Quote:
>95% of perceived good acting is a
>result of casting and editing. And, to borrow from the late
>Clarence 13X's percentages, the remaining 5% is that truly
>remarkable type, beyond the credit of the director. That is
>to say you're either Brando or De Niro (or you have / had the
>potential to be) or you're not.

I think everyone here understands the general concept of film editing; the bad usually outweighs the good and the goal of editing is to not only leave in the good, but to leave in the best. Casting works in a similar way, you hire an actor that you think is good for your script and will give you the best ratio of bad to good.

Let's take Reeves' performance in the Matrix as a theoretical example to explain the 95/5 theory; his actual performance isn't an issue because I'm trying to attack this from a director/producer's viewpoint. Meaning, someone who realizes he might have to mask the shortcomings of a mediocre actor.

The Wachowski's wanted a male lead with a somewhat effeminate, somewhat racially ambiguous appearence for their lead; someone with the characteristics they've applied to all the other characters in their script. Already, based on his looks alone, Reeves fits into the Matrix script that is partially built around the lead characters appearence. Because Reeves meshes so well with the other visual elements of the film, he doesn't seem out of place. And because bad acting always seems out of place, being visually appropriate for the film counteracts any bad acting that might occur.

Let's say, hypothetically, that the Wachowski's originally wrote Neo's character with long monologues about extetientialism and postmodernism to demonstrate his knowledge of books and author's such as Simulacra and Simulation by Baudrillard (a book we see him reading in the film). At the table reading with Reeves, it becomes achingly appearent he won't be able to carry these monologues convincingly and he will seem out of place in the film. So, the script is modified and Neo know plays more of a student's role to Morpheus's teacher. Better yet, lets say they shoot the script verbatim but don't recognize Reeves' poor delivery until they're in the editing room. They make the same decision to play Neo as the student to Morpheus's teacher, but now they have to do it by editing out lines, by deciding what is the best that should be left in. Where before the edit, Reeves proved himself to be a terrible actor, after the edit, Reeves seems like a subdued actor who understands that his character is humbled to Morpheus's knowledge. Basically, in the former he seems out of place and in the latter he is not disruptive to the flow of the film. In this hypothetical, casting and editing elevated Reeves from a poor actor to a competent one; from an actor who takes the audience out of the fantasy to an actor who seems well placed and appropriate to the audience.

Mech