for the first actual post on this blog, i think i'm going to talk about how some of the actors' experience (or lackthereof) added to their characters! this is all coming from my memory of Making Dazed (2005) as well as my own interpretation of the movie/characters. feel free to add to the post or send an ask or message me any thoughts you have about this! i could probably talk about dazed forever (hence why i made this blog!)
so starting with tony. anthony rapp was one of the only actors they cast that had any solid acting experience before Dazed*(sidenote about this under the cut). he came to set with his lines memorized, and it Shows. there were some times i found it a tad distracting, but that was mostly because i pick up on mannerisms really easily and i'm pretty familiar with rent (which, iirc, was pretty recent after dazed, so it makes sense there were similarities in both of his character's speech patterns).
anyway, i think it totally makes sense for tony as a character. he's one of the "intellectuals," he's a little awkward, he isn't comfortable at parties, and he speaks more eloquently/uses less slang than most of the other characters. it makes perfect sense that tony would speak as if he was reading from a script/had his lines memorized. i could totally picture tony like standing in front of a mirror and practicing what to say, you know?
then, there's mitch. absolutely no shade intended, love wiley wiggins, but the Nose Pinch. i gotta bring up the nose pinch (later) but looking at it purely from a casting stand-point, it makes so much sense to cast an actor with little-to-no experience as mitch. not only because they were already casting lesser-known actors from Austin , but because mitch is SUPPOSED to be awkward.
mitch is the epitome of the nervous up-coming freshman that just wants to fit in and look cool. throughout the movie, we see how mitch acts around older people he wants to impress, but not so much how he acts when he's alone. he's just absolutely fumbling his way through the night and it's funny, but it's also so earnest and it's honestly one of my favorite parts of the movie. (the "like how?" scene, i mean come ON) but seriously.
there are plenty lines that back up mitch's awkwardness, but the Acting ChoicesTM are also so fitting. as anyone who's paid any attention to mitch during Dazed knows, he has a habit of grabbing his nose. like SO. MUCH. and i see it talked about a lot in a negative way and, like. listen. is it award-winning acting? not really. but AGAIN. it's so earnest and endearing and in character!!
the big times i remember mitch pinching his nose are actually not directly in front of any of the high schoolers, but mostly when he's with his friends his age. at the baseball field with carl, at the emporium with sabrina, and at the beer bust with julie. what i got from all these moments is that mitch doesn't only try to play it cool in front of pink and everybody, but also in front of his peers. (i could definitely explore that in a different post, but not tonight)
at the baseball field, the football players are watching from the stands, but i don't think mitch was over-acting for them, specifically. he actually tries to act cool in front of carl later, when he buys the six pack for melvin and acts all nonchalant when carl asks him what he's got in the bag. so we know that mitch tries to act cooler than he probably is, regardless of who he's around. very relatable, tbh, ESPECIALLY because he's not even in 9th grade yet LMAO
i would say mitch also wants to act cool in front of sabrina, especially because he's still at the emporium and pink is right behind him. iirc, the nose pinch happens when sabrina tells him hirschfelder got busted, so it's possible that that was his genuine reaction, but also is it really that surprising? he could very well be playing into the hazing, because he knows that if he plays it right, he can get in with the cool crowd like pink.
and he DEFINTELY wants to act cool in front of julie. his lines totally support this, but again i think wiley wiggins' mannerisms (mitch-isms, if you will-) come across with julie, too.
whether or not the nose pinch was intentional or a habit or whatever is obvious up to interpretation. but i guess all this is to say that you can pry wiley wiggins' nose pinch and anthony rapp's perfectly delivered lines out of my cold dead hands.
there's a couple additional thoughts/facts about casting under the cut if you're interested! thanks for reading and, again, please lmk of any thoughts you have! :)