misAdventures of Workmonkey 3.0

On the flight back from London I had the pleasure of watching Bottle Shock, the inspirational story behind the legendary bottle of Chardonnay from Napa that defeated five French entries to win top honors at a blind Paris tasting in 1976. The bottle, from Chateau Montelena, essentially put Napa Valley on the map, and mortally punctured the centuries-old myth regarding the superiority of French wines. Of course, back then Napa was in its infancy, a place you could taste pure wines from eager vintners for free, without today's parade of tour buses, rich Atherton families, and gondolas. The movie was standard Hollywood fair, complete with a father-son rift, hot blonde twenty-two year-old "intern" who picked grapes in jean shorts and boots, spoiled rich kid who was humbled by the complexity of a grape, and hardworking Mexican immigrant whose immense talent was held back by racism and money. The movie also features Amanda's dad, aka Miguel Sandoval:

in the film, Miguel Sandoval represents a TCM (Type Cast Mexican), a roll he has played infinite times in the past twenty years. I'm not sure if Mexico has only ever exported a single actor, or if Miguel Sandoval has compromising pictures of every casting agent in Hollywood, but anytime the roll calls for "middle-aged Mexican man", Miguel Sandoval is the only man called. Sometimes, if the casting description calls for "tough middle-aged Mexican man", they turn the roll over to Danny Trejo:

But this is as much diversity as you will get.

TC actors are a tradition in Hollywood. Rather than analyze a roll and open it up to emerging actors, casting agents simply thumb through their rolodex and call the first Mexican or Russian or Dog they see listed. Usually, they only have one entry for each. I'm guessing scripts are written with these very people in mind, since none of us have ever seen a different Mexican on the screen other than Miguel Sandoval or Danny Trejo (with all due respect to Edward James Olmos). Here are a few of my other favorite TCs:

Here, we have TCI (Type Cast Indian), or, if you are a sensitive, a TCNA (Type Cast Native American). If any movie in the past twenty-five years has been set in the wild west or pre-constitutional America, this is your man. Say hello to the incomparable Wes Studi:

I'd now like to introduce Peter Dinklage, Hollywood's greatest TCSD (Type Cast Sarcastic Dwarf):

Next, we have Ellen Albertini Dow, the TCZOC (Type Cast Zany Old Chick):

With an honorable mention to Zelda Rubenstein, the TCFOC (Type Cast Freaky Old Chick):

That a raw sampling. Due to a lack of available photos, I've left out the following Type Casts:

* Long-Blonde-Haired German Terrorist
* Santa Elves
* Nice Glass House (Anytime they need to establish a couple is successful and in love, they always show them arriving at the same high-tech glass house up in the Hollywood Hills)
* Pretty Persian Mother Who's Actually not a Terrorist
* Small Town Incompetent Sheriff

If you can locate any photos of these, I'd be much obliged. After all, I'm a TCBBW (Type Cast Bad Blog Writer).