typecasting
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type·cast
(tīp′kăst′)tr.v. type·cast, type·cast·ing, type·casts
1. To cast (a performer) based on personality, background, or physical appearance: "His six-foot-one frame and dark good looks attracted the attention of filmmakers who typecast him as a heavy" (Linda Mizejewski).
2. To cast (a performer) in a role or roles similar to those he or she has played in the past: "After his success in Joan of Arc, [José Ferrer] knew that Hollywood would want to typecast him as neurotics and villains. (Dennis Brown).
3. To cause (a performer) to be cast repeatedly in similar roles: "Her musical talent and brassy projection had been successful on Broadway, but her hard features made her look less attractive on screen and typecast her as a nasty, greedy, raddled woman" (Jeffrey Meyers).
4. To perceive or represent in reductive or stereotyped ways: "Almost all of the animals we typically typecast as 'predators' just as readily take the ailing and half-dead and the (preferably fresh) dead" (Bernd Heinrich). "By relegating Goethe to classicism as strongly as he does, Nietzsche is able to typecast him, to reduce him to a singular role even as he elevates him for the strength and discipline required to adhere to classical standards" (Adrian Del Caro).
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
typecasting
(ˈtaɪpˌkɑːstɪŋ)n
(Film) the practice of casting an actor repeatedly in the same kind of role, esp because of his or physical appearance or previous success in such roles
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014