'Breaking Bad' Star Dean Norris Talks Being Typecast As Law Enforcement

'Breaking Bad' Star Dean Norris On Being Typecast
LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 28: Actor Dean Norris attends the AMC's Premiere of 'Breaking Bad' Season Four at The Chinese 6 Theatres on June 28, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 28: Actor Dean Norris attends the AMC's Premiere of 'Breaking Bad' Season Four at The Chinese 6 Theatres on June 28, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Dean Norris is known for his role as the drug-busting cop Hank Schrader on "Breaking Bad." It was recently called to his attention that he plays a law enforcement character more often that not.

"Well, you know, if you stop in any doughnut shop, and you see three cops eating doughnuts, one of them is gonna look like me. I don't know why that is," Norris said on NPR's Fresh Air. "But I guess you have a certain look, it's kind of an authoritative law enforcement-type look, and that look is certainly the first thing that people cast you with before you get a chance to do some acting."

Norris has indeed enforced the law quite a bit on the small screen: He played Special Agent Brendan Johnson on "Body Of Proof" and appeared as a sheriff on an episode of "Chase." And according to his "Breaking Bad" co-star Bryan Cranston, Norris' looks aren't his only cop-like trait.

After calling him "a little bombastic," Cranston did a hilarious impersonation of Norris telling Cranston to "get out of his movie" when he found out he would be appearing in the "Total Recall" reboot, which Norris acted in in 1990.

"Breaking Bad" airs on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on AMC.
To listen to Norris' full "Fresh Air" interview, head over to NPR.

Dean Norris as Hank Schrader

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