That's the difference between typecasting and casting by second choice, which sometimes meant casting against type.
A classic example of typecasting is Clark Gable as Rhett Butler. Whereas, Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine is casting against type. Today we can no longer imagine anyone but Bogie in Casablanca but back in 1942 this casting tactic was irrational move.
For 12 years prior, Bogie's image was synonymous with the eternal bad-guy with no less than 40 gangster movies to his credit.
Had not director Michael Curtiz's intuition over-turned Warner Bros first choice - Ronald Reagan - surely Casablanca could not been the cinematic classic it is today.
Whether it's a case typecasting (blending a character to suit the star) or casting against type, (creating a brand-new image for a star) we (the audience) seldom give casting decisions a second thought. Unless the anomaly between the star and the screen character is far wider than we can visualize.
Little is known, how the studio system goes about creating the star system. For what we think are inspired casting decisions are often a second or third choice by Hollywood executive, a misjudgment by an actor, or merely a quirk of fate.
As was the case, when producer David O Selznick insisted that only a Clark Gable type would do Rhett Butler justice, over author Margaret Mitchell's choice of Errol Flynn for the lead. Selznick decision is proof enough that this visual metaphor works. For 61 years later, the names Gable and Rhett are still drawn in the same breath.
Despite the fact that by 1939 Gable had a 15 year establish career, starred in 41 movies, won the Best Actor for It Happened One Night (1934) and went on to make another 28 movies, Gable and Rhett will always be indistinguishable.
Suffice to say typecasting does pay its dues for many actors. John Wayne (the formulated cowboy) Errol Flynn (the rampant swashbuckler) and Cary Grant (the debonair lover) all relied on their two faced images.
Like them, Spencer Tracey was also a party to the typecasting syndrome, but he endorsed it. When he was asked if he wasn't sick and tied of always playing Spence, he retorted: "What am I suppose to do, play Bogart?"
