two he played one of the main protagonists... but found himself in frequent conflict with the other major protagonist.
    • Brown was cast as Reasonable Authority Figure George Stacey in The Spectacular Spider-Man. In the same series he also played the part of the dim-witted Rhino.
  • Breaking Bad Brian Cranson was known for playing a Bumbling Dad on Malcolm in the Middle. Now he's won the emmy for best actor twice in a row playing a science Anti-Hero (or Anti-Villain or Villain Protagonist as YMMV)
  • A memorable episode of ER had comedian Bob Newhart in a very unfunny role as an architect who is losing his sight and contemplating suicide.
    • He didn't just contemplate it.
  • Atsuko Tanaka is mostly a seiyuu known for her deep voice, which goes along great with professional Badass ladies with no-nonsense personality (eg: Major Motoko Kusanagi). Her deep alluring voice is also sometimes used for villainess roles. But, in Juken Sentai Gekiranger, she voiced the penguin-sensei Michelle Peng, who, while a professional in her own way, is very peppy and has a very high-pitched voice, you REALLY won't recognize her right off bat.
  • What do Amy Adams, Dan Lauria, Jonathan Taylor |Thomas, Brian Austin Green, Dean Cain, Tori Spelling, Shawn Ashmore, and Maggie Lawson have in common? They're all Smallville villains, of course.
  • Character actor Kenneth MacDonald, best known for playing smooth villains in Three Stooges shorts and B westerns, had a recurring role as a judge on Perry Mason.
  • After decades of being mostly known for his role as the Enterprise's resident Butt Monkey on Star Trek, I'm sure it was a relief for Walter Koenig to portray Magnificent Bastard Al Bester on Babylon 5.
  • Dick Van Dyke, who usually plays the comic relief in musicals like Mary Poppins or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, as well as ad exec Dick Burgess on The Dick Van Dyke Show, played the Murderer of the Week (a henpecked photographer who shoots his wife and the man he hired to make it look like a murder/suicide) on an episode of Columbo.
  • Call Me Fitz is pretty much a perfect example of this.
  • For five years, Michael C. Hall played the timid but well-meaning and likable David Fisher on Six Feet Under. After it ended in 2005, he returned a year later as the cunning, monstrous, and sociopathic title character on Dexter.
    • Do you mean well-meaning and likable cunning monstrous sociopath?
    • Further examples include Comic actor John Lithgow best known for 3rd Rock From The Sun as the ultra Disturbing Trinity Killer in Season Four and Jimmy Smits, known for playing noble Heroes on NYPD Blue and The West Wing as the increasingly unstable Partner in crime Miguel Prado in Season Three.
  • The short lived 1991 series, Good and Evil, had this trope as its selling point. Created by Susan Harris, the woman behind Soap, Benson, The Golden Girls and others, it was a soap opera spoof telling the story of two sisters, one good and one evil, and their families. The sisters were played by Teri Garr, known for her ditzy girl-next door roles, and Margaret Whitten, best known for her bitchy roles. Naturally, Garr played the bad girl, and Whitten the good girl.
  • Sharon Small in the TV movie No Child of Mine. She is most famous for sympathetic, genuinely good-hearted characters like Barbara Havers on The Inspector Lynley Mysteries and Trudi Malloy on Mistresses, and is absolutely adorable. In No Child Of Mine, however, she plays a pathologically, violently abusive mother, and does it so convincingly that the result can be quite literally nauseating.
  • Katie Couric did something between this and Adam Westing in Will and Grace. She played herself, but poked holes in her reputation as a chipper, energetic Genki Girl and turned it into a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing facade.
  • Before playing Supernatural‍'‍s Castiel, Misha Collins mostly played creepy guys (the serial rapist/murderer in Karla) or Russians ("Vlad" in CSI) or creepy Russians (Alexis Drazen in 24). He probably only auditioned for Castiel because the part was advertised as a demon, rather than an angel.
    • The humorless, uptight, conservative, virginal Cas is basically the opposite of Misha himself in every way. He has confirmed that the wildly altered future version of Castiel seen in the fifth-season episode "The End" is disturbingly similar to his real-life personality, noting that he enjoyed preparing for the orgy scenes.
  • Bill Engvall is mostly known for comedy (he's the "Here's Your Sign" guy). He plays Det. Jimmy Dupree in HawthoRNe pretty damn vicious, using tactics that would probably get an actual detective reprimanded at least.
  • John Ritter is best known for portraying the happy-go-lucky Jack Tripper and various comedic characters (plus, he had a Real Life reputation as a Nice Guy), so it was quite a shock to see him play a Complete Monster in Lifetime Movie of the Week Lethal Vows. Just look at the poster.
  • Bill Pullman normally plays good guys or at least aloof heroes. So seeing him as a pedophilic child murderer on Torchwood: Miracle Day is very disturbing and surprising.
  • Most of Chevy Chase's most well-known and beloved roles -- such as Fletch, Clark Griswold, etc -- tend to be smooth, intelligent and swift-witted Deadpan Snarkers who, even if they're not always on top of the situation, are usually the cleverest and funniest person in the room. Then there's Pierce Hawthorne in Community who can be most easily summed up as basically the exact opposite of almost every single one of these traits.
    • However, some people familiar with Chase's off-screen antics claim that he's actually playing himself.
  • Whatever you might think about Hayden Panettiere playing Amanda Knox in Amanda Knox: Murder On Trial in Italy - and there were some who definitely disapproved not only of her casting but of the film being made in the first place - you can't deny that it's a change of pace, to put it mildly.
    • See also her playing something of an Alpha Bitch of a country singer on Nashville.
  • In Shining Time Station, the second Mr. Conductor is played by George Carlin. Mr. Conductor is a genuinely kind, supportive, and upbeat character, very different from Carlin's famous stage personality. In this case, George wanted to play against type very much, and this show gave him the opportunity.
  • Will Arnett playing a loving, caring husband and father on Up All Night is far removed from the selfish jerks he normally is known to play.
  • Charlie Hunnam was known for playing Bishounen roles in shows like Undeclared and films like Nicholas Nickleby. That is, until he played the lead Badass Biker on Sons of Anarchy.
  • Rene Auberjonois got a rep for playing an effeminate wimp during his stint on Benson, but ended up played tough guy Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, even making his voice more gravelly.
    • And then there was his playing a child-molesting priest on Saving Grace.
  • Before Perry Mason both Raymond Burr and William Talman were best know as Film Noir villains with Burr called the heaviest heavy for his bad guys were utterly viscous characters while Talman portrayed complete psychopaths. Now they are known as those two titans of law, Perry Mason and Hamilton Burger.
  • Leslie Nielsen in Creepshow; unless, of course, you're old enough to remember his roles before Airplane!, in which case it seems he's Still Got It.
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