19.06.09 - ON KEANU NOT EXTENDING HIMSELF
Iridescent Phantom: Reeves, on the other hand plays it comepletely safe, rarely extends himself
Anakin McFly: It's funny that you say that, because throughout his career Reeves has been consistently accused of doing the opposite. He's never taken the safe route.
"He evidences incredible range when you look at it in conjunction with his body of work. He's an actor willing to take risks, and that quality has done nothing but reward him."
- Kathryn Bigelow (director, Point Break)
For example, just look at his filmography - he first got noticed by specialising in teen angst roles such as in River's Edge, for which he got his first critical praise. Director Ron Nyswaner was therefore uncertain about casting him in the comedy Prince of Pennsylvania, because he didn't think Keanu could be funny.
But he proved himself at auditions and was casted; later on he got his first big break in teen cult comedy Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and was typecast as that for ages. Then came Point Break and Speed; for the former, director Kathryn Bigelow also had her doubts that Keanu could do action, but he came through once again; and he got typecast as an action hero. Then he turned down Speed 2 and what would have been the biggest paycheck of his career - $11 million to go off to play Hamlet in a tiny theatre in Canada for Actor's Guild minimum wage.
News articles of that period are full of journalists saying that Keanu was crazy, with others praising him for not taking the safe path to assured action stardom. After that, Keanu launched straight into obscure indie films like The Last Time I Committed Suicide (another highly praised performance), and into science fiction with the critically-panned Johnny Mnemonic; after that into The Matrix, and he was typecast, again, as Neo.
And after that he again ditched the post-Matrix path Hollywood had laid out for him and went back to his indie films; did The Gift with a performance which got one of the best critical acclaim of his career and even generated Oscar buzz, and a few others off the sci-fi/action track which weren't as well-received. He has never played the safe route. Never. Whatever one might think of his acting, if there's one thing that characterises Keanu's career, it's unpredictability:
"Keanu Reeves. To look at a list of his roles is to wonder how the directors of half his movies could have visualized him in the other half, and vice versa. This is the actor who made two of the most harrowing films of all time about teenage angst, "River's Edge" (1986) and "Permanent Record" (1988). And the same actor who played one of the key predecessors of the dumband-dumber movement, in "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" (1989) and "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" (1991). The same actor who was an average, if troubled, teen in "Parenthood" (1989) and an 18th century rake in "Dangerous Liaisons" (1989) and a male hustler in "My Own Private Idaho" (1991). He was even in an action movie before "Speed." It was titled "Point Break," it was made in 1991, and it combined surfing, sky-diving, bank robbery and Zen. I liked it. ... When you think of those pictures, you can't really find the line connecting them. It's like they're all points of a star. It's hard to get from "My Own Private Idaho" to "Bill & Ted.""
- Roger Ebert (film critic), "On the Set; Checking Out ''Chain Reaction'' in Chicago" - Chicago Sun-Times - 7th April 1996
http://www.whoaisnotme.net/articles/1996_0407_ont.htm
How many actors get typecast as to such differing characters as Neo and Ted? How could an actor get that kind of reaction if he was truly untalentless and played the same character all the time? I agree with Francis Lawrence when he said:
"I think a lot of of actors carry the baggage of past roles with them, but because he was so strong in a sense in Bill and Ted's, he just carries that with him," Lawrence said. "And he became [Ted]. He became Neo. They are nothing alike. You carry that with you and I think that's part of it, but I have no idea why that happens. The reaction to him is so sort of polarized it's just amazing."
- Francis Lawrence (director, Constantine), "Pros and Constantine" - Entertainment Today (US) - 11-17th Feb 2005
http://www.whoaisnotme.net/articles/2005_0211_pro.htm
and from film critic Roger Ebert who probably knows what he's talking about:
"I have seen Keanu Reeves in vastly different roles... and am a little astonished by the range of these performances."
- Roger Ebert (film critic), "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey" - Chicago Sun-Times (US) - 19th Jul 1991
http://www.whoaisnotme.net/articles/1991_0719_bil2.htm
like a flatliner looking for the exit.
Keanu puts an extreme amount of effort into his work. It's the one thing people who have worked with him comment the most about. He does take after take - he's a self-admitted perfectionist - and refuses to stop until he gets everything right. He's the first on the set and last to leave, as Jada Pinkett Smith one said.
I once theorised that his perfectionistic streak is partly what gave rise to the impression of roboticness that some see in his acting, because if a scene is done often enough it looses that human spontaneity. But whatever it is, he is definitely not someone who is looking for the exit. He acts becaues he loves it. He's repeatedly proven - not just said - that he's not in it for the money, repeatedly turning down paychecks and deferring his salary (so that studios could afford other actors or, in the case of the Matrix sequels, where he gave $38 million to Warner Bros. so they could afford to finish the special effects) in order to pursue the films that he loves rather than take the easy paths.
There are actors who give you information almost exclusively through their eyes, yet could resonate with physical emotion when it is called for. Gary Cooper was a master at it. Reeves is not.
Then I'd say that's a matter of perception. Personally I think Keanu is a far better physical actor than verbal one, and I'm not the first person who has said that. And he does do a lot of his acting with his eyes, so it's curious that you say otherwise.