Does Being Typecast Hurt Your Career? Ask These Actors

The Tattooed Tough Guy

Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images

Perhaps the most typecast actor in Hollywood is Danny Trejo. A former boxing champ and convict, Trejo has landed a slew of roles as the ethnic, tattooed thug. but he doesn’t seem to mind one bit: “The first time I was interviewed in L.A., this girl asked me, “Aren’t you afraid of being typecast?” “And I said “What?” And she said, “You’re always playing the mean Chicano dude with tattoos.” I thought about it, and I said, “I am the mean Chicano dude with tattoos. Somebody got it right.”

This persona seems to be working for him; he’s is in such high demand that in 2015 alone he starred in 20 films.