Listicle: 10 actors who play roughly the same roles every time

Through Mean Girls, via Just My Luck, past Confessions Of A Drama Queen and down to Irish Wish – Lohan has been the lovable disaster girl. Well-meaning but caught in cosmic bad timing. Things go wrong, she panics adorably, and love arrives right after the chaos. Her characters are the kind who can lose a job, fail a math test (Damn, Africa, what happened?) trip over destiny, and still get the guy.

Carson has perfected the Female Romantic Lead formula. She’s the talented, ambitious girl who has zero time for love. She’ll fight romance with spreadsheets, sarcasm and sheer willpower. But she’ll let destiny’s plans override hers. In Purple Hearts, The Life List, and My Oxford Year, she’s the guarded dream-chaser in cool cardigans. If there’s a moment where she gasps, looks away, and says “I can’t do this,” you know love is seconds away.

Oh Sid. Always the nice guy with great shoulders and a sad backstory. From Student of the Year to Hasee Toh Phasee and Baar Baar Dekho, he’s played the hardworking hero who just needs the right girl to tell him that he deserves happiness. His characters always look like they’ve just come from a gym + therapy combo session. And that smile... it makes the audience forgive every bad decision (and film) he’s ever made.

Barnet seems genetically designed to play the hot guy everyone assumes is emotionally unavailable, but actually has a poet’s heart. In Never Have I Ever and Love Hard, he’s the too-cool-to-care dude who secretly just wants someone who understands him. His characters always look like they journal privately, crave late-night chats, and a love that sees past the perfect hair and jawline to the slightly fragile soul beneath.

Kapoor’s early filmography is basically the same girl in different outfits. From Aisha and I Hate Luv Storys to Khoobsurat and Dolly Ki Doli, she’s the bubbly, well-meaning, fashion-obsessed romantic who believes that her charm, playlists and outfits can fix the world (and the man). She’s enthusiastic, dramatic, a little delulu, but never hopeless. If anyone could bring Dior to a breakdown scene, it’s our Sonam.

Seo-joon has mastered the role of “rude at first, husband material later”. In What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim, Fight for My Way, and She Was Pretty, he starts off smug, controlled, emotionally constipated -- the kind of man who thinks feelings are optional. But once he falls, he MELTS into a loyal, soft, quietly devoted partner. It’s giving “I don’t care, but I absolutely do.” Avoidant? Completely. Irresistible? Definitely.

Need a heroine who has her life mostly together but still trips into love like it’s a personality trait? Sign Aniston up. From Along Came Polly to The Break-Up and her Rachel Green years, she’s the smart, funny, self-aware character who may become unhinged, but her hair will be intact. Her characters are trusting, driven, confident, and despite everything, eternal optimists who believe love is worth the mess.

OK, we’re talking hero Hugh Grant, not delicious villain Hugh Grant later in his career. We’re referencing the “confused gentleman who fell into love on his way to buy biscuits.” In Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Music & Lyrics, he’s the charming, slightly awkward Brit who can’t finish a sentence without apologising for existing. That sincerity, decency, and self-deprecating humour is what floors us all.

Salmaan has perfected the recipe for emotionally intelligent boyfriend that women manifest on Pinterest. Across OK Kanmani, Charlie, Sita Ramam, and The Zoya Factor, he arrives with perfect hair, gentle eyes, and the expression of a man who already knows your attachment style. He listens, remembers tiny details, buys thoughtful gifts, and never yells… just sighs beautifully.

Forget Animal. Kapoor wasn’t always this angry. He was angsty; Bollywood’s poster boy of “guy who doesn’t wake up until the girl leaves.” Wake Up Sid, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Rockstar, Bachna Ae Haseeno, Barfi!, and at least four other films have Ranbir playing the emotionally tangled man-child searching for purpose. His avatar only changed when the audience collectively went, “Grow up already!”