Actors are the crux of the multi-billion dollar movie industry. They are the faces of their movies and embody the soul of the characters we fall in love with. We become enchanted with their perfomance, often associating actor with character. These associations can be so strong that they define an actor's career, leading to the phenomenon of typecasting. As such, have you ever wondered why some actors are typecast in the same or similar roles? Why Dwayne Johnson always seems to plays the adventurous, headstrong and caring leader? Why Jason Staham is constantly cast as the gritty, hardboiled tough guy? Do their characters have specific inherent features tailor-made to these actors or is it the other way around?
Come along with us as we delve deeper in this phenomenon of typecasting, analyzing the features of actors playing similar roles. Join us as we explore everything from their facial features to their age, piecing together element by element, observation by observation the answer to this question.
Like any good story, we need to start by setting up our story's environment, laying down the foundation so that our conclusion does not topple itself. As such, we begin with the definitions of the key terms of our questions, the "features" and the "character tropes".
The first chapter in our data story is just a click below away!