Does Being Typecast Hurt Your Career? Ask These Actors

The Eccentric

Photo by Raymond Hall/GC Images/Getty Images

Helena Bonham Carter initially became typecast for period pieces, like Hamlet and Howard’s End. Then she started dating Tim Burton, and subsequently began starring in all of his films…as pretty much as the same character. Thus she found a new label for herself: the crazed, eccentric female.

From Dark Shadows, Big Fish to Sweeney Todd, Carter even looks exactly the same in her roles, with wild unkempt hair and eccentric gothic style clothing. Not to mention she’s usually cast alongside Johnny Depp, making not only her characters, but her films appear to be copies of themselves.