In recent
months, I’ve done numerous Falsettos
posts based on my full-blown love for the revival from 2016, and I’ve also made
mention in a few places of my Falsettos-induced
Andrew Rannells kick. While, like many,
I was first introduced to Rannells through The
Book of Mormon – his show-stopping Tony performance that year blew me clean
away – it wasn’t until I got the Falsettos
cast recording that he really became one of “my” actors. As usual, I realized it was moving into
platonic-crush territory around the time I started trolling YouTube for his
late-night interviews (which are amazing.) Since his habit of more often than not
serving as a replacement in Broadway shows means that professional records of
his theatre work are pretty thin on the ground, I instead turned to his film
and television career.
As I
soaked up what I could get of Rannells’s film- and discography, I encountered
periodic observations in various online corners about him being limited as a
performer. I saw a number of complaints
that he always plays the same character, and more particularly, that he always
plays himself. And to be fair, it’s an
understandable claim to make – Bryan from The
New Normal, Elijah from Girls,
and Matthew from Big Mouth, to name a
few prominent examples, are all fabulous, feminine-coded gay characters with a
self-centered streak and a flair for witty remarks, and their voices and
mannerisms have a lot in common with the way Rannells carries himself in many
of his personal appearances.
But does
that make him limited? I think there are
many different facets to acting. There
are more transformative performances, where an actor adopts a different accent,
carriage, tone of voice, etc. to inhabit someone totally unlike themselves
(think Tatiana Maslany or Gary Oldman.)
And that is a skill that some have and others don’t, but it’s also a
matter of opportunity and expectation – Emily Blunt once remarked that the
reason people keep suggesting the same 4-5 actresses for action roles is
because people can’t picture a woman in an action film until they see her do
it, meaning that, without greater imagination, we develop a very limited pool
based on what we assume they’re capable of.
Acting-wise, I’ve experienced that myself, as I wrote up a while back on
actors I had to reevaluate after I finally saw them take on a role that they
could sink their teeth into. It would
hardly surprise me if Rannells, an out actor in a Hollywood that’s afraid of
“risks,” hasn’t had much chance to show off the variety of roles he can play.
All that
said, there are also plenty of actors who frequently play variations on the
same type, but people still love them. I
mean, you see Jeff Goldblum and you pretty much know you’re gonna get Jess
Goldblum, but there aren’t too many complaints about that. Why? First,
because charisma and presence can’t be counted out, and second, because another
important part of acting is conveying the emotion
of the character, regardless of how like or unlike they are to the actor. And that’s a talent Rannells has in
spades. He has both an impeccable sense
of comic timing and a well-honed ability to portray emotion, on stage as well
as on screen (different media require different skills, and not every actor is
well-suited to each setting.) Looking
through Rannells’s work, I’ve been consistently reminded of the breadth of his
talent.
Furthermore,
I really appreciate that he’s a gay actor who seems to celebrate playing mostly
gay characters. He’s dismissed concerns
about being stereotyped or pigeonholed in Hollywood, arguing that these “worries”
suggest there’s only one type of gay character to play. But Rannells welcomes the chance to play many
of them, and even if many have similar mannerisms, that hardly means they’re
the same character – again, take a look at Bryan, Elijah, and Matthew for
examples of that.
To sum
up, two points: First, Andrew Rannells
can do a lot more than he’s sometimes given credit for. Second, it’s time for a new actor review
project. I realize that my plate is
still occupied with Jodie Whittaker and poor Tony Leung Chiu-wai (the reason I
go so slowly with him is because his stuff can be harder to find in the States,
and I need more time to get my hands on it,) but I had to make a little room
for Rannells. Even though, at this
point, I’ve already gone through a lot of his major works, I like them enough
that I want to go through them again with full write-ups, coming to you under
the title The Book of Rannells (an easy reference maybe, but one I’m okay
with.)
This won’t
be quite the same as my
previous/current actor reviews. Since
most of Rannells’s stuff is pretty easily accessible (quite a bit is available
online,) there’s not as much need to bounce around to things as I can get them,
so I’ll try to post write-ups mostly in chronological order, which I think
could be interesting. However, I’ve not
going to try and review everything. Rannells spent years working mainly as a
voice actor before he really started finding success, so he has tons of animated credits in his
filmography. There are some points of
interest here – he’s played both Alexander Hamilton and Archie Andrews – but overall,
I’m not going to dig into all that.
Instead, I’m going to be starting next week with The Book of Mormon and working my way forward, so the only
voiceover work I’m including will come after that.
(Note: the play he’s currently in, The Boys in the Band, will be eagerly
reviewed out of chronological order, since I have the good fortune to be seeing
it on Broadway at the end of this month.
So pumped!)
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