Type-cast actors.

Known for playing:

Sarcastic, intelligent characters with deep personal issues who handle the stress of life by being jerks.

Examples: "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest", "The Shining", "As Good as it Gets", "About Schmidt", etc...

Known for playing:

Highly intelligent (if not genius), unhinged characters that are usually also very formal and cultured but deeply bleeped up.

Examples: "The Silence of the Lambs", "Instinct", "Howard's End", "Surviving Picasso", etc...

Known for playing:

Artistic and/or antisocial weirdos who, while not evil, are not the type of people you'd want to run into in a dark alley. Most of his characters also have a slight criminal edge to them.

Examples: "Catch me if you can", "Suicide Kings", "Wild Side", etc...

Known for playing:

Energetic, childlike, funny-loving goof-balls (even in his serious roles, his goofy, child-like nature is usually apparent in a few scenes).

Examples: "Toys", "Mrs. Doubtfire", "Jumanji", "Hook", "Flubber", etc...

Known for playing:

Overly mature and precocious little kids in tough life situations or lacking appropriate parenting where Dakota's characters either have to parent or nurture themselves.

Examples: "I am Sam", "Uptown Girls", "Man on Fire", "Hide and Seek", "Taken", etc...

Known for playing:

Extremely kind, compassionate, forgiving, loving mother-figures (or actual mothers).

Examples: "Stepmom", "The Client", "Little Women", "Dead Man Walking", "Lorenzo's Oil", etc...

Known for playing:

Street-smart, crafty, world-weary and very bright characters who are also good fighters/athletes etc...

Examples: "Good Will Hunting", "Ocean's Eleven", "The Bourne Identity", etc...

Known for playing:

Extremely intelligent but mentally controlling and emotionally manipulative characters who are interested (sometimes consumed) with sexual fantasies that are beyond and above what is considered "the norm".

Examples: "Sex, Lies and Videotape", "Crash", "The Secretary", etc...

Known for playing:

Calm, controlled well-educated but brooding, troubled individuals with a tendency to get themselves into trouble, and then get themselves back out again. A lot of his characters also feel guilty for some reason or another and are grieving the loss of a loved one or a lost opportunity.

Examples: "Kalifornia", "The X-Files", "Playing God", "The Red Shoe Diaries", etc...

Known for playing:

(Almost universally), military leaders (usually sergeants), extremely gruff and tough, take no nonsense a-holes.

Examples: "Full Metal Jacket, "Dead Man Walking", "The Frighteners", "Willard", etc...

Known for playing:

The adorable, but tough, little boy in physical and/or emotional danger being hunted by the bad guy/s.

Examples: "Mercury Rising", "Jack the Bear", "New Nightmare", etc...

Known for playing:

Warm, kind, well-meaning but ultimately naive young women.

Examples: "Case 39", "One True Thing", "Bridget Jone's Diary", "Miss Potter", etc...