BEYOND THE BLANK STARE

STEPHEN PRINA ARGUES THAT KEANU REEVES' STYLE IS ACTUALLY DELIBERATE

- STORY: JESSE MCKINLEY / NYT

Keanu Reeves made his film debut 40 years ago in a little movie called One Step Away before becoming an international superstar in franchises like Bill & Ted, The Matrix and John Wick. Critics have not always been kind along the way, critiquing his accents, his delivery and his casting.

Yet, there are some who have seen a deeper pattern in the pathos of Reeves' work and have said that his patented low-affect blank-stare and decidedly dudelike approach, were all actually the work of a very good — nay, most excellent — actor.

"I had to see several performances to see that there was something quite idiosyncratic about his performances," said Stephen Prina, a noted proponent of this interpretation.

"They always seemed reticent. It wasn't about disclosure; it was about kind of a withdrawal."

For the unacquainted, Prina is an acclaimed poly-hyphenate — musician, composer, artist — who is also a devoted Keanuophile, able to fluently cite many selections from Reeves' resume of more than 70 films.

Indeed, long before Reeves, 61, decided to make his Broadway debut in Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot, a commercial smash which opened last month, Prina earned a quick dash of fame for one of the earliest and most earnest examinations of the actor's artistry.

The occasion was a 1994 seminar Prina taught at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, a course that caught the attention of The New Yorker's Susan Orlean, who called it "12 gnarly weeks of culture, sociology, anthropology and philosophy".

"Plus," Orlean quipped, "there's, like, a lot of homework."

Three decades have lapsed since that pass-fail class. But Reeves and Prina's careers have now nearly converged again, this time in midtown Manhattan, with the movie star treading the boards at the Hudson Theatre on West 44th Street and Prina celebrated during a three-month residency and retrospective at MoMA, nine blocks to the north.