History Main / MethodActing

* Shia Labeouf actually took acid for his role in "The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman." Not off screen to know the effects, but while he actually was shooting the film.

* Method acting might have been [[FatalMethodActing what killed]] HeathLedger. For his performance as TheJoker in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', Ledger, for all purposes, basically became mentally ill, suffering from insomnia, paranoia and panic attacks. This may have led to the ill-fated drug overdose that took his life, but it also led to one of the most powerful performances in film history, as well as a posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

* JamesDean was a method actor.
** To the extreme, although it often worked: he kept everyone waiting while he brooded in his dressing room on the set of ''RebelWithoutACause'', but then pulled off the police station scene in one take. He also ad-libbed the very effective moment in ''EastOfEden'' when Cal breaks down and tearfully embraces his father when he refuses to accept the money he is offering (much to Raymond Massey's obvious shock). Not everyone was a fan of his style, though; he annoyed Rock Hudson to no end with his extensive preparation on ''Giant''.

* Michael Fassbender dropped a terrifying amount of weight to accurately portray activist Bobby Sands in ''{{Hunger}}''--and he doesn't have a lot of weight available to lose in the first place. He also did extensive interviews with real-life sex addicts for ''Film/{{Shame}}''.

* ChristianBale is the most recent big actor to be known for method acting. Specifically, his physical transformations for roles are very jarring. He was literally anorexic for the filming of ''TheMachinist'', only to bulk up to a practically bodybuilder-like physique for ''BatmanBegins''. Bale is also, like Daniel Day Lewis, notorious for being someone hard to work with: a prime example of both this and his skills is funnily enough his infamous rant during the shooting of ''TerminatorSalvation'', where he varbally assaulted Director of Photography Shane Hurlburt for wandering about during the shooting of a pivotal scene one time too many...while still maintaining his FakeAmerican accent almost the entire time.

* The story "Type Cast" in issue #24 of ''Creepy'' featured a main character who, forced into horror roles even though he hated them, got in-character by actually mutilating dead bodies, killing people &etc. He eventually snapped from the guilt and pressure and strangled his agent, ending up in an asylum which he was mistakenly released from some time later. The asylum director, calling to check up on him, was informed that he had a job at another studio. The picture he was appearing in? ''The Story of Jack the Ripper''...

* Method acting might have been [[FatalMethodActing what killed]] HeathLedger. For his performance as TheJoker in ''TheDarkKnight'', Ledger, for all purposes, basically became mentally ill, suffering from insomnia, paranoia and panic attacks. This may have led to the ill-fated drug overdose that took his life, but it also led to one of the most powerful performances in film history, as well as a posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

* The story "Type Cast" in issue #24 of ''Eerie'' featured a main character who, forced into horror roles even though he hated them, got in-character by actually mutilating dead bodies, killing people &etc. He eventually snapped from the guilt and pressure and strangled his agent, ending up in an asylum which he was mistakenly released from some time later. The asylum director, calling to check up on him, was informed that he had a job at another studio. The picture he was appearing in? ''The Story of Jack the Ripper''...

* ChristianBale is the most recent big actor to be known for method acting. Specifically, his physical transformations for roles are very jarring. He was literally anorexic for the filming of ''TheMachinist'', only to bulk up to a practically bodybuilder-like physique for ''BatmanBegins''. Bale is also, like Daniel Day Lewis, notorious for being someone hard to work with.

** It should also be noted that this is heavily contested by those who worked with Ledger on the film. Micheal Cain in particular insists that Ledger was quite friendly and gregarious between takes who enjoyed swapping stories with the cast and crew about their children (or grandchildren) and entertained them with skateboarding tricks on long shoots.

** An interesting double-twist: for ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan'', all the actors except MattDamon had training, which [[EnforcedMethodActing subconciously gave the other actors contempt for him]] being a rookie, reflecting the characters. Clever move, [[StevenSpielberg Spielberg]].

* In ''Manga/SkipBeat'', method acting is the bread and butter of Kyoko, to the extreme of sometimes dressing and acting off-set like the character she is filming now.

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** [[NothingIsScarier Makes you wonder]] [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel what he did]] [[YouDontWantToKnow to prepare for his role as]] [[DoctorWho The Master]].

'''Method Acting''' is a controversial practice in the field of performance. The core gist of it is this: an actor tries to replicate the life circumstances, mannerisms and emotional feelings of the character he portrays, so as to give realism, legitimacy and dramatic strength to his performance. An actor playing a character from history might research the character, look for media featuring him, and try to live in the same conditions that that character lived, provided that doing so would not be detrimental to his mental or physical health. A character in a deep depression might make him reflect on his own moments of sadness and bring those feelings forth. He might gain or lose weight to fit a character who is morphologically different from him, but this is generally frowned upon (despite what RobertDeNiro would have you believe).

'''Method Acting''' is a controversial practice in the field of performance. The core gist of it is this: an actor tries to replicate the life circumstances, mannerisms and emotional feelings of the character he portrays, so as to give realism, legitimacy and dramatic strength to his performance. An actor playing a character from history might research the character, look for media featuring him, and try to live in the same conditions that that character lived, provided that doing so would not be detrimental to his mental or physical health. A character in a deep depression might make him reflect on his own moments of sadness and bring those feelings forth. He might gain or lose weight to fit a character who is morphologically different from him, but this is generally frowned upon (despite what Robert DeNiro would have you believe).

* [[NothingIsScarier Makes you wonder]] [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel what he did]] [[YouDontWantToKnow to prepare for his role as]] [[DoctorWho The Master]].

'''Method Acting''' is a controversial practice in the field of performance. The core gist of it is this: an actor tries to replicate the life circumstances, mannerisms and emotional feelings of the character he portrays, so as to give realism, legitimacy and dramatic strength to his performance. An actor playing a character from history might research the character, look for media featuring him, and try to live in the same conditions that that character lived. A character in a deep depression might make him reflect on his own moments of sadness and bring those feelings forth. He might gain or lose weight to fit a character who is morphologically different from him.

Though Method has produced powerful and affecting performances, it is increasingly finding itself coming under fire for its inherent limitations. Method actors are pretty notorious as being hard to work with because of their involvement with their roles. When all's said and done, method acting is a search for perfection in performance, so a method actor often has confrontations with cast and crew over the direction his character takes. Also, well, it's hard to give directions to an actor when he's in-character even off-camera. Nonetheless, many of the greatest performances in movie history have resulted from an actor who completely immersed himself in the role. Method acting is, above all, not easy. It takes its toll on the actors, both physically and emotionally, and as mentioned earlier, can result in friction between the actor and the rest of the production staff. But when a performance was well method acted, it shows.

* Method acting might have been [[FatalMethodActing what killed]] HeathLedger. For his performance as TheJoker in ''TheDarkKnight'', Ledger, for all purposes, basically became mentally ill, suffering from insomnia, paranoia and panic attacks. This probably led to the ill-fated drug overdose that took his life, but it also led to one of the most powerful performances in film history, as well as a posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

* Probably no actor has been associated with method acting quite as prominently as DanielDayLewis. He simply IS his character for the duration of his role. For his Academy Award-winning performance in ''My Left Foot'', he did not leave his wheelchair, speak coherently, or even feed himself for the entire filming. For ''LastOfTheMohicans'' he became a survivalist living of the land. For his role in ''InTheNameOfTheFather'', he lived in a prison cell, basically starved himself and asked the cast and crew to constantly verbally abuse him. This has made him one of the most notoriously picky and difficult actors to work with in all of Hollywood, but it has also made him one of the most admired and critically acclaimed.

Technically speaking, MethodActing refers to Constantin Stanislavski's methods as popularized by Lee Strasberg, but it is used for generally in common speech.

* Michael Fassbender dropped a terrifying amount of weight to accurately portray activist Bobby Sands in ''{{Hunger}}''--and he doesn't have a lot of weight available to lose in the first place. He also did extensive interviews with real-life sex addicts for ''WebComic/{{Shame}}''.

* In ''SkipBeat'', method acting is the bread and butter of Kyoko, to the extreme of sometimes dressing and acting off-set like the character she is filming now.

* Michael Fassbender dropped a terrifying amount of weight to accurately portray activist Bobby Sands in ''{{Hunger}}''--and he doesn't have a lot of weight available to lose in the first place. He also did extensive interviews with real-life sex addicts for ''{{Shame}}''.

'''Method Acting''' is a controversial, but nonetheless effective and admired, practice in the field of performance. The core gist of it is this: an actor tries to replicate the life circumstances, mannerisms and emotional feelings of the character he portrays, so as to give realism, legitimacy and dramatic strength to his performance. An actor playing a character from history might research the character, look for media featuring him, and try to live in the same conditions that that character lived. A character in a deep depression might make him reflect on his own moments of sadness and bring those feelings forth. He might gain or lose weight to fit a character who is morphologically different from him.

Method actors are pretty notorious as being hard to work with because of their involvement with their roles. When all's said and done, method acting is a search for perfection in performance, so a method actor often has confrontations with cast and crew over the direction his character takes. Also, well, it's hard to give directions to an actor when he's in-character even off-camera. Nonetheless, many of the greatest performances in movie history have resulted from an actor who completely immersed himself in the role. Method acting is, above all, not easy. It takes its toll on the actors, both physically and emotionally, and as mentioned earlier, can result in friction between the actor and the rest of the production staff. But when a performance was well method acted, it shows.

* Michael Fassbender dropped a terrifying amount of weight to accurately portray activist Bobby Sands in ''{{Hunger}}''.