Abstract
Smith-Rowsey counters decades of conventional wisdom by arguing that performances in seminal blockbusters are not “bad” but instead entirely appropriate to certain popular narratives. In the genre of science fiction, ostensibly “bad” performances are shown to emphasize both the theme of men opposing/confronting machines as well as the (monomythic) theme of a rookie/protégé learning from a master, as in this chapter’s three case studies, Star Wars (1977), Back to the Future (1985), and The Matrix (1999). Smith-Rowsey deconstructs George Lucas’ (perhaps apocryphal) singular on-set advice to actors: “O.K., same thing, only better,” and “Faster, more intense.” Smith-Rowsey also performs a limited “commutation test” comparing Eric Stoltz and Michael J. Fox in the role of Marty McFly. Finally, the author explains why the famously under-praised Keanu Reeves was a better fit for Neo than a more lauded actor such as, say, Sean Penn or Christian Bale.
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Notes
- 1.
An exception might be made for the newer, rebooted Star Trek franchise, which clearly cast Kirk, Spock, Uhuru, and the other main characters based on the original TV series. A longer book might have explored more of the excellent early 1970s films that became big hits, like The Godfather, but there are extant works that explore performances in such films, like mine. In any event, this book’s choice to restrict the new Blockbuster Era to Star Wars and what came after follows the well-established scholarship of many, including Bill Mesce.
- 2.
This correlates with Sylvester Stallone’s wisdom at the outset of Chap. 5.
- 3.
The part of Luke, as scripted, needed an actor closer to Ron Howard in American Graffiti and Happy Days (1974–1984). But of all the men and women who had auditioned for, and acted in, American Graffiti, Lucas did not approach any of them for Luke or Leia.
- 4.
This is not quite true, but the mistake is telling.
- 5.
The line was written as “Well more than you can imagine.”
- 6.
It is worth noting that in 1977, critics used some of the same terms to disparage the film.
- 7.
This is in contrast to the orange-suited rebels of the film’s final half-hour, who do not seem particularly disorganized.
- 8.
Fox later explained on Inside the Actor’s Studio that he would shoot Family Ties all day, Back to the Future most of the night, sleep four hours, and then get up and do it again.
- 9.
Spielberg made sure to appear on set shoulder-to-shoulder with Zemeckis and Gale at the 1:00 a.m. “lunch” meeting on the set when the news of the re-casting was broken to most of the cast and crew.
- 10.
I chose to spell out “1985” because Fox stretches out the words and punctuates each syllable.
- 11.
I saw this film in theaters a number of times in the summer of 1985, and I can testify that Zemeckis and Gale were wise to follow “Jerry Lewis” with a wide shot without plot-crucial dialogue; audiences were inevitably laughing uproariously.
- 12.
Ironically, Fox is from Canada.
- 13.
He carries his blueprints back to his lab, presumably going back to work on the problem.
- 14.
Spielberg responded with thanks for the “joke memo” that everyone “got a kick out of”; Sheinberg dropped the matter.
- 15.
Some scholars have lumped Morpheus in with other “Magical Negroes” that have appeared in contemporary films such as The Green Mile (Darabont, 1999), Dogma (Smith, 1999), and The Legend of Bagger Vance (Redford, 2000) (Hyden et al. 2007, n.p.). If the point of “Magical Negro” analyses is to deconstruct racial stereotypes, scholars who connect the trope to The Matrix should be more careful not to read Reeves as uncomplicatedly white. It seems unlikely that such scholars were (or edited by) anyone with Asian or Hapa ancestry; in my experience, such persons tend to read Reeves more in line with his heritage. More to this book’s point, others have defended Morpheus as moving beyond the “Magical Negro” type largely because of Fishburne’s performance. While Morpheus certainly enables the (partly) white hero, and “has no past and no character of his own,” Fishburne arguably transcends such concerns through sheer force of charisma, tied to his scripted position as the leader of the rebellion against the machines (Hyden et al. 2007, n.p.). If Morpheus shows Neo how to make the impossible possible (jumps between buildings, martial arts, mind over matter), Fishburne, as a very fine actor, arguably makes possible another impossibility, the, ahem, morphing of pernicious stereotypes into a pleasurably diverse challenge to a malevolent overlord (onscreen).
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Smith-Rowsey, D. (2018). Male-Led Science Fiction Blockbusters: Performing “Faster, More Intense”. In: Blockbuster Performances. Palgrave Studies in Screen Industries and Performance. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51879-8_6
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