Unusual Role Association Because of My Childhood

As much as we don't want to admit it typecasting happens to even some of the greatest actors. But I'm not talking about the normal kind of typecasting/role association. This is far more of a personal typecasting. You firmly get the idea of someone as a character and no matter what role they take in the future that role influences you to believe things about that character, even if it's untrue.

Because of this unconcious typecasting I've come to believe certain things bout certain actors. Here are just a few.

Derek Jacobi:

He may look like a friendly old man, and he probably is, but I will forever associate him with the role of Professor Yana/The Master from Doctor Who. It was the first role I saw him in and he can't escape it. I see him as a bad guy in everything. It didn't help the next role I saw him in was in The Golden Compass where he played a bad guy as well. Even when he was in the King's Speech, playing a fairly nice character, I interpereted everything he did as quasi-evil. All because of Doctor Who.

Tim Curry:

Going in the opposite direction I don't see Tim Curry as a bad guy on first appearance. I know, you're probably listing twenty different roles in disagreement with me right away. I can do that too: Frank N. Furter in Rocky Horror, Pennywise the Clown in IT, just about every role he's ever had ever.... I get that. However, I grew up watching Wild Thornberries. In this show Tim Curry played the kind and loving father Nigel Thornberry. Yes, you read that correctly, kind and loving. In fact, he was the goofy if slightly ineffectual parent, because he was the British one. I'm not kidding you. I associate his voice with Nigel Thornberry, one of the coolest dads I know.

Micheal Caine:

Micheal Caine has recently been known as the Bad-Ass Alfred in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy. This was, while not shocking, an interesting break from his kind and thoughtful old mand appearences in the past, like in Cider House Rules While not exactly weak in either Second Hand Lions or The Prestige he still wasn't the former action man that he was in The Dark Knight or Batman Begins. However, the role I have of him permanantly lodged in my brain is a much younger role, that was Bad Ass. In the original Italian Job, Micheal Caine plays Charlie Croker, a criminal mastermind and ladies man(well, not really a master mind, but he does add a lot to the plan) and this doesn't really gel with his current persona. That is what I associate him with.

Roger Allam:

This is another perpetual bad guy for me. I can't help it. The first two films I saw him in were V for Vendetta and Speed Racer and he played a bad guy in both. He didn't play slightly evil people, he played  truly heartless people. He played Royalton in Speed Racer (the big bad) and The Voice of London in V for Vendetta (where he played an evil general turned evil talkshow host). This colored my recent viewings of The Queen, where he played an aide to her majesty. Even though he just seemed quiet and had good intentions I still felt he was a jerk, even though there is NOTHING to support this.

I just realized this list is full of British men. I didn't mean it that way. It's just sort of funny.