12 Actors Who Played the Same Role for So Long They Decided to Change It Dramatically

In the world of cinema there is the term typecasting, which is when an actor or actress always plays the same type of character. It’s the case of Morgan Freeman, who is always the wise man, or Angelina Jolie, who is always seductive and fatal. Other actors play the same character for years, literally, in a saga or series.

And what happens when these actors decide to change? They surprise us and are often unrecognizable, to the point of making us curious to go to the cinema and see their performance up close.

Therefore, we from awesome.club In this list, we have gathered some actors who abandoned the character we were used to seeing to live a totally different one, with a bonus fun in the end.

After making a brief cameo in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Robert Pattinson has found a saga to call his own. He played the vampire Edward in the Twilight saga for four years, a role that people remember to this day. However, recently he has shown a much wider range of acting in more serious films like Tenet and The King. But the film in which Edward, or rather Robert, is unrecognizable is The Lighthouse, with Willem Dafoe.

The romantic partner with Robert was Kristen Stewart, who played the character Bella in the Twilight saga. And she was, for a long time, marked by this role, but she showed what she came in other productions, such as Certain Women. But it’s her work on Spencer that makes her unrecognizable, portrayed as Princess Diana just days before she filed for divorce from Prince Charles.

Here we have an actor who, in addition to playing the Norse god Thor for more than ten years, still has the typecasting of the strong and tall heartthrob – in the cast of Avengers, he is one of the tallest. However, to play the character Owen in the movie In the Heart of the Sea, Chris lost so much weight that fans thought he was sick. To get that unenviable physique, he lived on a 500-calorie-a-day diet, when the ideal is somewhere around 2,000 calories.

Tom Cruise has been in the role of Ethan Hunt for more than 25 years, the protagonist of the Mission: Impossible franchise. In addition to immortalizing his performance in the same role, he always lives beautiful, strong and masculine characters. So few people recognized him as Les Grossman, the bald, pot-bellied producer who still does a hilarious little dance over the end credits. Hilarious and memorable.

Another actor who was unrecognizable in Tropical Thunder was Robert Downey Jr. That’s right, the actor who will forever be known as the incarnation of Tony Stark has embarked on this cinema satire. He played actor Kirk Lazarus, who does everything for his roles and, in this case, underwent plastic surgery to change his skin color and play a black character. Of the role, the actor commented: “Tropical Thunder was about how wrong it was.”

Zendaya, who many have known for her role as MJ in the Spider-Man franchise, played the role of Rocky Blue in the Disney Channel series No Rhythm for a while. Rocky was a sweet, smart and responsible girl, and she loved to dance. Fans got the opportunity to get to know a darker side of Zendaya from 2019’s Euphoria series. This time, the actress plays the teenager Rue Bennett, the opposite of the sweet Rocky.

Here we have yet another classic case of typecasting, not only because Jim Carrey is a comedy actor, but because of his outstanding characteristic of acting with exaggerated faces and energetic body expression. Ace Ventura, The Mask, The Almighty and Debi & Loide are just a few examples of this type of role. Some time ago, Jim decided to make more serious films, like the thriller Dark Crimes, where the shaved hair, the big beard and the posture of the police officer Tadek left the actor almost unrecognizable.

Between being cast in the role of the world’s most famous wizard and the last day of shooting, ten years passed with Daniel Radcliffe playing the same role. Even today, even with a very large diversity of films, Daniel is recognized for his role as Harry Potter. But with some characters it takes a little more effort to remember the little wizard, as in Escape from Pretoria, in which Daniel impersonates Tim Jenkins, in a true story in which he is arrested for political reasons.

Neil Patrick Harris almost caught up with Daniel in time in the same role. He played, or rather stole the show, as Barney Stinson on the series How I Met Your Mother, from 2005 to 2014. Neil is what we call a performance artist: in addition to acting, he sings, dances, directs and does magic. And he was unrecognizable as the villain Count Olaf in the series A Series of Unfortunate Events, where he receives pounds of makeup to also play other characters (mis) interpreted by the Count.

With so much makeup and special effects, it’s really hard to recognize an actor. But sometimes, just so we don’t see the previous and more familiar characters. This is the case with Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger, who few people recognized as the relentless and unforgettable Mr. Smith from the Matrix franchise.

High School Musical was another trilogy that marked a generation, as well as the actors who played the main roles. Vanessa Hudgens, for example, is always remembered as Gabriella Montez, who is a romantic partner with the protagonist. Few recognized her as Apple, in the movie Home Finds, and her sloppy, rebellious look of a teenager living on the streets.

The second protagonist of High School Musical is Troy, Gabriella’s boyfriend and played by Zac Efron. The actor is also constantly recognized for this specific role and is looking to prove that he is much more than a pretty face. He has mainly acted in comedies, but also thrillers and dramas. And he is simply unrecognizable in the promotion of Gold, a survival film in the Australian outback.

Anyone who watched Avengers: Endgame in theaters might remember the reaction everyone had when they first saw Thor’s deplorable state. Very overweight, careless with his hair and beard, unmotivated, totally different from the Norse god we know. However, extremely funny. He couldn’t help but join that list, after all, he was really unrecognizable.

We can’t blame these actors, after all even we sometimes want to go through radical changes and be unrecognizable. Tell us which actor or actress has undergone a transformation so big you didn’t recognize it.