visakan veerasamy (@visakanv): "YES, AND: In Sylvester Stallone’s Netflix documentary, Sly, he talks about how, early in his acting career, he would get typecast as a thug. And his approach there was– instead of saying “no way, I’m not a thug”, he’d go, “that’s true, I am. But I’m also nice. I’m kind of a soft…"

YES, AND: In Sylvester Stallone’s Netflix documentary, Sly, he talks about how, early in his acting career, he would get typecast as a thug. And his approach there was– instead of saying “no way, I’m not a thug”, he’d go, “that’s true, I am. But I’m also nice. I’m kind of a soft touch. If you could put that together, that would be a really great character.” That was arguably a huge part of what made Rocky such a resounding success. We got to see the heart underneath the tough guy exterior, and we really rooted for him. I’ve found myself repeating this anecdote to many people in all sorts of conversations, about what it means to be typecast, to be stereotyped. There seems to be a pattern where, if you try too hard to fight the ways in which you are X, and try too hard to perform “I’m Not X”, you end up drawing more attention to your X-ness. Take say, a child trying too hard to appear grown up. The affectations are all wrong. When you think about the times in which children actually seem mysteriously adult-like, it’s typically when they’re calm, neutral, earnest and channelling something that makes them seem ‘wise beyond their years’. The general principle here seems to be something like: when you’re worried that people are going to interpret you a certain way, don’t fight it too much. Allow the possibility that that’s how some people will see you, but have a twinkle in your eye with the knowledge that there’s more to you than just that.

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