The Problem of Method Acting

Oop one correction: my recollection of the story about Leo, Kerry Washington, and the blood deceived me! Leo did not wipe his own blood on her face. One commenter, @Ishtar Rozas Merlo, has done the work of finding an article that says: "When Leonardo DiCaprio's character Calvin Candie smashes his hand on the dinner table, the actor accidentally crushed a small stemmed glass with his palm and really began to bleed. DiCaprio ignored it, stayed in character, and continued with the scene. Tarantino was so impressed that he used this take in the final print, and when he called cut, the room erupted in a standing ovation. DiCaprio's hand was bandaged and he suggested the idea of smearing blood onto the face of Kerry Washington. Tarantino and Washington both liked this, so Tarantino got some fake blood together." Sorry Leo!

“I always say about people who do method acting, you only ever see people do the method when they’re playing an assholes” Robert Pattinson

my takeaway from this is that men use the method as an excuse not to shower while filming

The TV series "Barry" has a really interesting depiction of method acting in it that really addresses the narcissism of it. All of Barry's classmates, despite being subpar actors, have this slavish devotion to exposing trauma and using it to fuel their acting, but Barry is uncomfortable with that despite being the darkest person among them (hitman). And there's this incredible scene where one of his classmates basically Dustin Hoffman's him to get a more violent performance out of him while he just gets more and more upset, while his teacher encourages it as "accessing the roots of his acting ability". Bill Hader plays it so fucking well that it's almost traumatic to watch.

I watched a video by Sideways recently (great youtuber who talks about film music) about the horrid methods during the filming of Les Misérables. He talked about how some actors were deliberately dehydrated before their vocal performances to create a more "tortured" or "rough" sound, sometimes repeating scenes for hours without hydration. This can permanently damage an actors vocal chords. The worst part is is that such a sound is not even that difficult to replicate with some consistent vocal coaching but the director was too enamored by the idea of the suffering artist/actor to go for a much more abusive and destructive route over a pragmatic one.

It just occurred to me that I don't think I've heard of a method actor who prepared for their role by immersing themselves in joy and fun. It's always some kind of self-torture.

“My dear boy, why don’t you try just acting? It’s so much easier.”

CW: suicide In 2019 I was in a scene study class where I was playing Jessie from the play 'Night Mother. At the beginning of the play, Jessie tells her mother that she will kill herself that night, and at the end of the play (and what I was working on) does. Having been hospitalized after a suicide attempt 3 years earlier, tapping into those emotions was the last thing I wanted to do. So I didn't. I used my experience as a point of reference and understanding, sure, but I made sure to build the character by working from the text and making each moment specific and engaged, both of which gave me a lot of control over the performance. And then I got a good night's sleep and had a full breakfast and my scene partner and I knocked it out of the park. Point is, you can absolutely do S tier acting without ruining yourself and please for your own sake avoid traumatizing yourself as much as possible.

You know, it’s funny: you always hear about method actors when they’re being awful. But Henry Cavill is also a method actor, and I’ve never heard one complaint about him . Evidently when filming the Witcher, he was in character is Geralt the whole time. And nobody ever knew. Because he just spent the whole time talking to nobody and petting his horse .

I went to a very abusive theatre school that was all Strasburg all the time, and I will never forget how, in the first month or so, we had to dig up traumatic memories to turn into short scenes... and I got a C on the project because I didn’t have a compelling enough trauma to parade in front of my classmates.

"Have you tried acting?" is such an iconic roast, i love it

I went to an art school for painting, and one of my favorite things one of my professors said was “it’s a lie that you have to be a starving, tortured artist to be a good one.” And I think so many artists (of any kind) believe that they have to have something go wrong or feel wrong in order to hone it into their craft and to be more “meaningful”. If we truly believe that there is beauty in everything, then why can’t ordinary moments be just as cathartic as the mountain top and the valley ones?

This is why I love Mads Mikkelson as an actor. He’s got a few great interviews about his “method” and is very healthy minded about it and wants to leave the character as soon as he’s finished with his days work. He’s given stellar performances without all that self absorbed angst. I haven’t really hated any performances that were based on method acting, but certainly don’t feel like it makes anything “special”. I love that quote she mentioned “darling have you tried acting” 😂

“Acting is not therapy” - literally the first thing my teacher said in my first acting methods class in college.

Tricking actors/actresses to get „authentic“ reactions is the worst. I don’t want to watch someone actually being harassed or hurt or in any emotional distress. It makes me feel awful afterwards. It defies the whole purpose of acting anyways.

What Omari Hardwick said was so true though. “You never go method until you have the leverage to go fully method.” It’s all about privilege, in the end. Method can be helped. Acting is acting. Like what Viola Davis said. Going method seems to be solely for people who can allow themselves the embarrassment or bewilderment to do so. When you know no director in their right mind would give you up, you go method. It’s all about power.

I'm so glad I got to see this video in the context of the recent profile on Jeremy Strong and his method acting for his character in Succession. My favorite part of the profile was a quote where Brian Cox said something along the lines of "It's an American disease, the inability to separate oneself from their work."

If you can't do your job well without terrorising your coworkers, then maybe you should get a different job

Honestly, I will never forgive how Shelly Duvall was treated during the filming of The Shining. Just... let her act. And if she can’t play the part convincingly, find an actress who can without literally abusing them

During rehearsal, my arm was broken into pieces by another actor who had contempt for fight choreography and did a spontaneous move "in the moment". In another incident, an actor shoved his tongue in my mouth, saying he had done so because he was so "in the moment". I don't think Stanivslasksi intended for actors to be so stupid. Unfortunately, segments of American theatre culture have developed a sort of masochistic/sadistic approach and called it "method" acting.