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Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins star in “The Human Stain.”

At first he seems like your typical college professor.

In the film “The Human Stain,” Anthony Hopkins portrays Professor Coleman Silk, a Classics professor at a prestigious Ivy League university. Middle-aged, over-educated, and under-paid, he’s even got the tweed jacket complete with elbow patches just to reinforce his scholarly worth.

But despite his outward persona, Silk leads a life based on misconceptions. From sleeping with a younger, uneducated janitor named Faunia (Nicole Kidman) to hiding his own ethnic background, Silk finds himself caught between other people’s stereotypes and his own reality.

The kind of stereotyping which helps to mold Hopkin’s character in “The Human Stain” is nothing new to the film industry. In fact, the idea of the traditional college professor is something that has a great deal of history behind it, according to UCLA English Professor Caroline Streeter.

“I think that when you first see a certain character, there’s a whole litany of assumptions that we have about them,” said Streeter. “One of those assumptions we often make about the college professor characters is that they live only in their heads, and not in their bodies,” she said.

There are three commonly used stereotypes filmmakers often model their college professor characters after:

• The Humorless Law Professor: Egotistical, pedantic and stern are just a few traits about as common as are Fs in his classes. He’s been made legendary by such characters as Professor Charles W. Kingsfield Jr. (John Houseman) in “The Paper Chase” or Professor Callahan (Victor Garber) in “Legally Blonde.”

• The Socially Awkward Science Professor: Fully equipped with lab beaker and calculator at all times, the Science/Math Professor might be able to light a Bunsen burner, but he can’t get any fire started with the ladies. He’s been perpetuated through such characters as Professor Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy) in “The Nutty Professor,” or Professor Phil Brainard (Robin Williams) in “Flubber.”

• The Inspirational Professor: It is required that the Inspirational Professor always gets stuck with the worst class of misfits, and somehow finds a way to teach them enough $2-words to change their lives forever. This professor will live on through such characters as as Professor John Keating (Robin Williams) in “Dead Poet’s Society” or as Jaime A. Escalante (Edward James Olmos) in “Stand and Deliver.”

“The Human Stain” attempts to go against such stereotypes. As the film looks deeper into Silk’s life, he becomes a man characterized less by success and more by the inability to embrace his individuality. And according to UCLA film Professor Richard Walter, a writer’s ability to stray away from implementing stereotypes in characters makes a compelling story and film.

“What is interesting is a character who runs against type, who has surprises, someone you come to know gradually, seductively,” Walter said in an e-mail. “The all-familiar tart with a heart, the by-the-books cop, the kindly priest, the all-knowing, all-nurturing Mr. Chips-ish college professor who is also a bit of a rebel … are all boring in my own view.”