‘I'm just a character in your film’: acting and performance from autism to Zissou

Abstract

This paper examines the role of the actor in the Anderson frame and considers the function of performance as a theme and strategy as a way of reading Anderson's films. Considering the relationship between mise-en-scène, the camera and the actor, I establish the actor's agency in the construction of character and narrative. Anderson's films construct other ‘frames’ through which to read performance, including performance-within-performance framing devices and the ensemble. Such techniques call attention to performance as performance, self-consciously foregrounding film and performance as a constructed image that is then echoed by a number of Anderson's narratives. The paper goes on to examine the distinctiveness of acting in Anderson's films, particularly via a ‘deadpan’ style that is exhibited facially and vocally. Finally, these areas are brought together via a discussion of performance in relation to the enactment of male social roles in order to argue that what we witness in Anderson's films is less a ‘blankness’ than an autistic performance of emotion.