091018 - RESPONSE TO KEANU BEING A LIMITED ACTOR
Anakin McFly: I don't find him limited at all if you look at his career as a whole, though of late he has been picking similar roles. But looking at his career milestones in chronological order, they were all from different genres: River's Edge (drama), Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (comedy), Speed (action), The Matrix (sci-fi).
That to me is versatile, because I don't know many actors who can have similar success in all four genres. Are there any? Most tend to get famous for just one genre of film, such as perhaps comedy.
And Keanu was typecast in each of those instances, first as the angsty emo teenager, then as the dumb surfer dude, then as the stoic action hero, then as the geeky computer nerd who knows kungfu. Which is quite an achievement for any actor. Most get typecast once, and are stuck with that forever.
I also find it ironic how early reviewers of Keanu's work called him hyperactive and said that he had talent and lots of raw emotion but needed to learn how to calm down and sit still, and then more recent reviews are basically complaining about how he's too still and emotionless. The disparity is fascinating.
Some of my favourite Keanu films are in his indie roles that most people haven't seen, and which he's said he's preferred to blockbuster films because there are less explosions and more room for actual acting.
Also, I do consider him convincing in the roles he plays. He convinced me as Neo, he convinced me as Ted, which are two such different people that it's hard to believe they were played by the same guy. And he's continued to convince me in many other roles, although he does occasionally have his misses.