Typecasting undermines Hollywood talent
By Michael Palumbo
Feb. 3, 2012 12:12 a.m.
I walked into a screening of Katherine Heigl’s new movie “One for the Money” expecting to roll my eyes over the contrived romantic comedy I had already seen Heigl do countless times.
In the movie, based on a popular book series by Janet Evanovich, Heigl plays Stephanie Plum, a down-and-out woman who resorts to working as a bail bondsman in which her first job is to catch her high school fling, with whom she still harbors resentment.
The premise certainly has the potential to be a bad romantic comedy, but upon viewing I realized that it wasn’t really one at all. The movie’s tone throughout is somewhat confused, but on the whole it actually has some pretty heavy subject matter such as drugs, prostitution and crime. It dawned on me that the movie was simply marketed as a romantic comedy. So why did the studio feel the need to advertise the movie as such?
One reason could be that the movie isn’t very good and the studio tried to salvage its investment by giving audiences what they felt would be more appealing: a romantic comedy with Katherine Heigl. However, I think this says something not only about Heigl’s career but also about the roles of women in film.
Studios seem to think that women are only drawn to romantic comedies or an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel, and because of this, women such as Heigl ““ who showed depth and range as an actress in “Grey’s Anatomy” and comedic promise in “Knocked Up” ““ are forced to star in unoriginal and monotonous romantic comedies such as “Killers” and “The Ugly Truth.”
There are many things wrong with this, and it’s not fair that Heigl is wasting her potential by constantly playing the beautiful single female who just can’t get a man.
That is, until some outrageous situation pits her against an aggressive alpha male (Gerard Butler in “The Ugly Truth,” Jason O’Mara in “One for the Money”), where both initially have no attraction for each other until the end of the movie.
This has happened to a number of other actresses, from Kate Hudson to Drew Barrymore to Jennifer Aniston.
Male actors aren’t immune to typecasting, either. Mark Wahlberg has played some variation of his roles in “The Italian Job” or “The Departed” in many of his action movies, especially in last month’s “Contraband.” Jason Statham has played the same action hero from “The Transporter” films. Michael Cera always seems to play the awkward and quirky man child seen in “Juno” and “Superbad” and has applied it to every romantic comedy he’s been in since, from “Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist” to “Paper Heart.”
However, the trend is definitely more apparent in female roles, and Heigl has now become typecasted as a rom-com staple. I think she tried to make a departure from this with “One for the Money” because the movie on the whole isn’t centered on a love story, but this trend has gotten to the point where studios think an audience will only see her as a romantic lead.
The opening weekend numbers mark Heigl’s lowest initial box office return since she became recognized as a star ($11.5 million in the first weekend versus “27 Dresses,” which grossed $23.07 million), signaling that audiences are becoming fatigued with seeing Heigl in this role.
Romantic comedies aren’t the only culprits that limit the strength and power of real women. I believe more movies in every realm of cinema should feature deep and more identifiable female roles.
“The Help,” which just won three Screen Actors Guild awards, is a prime example of an almost entirely female cast facing real problems that reach beyond race. Rooney Mara’s portrayal of Lisbeth Salander in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is fierce, socially awkward and aggressive, and it displays the vulnerability of a woman without demeaning or reducing her worth.
As a result, Mara’s Salander is a literary and cinematic heroine for our times.
The box office success for both these movies proves that not every woman has to be the female counterpart to Matthew McConaughey in a romantic comedy.
Do you agree that there should be more realistic and identifiable roles for women in movies? Email Palumbo at
