Top 75 Pigeonholed Quotes

I’ve always wanted a broad range of options and to not get pigeonholed.

When actors get pigeonholed, that’s their own doing to a large degree. Because if you do something that people like, obviously they’re going to ask you to do it again. It’s up to you to say no. If you’re that insecure about working, you’ll probably do what you’re known to do.

The one thing I will never do is become pigeonholed.

Maori get pigeonholed into the idea they’re spiritual and telling stories like ‘Whale Rider’ and ‘Once Were Warriors,’ quite serious stuff, but we’re pretty funny people, and we never really have had an opportunity to show that side of ourselves, the clumsy, nerdy side of ourselves, which is something I am.

I don’t believe that what Tears for Fears has done, and continues to do, can be pigeonholed into a genre or decade.

I’m beginning to get pigeonholed as the girl who plays the crazies and weirdoes – and that’s not the entirety of who I am. Hopefully, the whole point of being in this profession is that you change into anyone you want to be.

Let’s be honest: the label of model-daughter-of-celebrity mother is… you know, I don’t want to have that label. It’s not who I am. It’s not my values to go off someone else’s name and to be pigeonholed as that. So in a way, that has really pushed me to be more independent.

If you do something that’s not pigeonholed, it gets thrown into the ‘We don’t know what this is’ bin, and so let’s not talk about it so much.

The goal has been not to get pigeonholed. I like working in different genres. I’m gonna try to be entertaining and funny and do my usual thing.

After ‘Radio Flyer,’ to this day, every family-oriented script or script with kid actors comes across my desk. That’s just Hollywood: you get pigeonholed, and it’s both a blessing and a curse, but you live with it.

I’ve tried actively to define myself and redefine myself, and not be pigeonholed.

I think – a lot of times in hip-hop, especially – artists get kind of pigeonholed into being ‘the guy,’ and it’s kind of limiting in a way.

I embrace my blackness, just as I do my conservatism and my Christianity, but I don’t want to be defined or pigeonholed by any one of the many elements that make up my character.

Actors get pigeonholed very quickly, particularly movie actors. In the theater, one is more used to casting people against type and trusting that their talent and skill will get them through.

Because of ‘Terminator 2,’ you get not pigeonholed but circled as one of those guys who can understand their way through a movie like that and hold it down.

I wanted to make my sophomore film as different as possible. I didn’t want to be pigeonholed. I didn’t want to be identifiable.

A lot of times, women are pigeonholed.

I love the true life stories and the biopics – people say I’m pigeonholed, but it’s a fantastic kind of pigeonhole – but it’s tough to then go and direct it because I know all the real people.

I wanted to stay on a career path of the likes of Natalie Portman. I didn’t want to be pigeonholed into a certain genre. I sort of believe that slow and steady wins the race.

I think my music covers a broader sound than just ‘Tropical House’… My goal is to simply be a great producer in my own right without being pigeonholed.

There are worse things than getting pigeonholed in Hollywood.

I work hard not to be pigeonholed. And I can’t understand how you can work on jobs back-to-back all year, with cameras in your face, contestants to look after and someone screaming in your ear, and still expect to remember the price of a pint of milk.

You get pigeonholed. You accept it or you fight it. I’ve accepted it.

I got pigeonholed a bit. When I wanted to be an actress, I never wanted to be the kind of actress I became.

The cool thing about being different in this industry is that you get different roles; you aren’t pigeonholed the same way.

I think liberals have a lot of good ideas, actually. But I’ve been pigeonholed, and I’m quite comfortable with it.

Yeah, there’s a tendency to get pigeonholed in Hollywood.

‘Pigeonholed’ isn’t the right word, because I feel like I’ve had a very wide range of characters that I’ve been allowed to play.

I think, for so long, women of different sizes have been pigeonholed, and with every campaign, it’s always an adaptation of making fashion but for plus sizes. Sometimes it’s in a little bit of a negative way, and plus is always a little bit slow to be fashion forward.

It’s not fun for an actor to be pigeonholed in any way.

I don’t want to get pigeonholed.

You can get pigeonholed in Hollywood and people think of you in a certain way.

I don’t want to be pigeonholed into doing just romantic comedies. But they’re fun, and especially for women, it’s nice to go to see them and enjoy that breath of fresh air.

I think when I got into broadcasting I told myself, ‘I don’t ever want to be pigeonholed as one thing.’

Black artists are encouraged to explore their identity but are then pigeonholed according to their ethnicity. We may have seen the decline of old racism, but we are witnessing a new kind of racialising.

I had been making films for almost ten years, and the head men at RKO thought of me only in terms of musicals. I found no fault with that, except I just couldn’t stand being typed or pigeonholed as only a singing and dancing girl. I wanted to extend my range.

Actors do tend to get pigeonholed. People want to know who you are so they can put you in a box. It’s lovely to be known for such diametrically opposite roles.

Once you’re sort of pigeonholed into something, it’s quite difficult to get out of it. I have no aversion to playing a gay character again, but it would definitely have to be the right role.

I’m very conscious of the fact the directing career has taken some odd turns. Maybe there’s enough bulk where I’m now pigeonholed in the ‘eclectic box.’

I have complete freedom, and there’s no way to get pigeonholed or bored. What could be better than that?

I don’t care about technique. I have kind of been pigeonholed as a technical drummer since I was in Dream Theater for all those years, but it’s actually very far from the truth.

My first horror film was – well, I don’t know. ‘Bless the Child’ is sort of genre, but ‘May’ was such a cult hit that after that, I just started getting offers for horror. I think I got a little bit pigeonholed in it right off of ‘May’ because there was just such a large response to that film.

I’m aware of being pigeonholed in those period drama roles. But, I do love them at the same time.

It’s tough, when you play an iconic character, to break away from it. You have to make sure you have a lot of variety and make sure you choose roles that aren’t similar to others, or else you get pigeonholed as one thing.

I think that’s part of the battle of defining yourself as an artist. You’re constantly fighting the pressure from outside to be pigeonholed and deliver more of what people already liked.

R&B needs to see a new light. It doesn’t have to be pigeonholed.

It was no accident that I made ‘Hoop Dreams’ because it concerned a sport that I loved and hoped would be my dream, however far-fetched that turned out to be. Because of the success of that film, Hollywood pigeonholed me as a sports biopic guy, which led to ‘Prefontaine’ and two cable sports films.

As an actor, you know, I love not being pigeonholed, which is great. No one really knows who I am. So that’s a positive.

I do not want myself to be restricted to a pigeonholed kind of filmmaker.

It gives me more breadth as an actor and as an artist to not be pigeonholed.

If you look at my career, doing albums with Norah Jones, Justin Timberlake, Gucci Mane and Lil Wayne or KRS-One and Jean Grae, I can’t be pigeonholed.

Everyone always says, ‘We don’t want to be pigeonholed.’ But sometimes, your pigeonhole is a great place to be.

I don’t want to be pigeonholed into the guy who’s against everything.

I wouldn’t want to be just pigeonholed as an extravagant director.

I don’t really think about being pigeonholed so much.

I’m not in a certain type of genre, and I can’t be categorized or pigeonholed. That leaves a wide range of what I can do for myself, for other people, and with other people.

I don’t like being pigeonholed at all. It stemmed from after ‘Mandy Lane’: I was being offered all these horror movies. I love horror movies, but when I dreamed of being a director, it was always doing all sorts of things.

Often you get pigeonholed because of the way you look.

I’ve done a lot of sci-fi, so I was a little hesitant because you get pigeonholed into that genre and world. But at the same time, I love sci-fi because the women are so strong and independent and smart.

You get pigeonholed. Some people are film stars, and some are theatre stars who do one-off telly. Somehow, I get into long-running series.

My dad taught me to never be pigeonholed; to really allow yourself to reinvent characters as they reinvent you; to be bold and to be willing to play seemingly unlikeable people.

There are two sides to being pigeonholed. There’s, ‘Oh, no, I’m going to be Chandler for the rest of my life,’ but there’s also the fact that getting to play Chandler opened up doors to me. It’s now my job to find things that shake it up a little bit.