My open letter to TV casting directors...

[birdographer]

It's clear you have a "type." You like a certain kind of woman, or if you are a woman, a certain kind of man. That's fine.

Male casting directors: You really like, for example, women with long dark straight hair parted in the middle who are thin and have almond-shaped eyes. So when these women audition for your show, possibly weeks or even months apart, you like them and you hire them for assorted parts in one particular show.

Female casting directors: You like men with short dark hair, parted on the left, slightly wavy. Muscular but not overly so. Dark eyelashes. And so when men like that audition for you looking for parts in your current project, possibly weeks or months apart, you like them and you give them roles in the production.

And we, the viewers, struggle to tell these look-alike actors apart. "Is that the wife or the girlfriend? Or is she the one who robbed the bank? They all look alike!"

"Is that the guy who was the brother, or is that the guy who was working at the parking garage? They look the same."

For any one project, please hire people who look different from each other. Hire people with long hair and short hair, dark hair and light hair, wearing glasses or not wearing glasses, even if you don't want to sleep with them after the audition because they just aren't your type. Throwing some non-white actors into the mix is a huge help. Unless they all also look alike.

I am so tired of characters all looking alike because some casting director likes that type.