Some Thoughts on Anton Yelchin

Often you don't realize that a certain actor is one of your favourites or means a great deal to you until you're given a chance to truly reflect. Anton Yelchin's death at the age of 27 in a car accident has made me realize how much I really liked him as an actor. 

I feel he was one of those actors it was easy to take for granted. He never had a role that made him a superstar, nor did he give the super flashy performances that called attention to themselves. He was a quintessential "every-man" actor, grounding often fantastical premises with a specific kind of relatability that was neither over or underdone. 

In films such as the Fright Night remake, Joe Dante's Burying the Ex, and the recent Green Room, Yelchin was the unorthodox hero. His presence was humourous but his played it straight, allowing you chuckle at the unexpectedness of his characters being in such a situation- but you could still accept him as the hero.      

He had a similar effect in the romantic dramas, Like Crazy and 5 to 7. He wasn't a typical romantic lead in either film but he was so charming and open you believed Felicity Jones and Berenice Marlohe could fall for him.  

I also really enjoyed his role as Pavel Chekhov in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek films, nailing the vocal mannerisms defined by Walter Koenig while also subtly making it his own. And his version of Kyle Reese in Terminator Salvation matched up better with Michael Biehn's performance in the original than Jai Courtney's in Terminator Genisys.  

When an actor dies at such a young age one can't help but think of the massive hole left by their absence, the performances we'll never get to see. And it feels- like someone else said- he was just getting started. All we can do is appreciate the work he gave us. Art is the closest thing we as people have to immortality- and Yelchin lives- like others we lost too soon- through his art.