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Jun 6, 2025
This week’s themeWords with movie connections This week’s words Rambo Keystone cop big chill bunny boiler central casting ![]() ![]()
Central Casting office, Los Angeles
Photo: Central Casting
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with Anu Gargcentral casting
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
adjective: Stereotypical. noun: A company or department that provides actors for minor or background roles, often based on stereotypical appearances. ETYMOLOGY:
After Central Casting, a company founded in 1925 to cast actors for
minor roles in film and television. Earliest documented use: 1941.
NOTES:
Directors typically cast major roles themselves, but minor roles
are often outsourced to agencies like Central Casting. The term is often
used in the phrase “straight out of central casting”, referring to someone
who perfectly fits a familiar type, say, a grizzled detective or a slick
politician. It may be fine to cast actors who look the part. The trouble begins when leaders select people for real-world positions for their photogenic profiles rather than substance. Life isn’t a casting call. For another week of movie words, see movies that became words from our archives. USAGE:
“Joey turned back, catching his own reflection in the mirror. He liked
the way he was coming into his look. ... Closer to the central casting
look of a man of authority. Someone not to be questioned.” Peter Blauner; Sunrise Highway; St. Martin’s; 2018. “[Rishi Sunak] is sometimes imagined as a social liberal ... yet his CV is straight from Tory central casting: Winchester College, Oxford University, and the true-blue farming constituency of Richmond, in North Yorkshire.” Smiles Atop the Rubble; The Economist (London, UK); Oct 29, 2022. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The hardest-learned lesson: that people have only their kind of love to
give, not our kind. -Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author (6 Jun
1913-1983)
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