Resistance and Resignation: Responses to Typecasting in British Acting

Abstract

This article draws on 38 in-depth interviews with British actors to explore the operation of typecasting. First, we argue that typecasting acts as the key mechanism through which the 'somatic norm' is established in British acting. It delivers an oversupply of leading roles for white, male, middle-class actors while ensuring that those who deviate somatically are restricted to largely socially caricatured roles. Second, we focus on the career trajectories of 'othered' actors. While they frequently experience acting roles as offensive and discriminatory, we demonstrate how most nonetheless reluctantly accept the terms of their 'type' in order to survive and succeed. Third, we focus on the minority who have attempted to challenge their type. Here we find that successful resistance is accomplished by carefully choosing work that subverts the somatic norm. However, the ability to exercise such choice is highly contingent on resources associated with an actor's class origin.

Inequality talk: How discourses by senior men reinforce exclusions from creative occupations

“…Leadership and decision-making positions in CCIs have traditionally been some of the least diverse parts of the sector. Thus, they are most likely to be occupied by those fitting the dominant 'somatic norm' (Friedman and O'Brien, 2017;Puwar, 2001Puwar, , 2004 of white, middle-class origin, maleness. What is striking about the three men's comments is how inequalities in the sector are at the forefront of their rhetoric, and placed as central to their mission at the National Theatre, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Arts Council England.…”

Performing the Norm: Men in the Performing Arts and the Materialization of White, Heteronormative Masculinity

“…For instance, Bridges and Pascoe (2014) write that hybrid masculinities—or the processes wherein men incorporate fragments of “various ‘Others’ into their identity projects” (p. 246)—does not necessarily indicate a reworking of gender (or other identity) power relations, but rather are illustrative of the shape-shifting ways in which power relations operate (see also De Boise, 2014). In their research on processes of typecasting in British film and television, Friedman and O’Brien (2017) found that the pool of acting labor is organized according to the “deeply embedded social assumptions (about race, gender, class, age, disability and sexuality) held by playwrights, screenwriters, directors, and casting directors” (p. 559). Similarly, Saha (2013, 2015) found that increasingly commercialized theater productions serve to entrench, rather than disrupt, cultural stereotypes of race and ethnicity (and presumably normative gender performances of race and ethnicity), even when these productions are supported by government grants.…”

Career gatekeeping in cultural fields

“…By focusing on typecasting, we examine practices by which candidates' employment opportunities in a labor market can be constrained due to their social attributes or prior employment history (cf. Faulkner, 1983;Zuckerman et al, 2003;Friedman and O'Brien, 2017). Employers frequently look for particular types in candidates based on the job they are hiring for and therefore evaluate candidates based on how well they fit that type.…”