My open letter to TV casting directors...

[birdographer]

It's clear you have a "type." You like a certain kind of woman, or if you are a woman, a certain kind of man. That's fine.

Male casting directors: You really like, for example, women with long dark straight hair parted in the middle who are thin and have almond-shaped eyes. So when these women audition for your show, possibly weeks or even months apart, you like them and you hire them for assorted parts in one particular show.

Female casting directors: You like men with short dark hair, parted on the left, slightly wavy. Muscular but not overly so. Dark eyelashes. And so when men like that audition for you looking for parts in your current project, possibly weeks or months apart, you like them and you give them roles in the production.

And we, the viewers, struggle to tell these look-alike actors apart. "Is that the wife or the girlfriend? Or is she the one who robbed the bank? They all look alike!"

"Is that the guy who was the brother, or is that the guy who was working at the parking garage? They look the same."

For any one project, please hire people who look different from each other. Hire people with long hair and short hair, dark hair and light hair, wearing glasses or not wearing glasses, even if you don't want to sleep with them after the audition because they just aren't your type. Throwing some non-white actors into the mix is a huge help. Unless they all also look alike.

I am so tired of characters all looking alike because some casting director likes that type.

[if..fish..had..wings]

1. Amen

Very true

[Silent Type]

2. Thanks. I thought it was just me and something I should discuss with a medical professional.

[HoosierDebbie]

3. What a relief!

Thanks so much for posting this observation. I am so relieved that somebody else is having this problem. I have been thinking that I am slipping in facial recognition or something. There have been more than several tv shows or movies that I have not been able to follow because I can't figure out which character is involved in which scene or act. Sometimes I have to give up. Sometimes I think it might be worth understanding so I look the show up, on IMBD to determine which actor is playing which part. Occasionally that helps.

[birdographer]

5. Exactly

There's this one show, on now, where two female characters look almost identical to me. However, their male counterparts (husband and boyfriend) look very different. So I just wait till they pair up and then I know which one of them it is.

I think this hiring the same type is so glaringly obvious and annoying to so many viewers, but the people doing the hiring are oblivious. They hire the look they like.

[OldBaldy1701E]

4. Yep. That was part of my problem when I was an actor.

Being a chunky, balding by the time I was 20 male performer was bad enough, but they were all into dudes that looked like models, so I had little chance. The 'greek ideal' has always been a curse to performers who were passed over due to looks, not talent. (I am referring to parts that were not specific, or parts whose physical characteristics were not integral to the story.)

But, I am weird in the sense that I prefer original movies to franchises that go on WAY too long and in some cases did not deserve to be a franchise.

[bif]

6. And here I thought it was just me...

watching a movie on my laptop. I know my eyesight isn't great, but I was getting the characters mixed up as well!