For an actor, getting cast in a successful, long-running TV show can be both a blessing and
a curse. The blessing is obviously consistent work and money as well as reaping the rewards
of a successful show. The curse? Well, sometimes, if the actor hasn't had an
established career before getting cast in the TV show, they often struggle to shake off the
character the world has come to know and fall in love with. Unfortunately, after nine years
of playing the role of the beloved hopeless romantic Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother,
it seems Josh Radnor has experienced the one thing that actors fear the most … being typecast.
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Being typecast is not uncommon in Hollywood, and it's not that the actor has done anything
bad to fall into that box. Often it's the case of playing that character so well, fans can't seem
to see them as anyone else but that character. Think about it, Sarah Michelle Gellar will always
be in our hearts as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Ellen Pompeo will always be the dark and twisty
Maredith Grey, and Josh Radnor will always be Ted Mosby. It's when you look at an actor, and all
you see is that one significant role that they played, and you can't see them as anyone else.
So, now that we've explained a little about what it means to be typecast in a nutshell, let's talk
about Josh Radnor. Before he was cast in How I Met Your Mother, Josh hadn't really gotten much
on-screen time. Apart from some small roles in TV shows like Law And Order, The Court and Six Feet
Under as well as a feature in Not Another Teen Movie, the actor was doing his best to break out
into the world of Hollywood just like any other struggling actor living it out in Los Angeles.
"The thing I never liked about being a young,
unemployed actor is that I was always dependent on people saying yes to me."
Radnor was in his early thirties when he was cast as Ted Mosby,
and the show gained traction very quickly. With the fast-growing popularity of the show
came fame and what Radnor didn't know was how to handle his new status as a celebrity. His life
was suddenly in the spotlight, and there was a newfound pressure that came with being famous.
The actor has been very open about how the popularity of the show
affected his mental health. He became depressed and leaned on
alcohol to try and manage stress from being overworked and on set all the time.
"I was like, 'Well, I guess this is what guys in my position do.' And it left me feeling really
empty, and more than a little depressed. I had to reassess my relationship to alcohol,
which is ongoing — I'll go through years of not drinking, and then I'll see if I like it again."
The actor chose to explore his spirituality, and studied up Buddhism and Judaism,
and he began practicing meditation daily. Finally,
as he learned to manage his new life on the set of a successful long-running show
and got his drinking under control, he said, "Something opened up in me."
For nine long years, the actor told us the story of how Ted Mosby met the love of his life,
and when the show came to an end, fans were left heartbroken. In fact,
fans often approached Josh years after How I Met Your Mother ended and told him they
had watched the show from start to finish more than eight times. Fans all over the world were
unable to let go of the series, and with that couldn't see Josh as anyone other than Ted.
"I don't mean to diminish it or say it was juvenile — but
it definitely feels like it was in the past."
He did his best to put the show and Ted behind him and move on as an actor to other projects,
however just as fans had put him in the Mosby box, so had casting directors.
No matter what he did, he wasn't able to shake off the role that made him a household name.
When Radnor was cast in Mercy Street, a stark and sad drama about medical professionals working to
save soldiers' lives during the Civil War, which was clearly nothing like his comedic
break-out role, he thought he had managed to lock Ted Mosby up in a box and forget about him.
He portrayed Dr. Jed Foster on the show, which was sadly canceled after two short seasons after
failing to garner attention from critics. To add insult to injury, those who watched Mercy
Street couldn't help but compare Dr. Jed to Ted and find similarities between the characters.
It seemed like How I Met Your Mother fans had unlocked that box and released Mosby once again.
"I haven't been clean-shaven since the show ended. I like having a beard,
and I hate shaving. But part of it was that when I shave, I look like that guy."
He wanted his role as Ted to be something that he could add to his bio and move on from it.
But it seemed that the world wasn't allowing him to do it. So,
Josh did the one thing he knew was in his control, and that was to create his own work.
He decided to write, direct and star in his own indie movies and while they didn't get the
worldwide attention that How I Met Your Mother, his work proved to be heartwarming and honest.
Happythankyoumoreplease, a film about the power of small human connections and the importance
of gratitude, won the Audience Award in the dramatic category at the Sundance Festival.
Liberal Arts, a romantic dramedy starring Elizabeth Olsen, told the story of a guy
who returns to his old college and falls in love with a very dynamic female student.
It picked up a few film festival award nominations and was well received by critics too.
Josh also turned to music, and with a close friend Ben Lee, has formed his own band,
Radnor and Lee. They've released two albums, have toured and done shows together. So not only is the
actor dabbled in writing and directing, he's also a successful indie musician.
The one thing we can't help but find similar to Radnor and Mosby is their continuous search for
love. Radnor and actress Lindsay Price struck up a romance back in 2008 after meeting on the set
of How I Met Your Mother, but they split up after about a year of dating. So it seemed that Price
was not the one and Radnor fell off the dating scene for a while until he met Julia Jones .
Unfortunately, she didn't turn out to be the one either, and they also split after about a year.
He had a brief relationship with Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei and another fleeting romance with
Minka Kelly that only lasted for three months. So fans can't help but notice that both Josh and Ted
both shared the same struggle to find a perfect soul mate. The actor has remained pretty private
about his relationships, so we can't be sure why things didn't work out with his ex-girlfriends.
But there's no doubt that the journey to find love hasn't been an easy one for Radnor
and we can only hope that the right one comes along for him soon.
The fans of How I Met Your Mother have been die-hard and desiccated fans. So it's not
their fault that they don't want to let go of Ted Mosby, he's a perfectly hopeless romantic guy who
was on the search for love and made the world fall in love with him on the way too. Josh has
done his best to move on from his role in the hit comedy show, and when he couldn't find the right
role for him, he decided to make the roles for himself. You've got to commend the guy for that!
He took his career into his own hands and decided to explore different types of creative work.
Now he's a successful indie filmmaker and musician, and it's all ''cause he did it himself.
It takes a lot of hard work to shake off the typecast stamp, and not all actors have been
able to do it. Daniel Radcliffe played the role of Harry Potter for 10 years, and since then, he's
starred in several indie films playing characters that could not be farther removed from his role as
Harry Potter. However, he still hasn't managed to get cast in another big studio film. Whether
that's by the actor's choice or typecasting needs a whole 'nother video on its own and
if you'd like a video about actors who broke out of the typecast box, let us know in the comments!