tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/method-acting-41422/articlesMethod acting – The Conversation2024-03-11T17:18:40Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2253102024-03-11T17:18:40Z2024-03-11T17:18:40ZIntuition is the secret to great acting and many other skills – here’s how to train it<p>The 2024 Academy Awards recognised several amazing acting performances, including Cillian Murphy’s portrayal of the physicist Robert Oppenheimer, which won him the award for Best Actor. But what is it that drives such peak performances? When an actor <a href="https://www.screendaily.com/features/cillian-murphy-explains-how-he-transformed-from-cowardly-irishman-to-atomic-bomb-father-in-oppenheimer/5188692.article">fully embodies the character</a> to the extent that it creates an immersive, sustained world of make believe, we say that the actor was acting <em>intuitively</em>. </p>
<p>Such performances are not limited to acting – we might see such intuition in sports and music, too. But it is broader than that. Behaving intuitively is something we all do. It is any type of situation where we just <em>know</em> what to do in the moment – allowing us to be the best versions of ourselves. </p>
<p>So how can we make sure we behave intuitively, where it matters? And can we foster this ability? Our latest research, published in the journal <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2024-52558-001">Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts</a>, suggests that intuition can be trained and that it may be best understood as an “embodied state of mind” supported by the cognitive abilities of being aware of ourselves and our surroundings, and being immersed in an experience. </p>
<p>What does an embodied state of mind mean? William James, generally acknowledged to be the founder of modern psychology, suggested that there are two sides to awareness, the “I” and the “me”. The active aspect of self-awareness is the “I” – this is the part of our awareness that experiences the here and now – sometimes referred to as the “experiential self”. The more passive aspect of awareness is the “me” – this part that observes or reflects upon our actions. We might call this the rational or reflective self.</p>
<p>This distinction has long been recognised in neuroscientific research. For example, studies have shown that <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1119598109">taking psychedelic drugs</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hbm.24616">experiencing awe or wonder</a> can reduce activity in default mode network, which is a self-referential brain network underlying reflective self-awareness.</p>
<p>Moreover, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/scan/article/2/4/313/1676557">recent research</a> has suggested that mindfulness meditation might help us to move from reflective self-awareness to experiential self-awareness through training our attention.</p>
<h2>Immersing with awareness</h2>
<p>Our intuition relies on many unconscious processes that support all of our cognition, perception and interaction with the world. It requires us to take much of that in, but also not lose ourselves in being overwhelmed by our senses. In other words, we need to maintain the right levels of awareness while being immersed. </p>
<p>We perceive the world with our entire bodies, through <a href="https://aeon.co/videos/aristotle-was-wrong-and-so-are-we-there-are-far-more-than-five-senses">all of our senses</a> – from seeing to “thermoception” (sensing temperature) and “proprioception” (knowing which parts of your body are where without looking). This allows us to interact with the world around us in safe and useful ways. Ultimately, intuition happens when we are attuned to both what happens in our body and what happens around us.</p>
<p>But being highly aware of ourselves and our surroundings can’t fully explain intuition. When we are engaging with our intuition, we are acting on what we sense. But it can be hard to maintain our awareness if we become fully engaged with some specific task that uses intuition. This is why another ability is required: the ability for immersion. </p>
<p>The ability for immersion or absorption means that you can stay fully immersed in a task through focused attention. This is very similar to what is dubbed as <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-does-experiencing-flow-feel-so-good-a-communication-scientist-explains-173505">“flow”</a>. </p>
<p>But if you become too immersed, wouldn’t you lose your awareness of yourself and your surroundings? This is why we suggest you need meta-awareness: an awareness of having the experience, rather than reflecting on the fact that you are having an experience. In other words, you have to be in an experiential rather than rational state; you are experiencing, not reasoning.</p>
<p>Take for example acting. When we played a part in a school play, we may have been okay with representing Juliet, up until we realised that everyone was looking at us just as we stumbled over the words. We then switched from experiential self–awareness – in which we embodied Juliet – to reflective self-awareness, where we (over)thought about what we were doing. This type of “choking” during a performance is also really common in <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/04/the-science-of-choking-under-pressure">sports</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://pureportal.coventry.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/developing-an-actors-intuition">An actor acts intuitively</a> when they enter a state of immersion during their imagining, with full attention to and awareness of the imagining, as well as full awareness of oneself and the environment. They become fully immersed in the awareness of the experience – they have experiential awareness.</p>
<p>But we mustn’t make the mistake of thinking that <a href="https://theconversation.com/hollywood-has-got-method-acting-all-wrong-heres-what-the-process-is-really-about-172568">method acting involves immersing one so deeply</a> that the actors are no longer themselves. They have to maintain meta-awareness in other to avoid <a href="https://medium.com/@sm72/the-psychological-impact-of-acting-5ed132d9fc14">mental health problems</a> such as dissociation, and worse.</p>
<h2>How to develop your intuition</h2>
<p>If intuition is an embodied cognitive state rather than an ephemeral phenomenon that may happen by chance, does that mean it can be developed? </p>
<p>Achieving intuition is considered one of the aims of <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/My_Life_in_Art.html?id=n0haDwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y">Konstantin Stanislavski’s approach to acting training</a> (the foundation of western mainstream acting). But even in this, intuition is often still treated as something that has been handed down from the muses, much like a burst of creativity or insight. </p>
<p>Our research, however, found that intuition can be trained. To do that, we need to train the underlying abilities: an awareness of our internal and external world, combined with immersion.</p>
<p>As part of our research, we invited acting students to <a href="https://pureportal.coventry.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/developing-an-actors-intuition">do intuition training</a>, developed by co-investigator Micia de Wet. This consisted of exercises focused on imagery and structured by using guided meditations to train the actor’s attention and sensory awareness. The training also included exercises to stimulate immersion into story worlds through play and imaginative exploration. We found that this training boosted the actors’ intuition. Our survey of 310 actors also showed that the more they engaged in mindfulness meditation, the higher their acting intuition.</p>
<p>While this training was specific to acting, we suggest similarly guided meditations, role play exercises and mindfulness training can boost our attention and focus. These may increase intuition in other contexts, as these exercises sharpen general underlying cognitive abilities of awareness and immersion, <a href="https://theconversation.com/six-common-misconceptions-about-meditation-90786">bringing awareness</a> to the body and environment. </p>
<p>Rather than an esoteric phenomenon or temporary moment of peak performance, intuition is an important cognitive and emotional state supported by abilities that anybody can continuously use to engage with the world around them – and that, moreover, can be developed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225310/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Valerie van Mulukom does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are trainable cognitive building blocks of intuition.Valerie van Mulukom, Visiting Lecturer in Psychology, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2235002024-03-08T22:16:27Z2024-03-08T22:16:27ZThe failures of ‘Oppenheimer’ and the ascent of the foreign film – 6 essential reads for the Oscars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580764/original/file-20240308-24-8d2882.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C4%2C2968%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Oscars will be handed out to winners across 24 categories, ranging from best picture to best costume design.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/oscars-are-displayed-at-meet-the-oscars-an-exhibit-news-photo/56822072?adppopup=true">Kevin Winter/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Because movies are so subjective, with views on the same performances and direction veering wildly from one critic to the next, determining the best of anything – whether it’s acting, direction or sound design – can be fraught. </p>
<p>But that controversy also makes for good drama and suspense – fitting for a ceremony celebrating the ways in which actors, directors and cinematographers captivate, move and thrill audiences.</p>
<p>So before you tune into Hollywood’s biggest night of the year, here are five recent stories – and one betting tip – about the films, fashion and actors who will be featured at this year’s show.</p>
<h2>1. Can you want an Oscar too much?</h2>
<p>As Michael Schulman, author of “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/oscar-wars-michael-schulman?variant=41063519387682">Oscar Wars</a>,” has written, the Academy Awards are not exactly a “barometer of artistic merit or worth.” </p>
<p>For that reason, in the months leading up to the Oscars, there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes politicking as studios and producers make the case for why their writers, directors, cinematographers, costume designers and actors should win the top prize.</p>
<p>Sometimes the actors will make the case themselves. In recent years, more and more will promote the extent to which they prepared for their roles. </p>
<p>You may have heard that Cillian Murphy lost 20 pounds and took up smoking (fake) cigarettes to play nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, or that Bradley Cooper spent six years training in the art of conducting in order to film a key scene as Leonard Bernstein in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5535276/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_4_nm_3_q_maestro">Maestro</a>.”</p>
<p>The anecdotes are supposed to burnish their Oscar credentials. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/bradley-cooper-cillian-murphy-and-the-myths-of-method-acting-224340">Should they?</a></p>
<p>“Yes, the media loves these kinds of stories, and they can demonstrate a certain type of commitment,” writes Holy Cross theater professor <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/scott-malia-1468175">Scott Malia</a>. “But they can also paint actors as pampered and pretentious ‘artistes’ whose process is self-indulgent. A working actor struggling to pay the bills doesn’t have the luxury of, say, insisting that everyone address them by their character’s name.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bradley-cooper-cillian-murphy-and-the-myths-of-method-acting-224340">Bradley Cooper, Cillian Murphy and the myths of Method acting</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. The anti-‘Oppenheimer’ crowd</h2>
<p>Christopher Nolan’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15398776/">Oppenheimer</a>” is the runaway favorite to be named best picture, <a href="https://www.vegasinsider.com/awards/odds/oscars/">according to Vegas Insider</a>. </p>
<p>But if The Conversation’s coverage of the film is any indication, it doesn’t deserve the win.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/charles-thorpe-1453180">Charles Thorpe</a> – a sociologist at the University of California, San Diego – explores why J. Robert Oppenheimer, in particular, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-american-culture-fixates-on-the-tragic-image-of-j-robert-oppenheimer-the-most-famous-man-behind-the-atomic-bomb-209365">has become the focus of so much writing on the bomb</a>.</p>
<p>On the one hand, it’s a lot easier to digest the complexities of science, politics and human suffering through an individual – “a human-scaled way to talk about an otherwise overwhelming topic,” as Thorpe puts it.</p>
<p>But on the other hand, Thorpe argues that American culture’s “fascination with the man behind the bomb often seems to eclipse the horrific reality of nuclear weapons themselves.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-american-culture-fixates-on-the-tragic-image-of-j-robert-oppenheimer-the-most-famous-man-behind-the-atomic-bomb-209365">Why American culture fixates on the tragic image of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the most famous man behind the atomic bomb</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. Few new insights</h2>
<p>Michigan State University historian <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/naoko-wake-1508370">Naoko Wake</a> also takes issue with what she calls the “inward-looking” nature of “Oppenheimer.”</p>
<p>Like so many other films about the bomb, Nolan applies a distinctly Western lens that, in Wake’s view, <a href="https://theconversation.com/oppenheimer-is-a-disappointment-and-a-lost-opportunity-222591">has become cloudy and cracked from overuse</a>. </p>
<p>In the end, the film’s tension hinges on decisions made by Americans, for Americans, offering “few, if any, new insights about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and their repercussions.” </p>
<p>“Even if this film is seen purely through the lens of entertainment,” Wake adds, “Nolan could have chosen to recognize why the bombs are such a galvanizing subject to begin with: They have done much, much more than make white, middle-class Americans feel anxious or guilty.”</p>
<p>“Their blasts reverberated across the globe,” she continues, “tearing apart not only America’s wartime enemies but also colonized peoples and racial minorities.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/despite-its-big-night-at-the-oscars-oppenheimer-is-a-disappointment-and-a-lost-opportunity-222591">Despite its big night at the Oscars, 'Oppenheimer' is a disappointment and a lost opportunity</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. Foreign films take center stage</h2>
<p>But for all the concern about American perspectives dominating interpretations of history, there’s been a striking shift in the film industry, which has taken a decidedly international turn over the past decade.</p>
<p>This year, three non-English language films – “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Past Lives” and “The Zone of Interest” – have been nominated for best picture. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580768/original/file-20240308-24-ik5y2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An Asian woman in a blue dress stands on a street in front of a big, bright billboard advertising a screening for 'Past Lives.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580768/original/file-20240308-24-ik5y2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580768/original/file-20240308-24-ik5y2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580768/original/file-20240308-24-ik5y2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580768/original/file-20240308-24-ik5y2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580768/original/file-20240308-24-ik5y2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580768/original/file-20240308-24-ik5y2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580768/original/file-20240308-24-ik5y2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Korean-Canadian filmmaker Celine Song wrote and directed ‘Past Lives,’ which is one of three non-English language films nominated for Best Picture at the 2024 Academy Awards.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/writer-and-director-celine-song-of-the-film-past-lives-news-photo/1489366618?adppopup=true">Mat Hayward/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Miami University film studies scholar <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kerry-hegarty-1508053">Kerry Hegarty</a> tells the story of how non-English cinema has been gradually folded in the ceremonies – boxed out at first, eventually given its own category and finally winning best picture in 2020, when “Parasite” won.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-non-english-language-cinema-is-reshaping-the-oscars-landscape-222484">Hegarty explains how this didn’t happen naturally</a>; it took work. State-sponsored programs supporting filmmakers in foreign countries played a big role, as did changes in the demographic makeup of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.</p>
<p>“Streaming distribution has also democratized access to non-English language cinema,” she adds, “which was previously limited only to niche audiences in art house theaters in large cities.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-non-english-language-cinema-is-reshaping-the-oscars-landscape-222484">How non-English language cinema is reshaping the Oscars landscape</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>5. The guardians of glamour</h2>
<p>In the early years of the Academy Awards, what people wore to the event received little attention. In fact, even after televisions landed in millions of living rooms across the U.S., movie fans couldn’t watch the Oscars on TV: The film industry resisted broadcasting the event on the medium it saw as its top competition.</p>
<p>That all changed once Hollywood ran into some financial trouble in the late 1940s and needed television networks to help pay for the annual event. All of a sudden, how movie stars appeared at the event mattered – <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-academy-awards-became-the-biggest-international-fashion-show-free-for-all-221477">and studios decided that this eccentric coterie needed some corralling</a>.</p>
<p>Enter Edith Head, guardian of glamour.</p>
<p>University of Southern California fashion scholar <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/elizabeth-castaldo-lunden-1482727">Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén</a> tells the story of how Head – and, later, Fred Hayman – maintained boundaries of decorum, while also encouraging stars to showcase the latest luxury trends and attire, turning the event into a dazzling fashion spectacle.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-academy-awards-became-the-biggest-international-fashion-show-free-for-all-221477">How the Academy Awards became 'the biggest international fashion show free-for-all'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>6. 92 years old, 54 nominations</h2>
<p>When 92-year-old composer John Williams strolls up to Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, he’ll be looking to secure his sixth gold statuette.</p>
<p>It’s been a while since Williams’ last win – exactly 30 years, when he won best original score for “Schindler’s List” in 1994. Nonetheless, Williams holds the record for most nominations for a living person, with 54. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Elderly bald man with white beard conducts a concert." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580767/original/file-20240308-20-3z5nq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580767/original/file-20240308-20-3z5nq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580767/original/file-20240308-20-3z5nq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580767/original/file-20240308-20-3z5nq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580767/original/file-20240308-20-3z5nq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580767/original/file-20240308-20-3z5nq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580767/original/file-20240308-20-3z5nq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Composer John Williams will be looking to take home his sixth Academy Award. Williams holds the record for most nominations for a living person, with 54.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/composer-john-williams-conducts-the-concert-celebrating-the-news-photo/1549425746?adppopup=true">Shannon Finney/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rice University music professor <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/arthur-gottschalk-1508701">Arthur Gottschalk</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-jaws-to-schindlers-list-john-williams-has-infused-movie-scores-with-adventure-and-emotion-222694">looks back on Williams’ illustrious career</a> and explains how the composer’s suite for “E.T.” burnished his reputation.</p>
<p>Not only was it Williams’ first score to be embraced by concert orchestras, but it also changed the way director Steven Spielberg edited the film, “inverting the normal relationship between director and composer,” Gottschalk writes.</p>
<p>“The scoring of the finale,” he continues, “in which protagonist Elliott and his friends help the alien escape captivity, is so effective that Spielberg re-cut the end of the film to match Williams’ music.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-jaws-to-schindlers-list-john-williams-has-infused-movie-scores-with-adventure-and-emotion-222694">From 'Jaws' to 'Schindler's List,' John Williams has infused movie scores with adventure and emotion</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223500/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Before you tune into Hollywood’s biggest night of the year, check out our coverage of the stars of this year’s show.Nick Lehr, Arts + Culture EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2243402024-03-05T13:58:57Z2024-03-05T13:58:57ZBradley Cooper, Cillian Murphy and the myths of Method acting<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579255/original/file-20240301-26-y48ck5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C2544%2C1812&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein and Carey Mulligan as Bernstein's wife, Felicia Montealegre, in 'Maestro.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.newyorker.com/photos/6580a0cc97c77278da928c1c/master/pass/Maestro_20220928_20662r.JPG">Jason McDonald/Netflix</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Should actors and actresses who go to extremes to prepare for their roles get more love from Oscars voters? </p>
<p>This year, best actor nominees <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0614165/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Cillian Murphy</a>, who played nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15398776/">Oppenheimer</a>,” and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0177896/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_3_nm_4_q_bradley%2520cooper">Bradley Cooper</a>, who starred as <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/12/15/the-legend-of-lenny">Leonard Bernstein</a> in the biopic “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5535276/">Maestro</a>,” are getting lots of buzz not only for their performances but also for how those performances were achieved.</p>
<p>The already slim Murphy lost roughly 20 pounds and took up smoking fake cigarettes to mimic the look and habits of the real-life Oppenheimer. His preparation for the role <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/07/inside-cillian-murphy-intense-oppenheimer-prep-i-didnt-go-out-much">was purportedly so intense</a> that he isolated himself from his co-stars during the making of the film.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Cooper allegedly <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/features/bradley-cooper-spike-lee-maestro-no-chairs-set-method-acting-1235821551/">spent six years training</a> in the art of conducting in order to film a key sequence for “Maestro.” And on a December 2023 episode of the podcast “SmartLess,” best actress nominee <a href="https://podcasts.musixmatch.com/podcast/smartless-01gttmmw40q3na01cxg9j6kp91/episode/carey-mulligan-01hhxzwj46vx83k5ne3vfhv53p">Carey Mulligan</a> recounted how Bradley Cooper called her on the phone and spoke to her in Leonard Bernstein’s voice years before they had begun filming “Maestro.”</p>
<p>Reporting on the actors’ preparation often references <a href="https://www.nfi.edu/method-acting/">Method acting</a>, a psychological approach to performing that’s designed to make the character seem more real and believable. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/theatre/scott-malia">But as someone who has taught theater for over 20 years</a>, I’ve found that much of what is said or written about Method acting perpetuates a number of myths about the technique. Sometimes, it can be tough to tell whether actors are genuinely preparing for a role or simply “performing” their preparation for their co-stars, the media and the public.</p>
<h2>The origins of ‘the Method’</h2>
<p>Method acting – sometimes called “the Method” – derives from “the system,” an approach to acting developed by Russian actor and director <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/94675.An_Actor_Prepares">Konstantin Stanislavski</a>, which he describes in the 1936 book “<a href="https://archive.org/details/2015.126189.AnActorPrepares">An Actor Prepares</a>.” </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579257/original/file-20240301-48072-drn68t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of a middle-aged man with gray hair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579257/original/file-20240301-48072-drn68t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579257/original/file-20240301-48072-drn68t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579257/original/file-20240301-48072-drn68t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579257/original/file-20240301-48072-drn68t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579257/original/file-20240301-48072-drn68t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1184&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579257/original/file-20240301-48072-drn68t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1184&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579257/original/file-20240301-48072-drn68t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1184&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Konstantin Stanislavski’s techniques have been hugely influential in the training of European and American actors.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-the-actor-konstantin-sergeyevich-stanislavsky-news-photo/1144560864?adppopup=true">The Print Collector/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Stanislavski asks actors to identify the forces that motivate and drive their characters. In doing so, the actor strives to be in the moment with their fellow actors, responding as their character would to imaginary circumstances.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000008/">Marlon Brando</a> brought mainstream awareness to Method acting. To prepare for his role in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042727/">The Men</a>,” in which he plays a paralyzed war veteran, Brando reportedly <a href="https://www.slashfilm.com/846709/marlon-brando-only-broke-method-once-during-his-intense-prep-for-the-men/">spent time in a veterans hospital</a> using a wheelchair and did not initially reveal to the other patients that he was not disabled. He also reportedly stayed in his wheelchair between takes while filming.</p>
<p>In the decades since, Method acting has become associated with actors losing themselves in their characters, such as Daniel Day-Lewis <a href="https://screenrant.com/daniel-day-lewis-wild-method-acting-stories/">having people spoon-feed him</a> in order to prepare for his role as a painter with cerebral palsy in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097937/">My Left Foot</a>” (1989).</p>
<h2>This is the new me!</h2>
<p>Despite all of the attention these stories get, some of the extremes actors go to would have likely made Stanislavski laugh.</p>
<p>“An Actor Prepares” is built around a fictional acting class in which a teacher – most likely a stand-in for Stanislavski himself – breaks his actors’ bad habits and teaches them the foundations of the system. </p>
<p>Many of the exercises the teacher designs are to help the actors imagine what they might do if they were in the same situation as their characters – not to recreate those circumstances in real life. </p>
<p>Along the way, Stanislavski’s acting teacher regularly lampoons actors going to phony extremes to achieve what they think is authenticity. </p>
<p>Not unlike the ethically questionable issues of Brando and Day-Lewis <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-screen-and-on-stage-disability-continues-to-be-depicted-in-outdated-cliched-ways-130577">appropriating disability</a>, one of the actor characters in Stanislavski’s book adopts mind-bogglingly racist approaches, including blackface, as he prepares to play Othello. </p>
<p>Decades later, there are echoes of this critique in the work of Robert Downey Jr., <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/robert-downey-jr-tropic-thunder-blackface-regrets-1202204722/">who wore blackface</a> in an irony-drenched but nonetheless problematic sendup of Method acting in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0942385/">Tropic Thunder</a>” (2008).</p>
<h2>Does this character make me look fat?</h2>
<p>Much of the debate around <a href="https://time.com/6240001/the-whale-fatsuit-controversy/">last year’s best actor winner, Brendan Fraser</a>, had to do with his wearing prosthetics to play the morbidly obese Charlie in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13833688/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_the%2520whale">The Whale</a>.”</p>
<p>It should be noted that Cillian Murphy denies that he is a Method actor – as does Day-Lewis – and Murphy has refused to disclose the <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/07/inside-cillian-murphy-intense-oppenheimer-prep-i-didnt-go-out-much">weight loss tactics</a> he used to shed pounds for his role in “Oppenheimer.” Yet one of his co-stars, Emily Blunt, semi-jokingly referred to Murphy as eating an almond a day to maintain his underweight physique during filming.</p>
<p>What any actor does with their body is between them and their doctors; however, there are major medical and ethical implications when weight loss and weight gain are marked as evidence of a disciplined commitment to one’s craft. </p>
<p>Stanislavski didn’t tell actors to bulk up or go on a crash diet for their roles; in fact, early in “An Actor Prepares,” the acting teacher admonishes his students for practicing in front of mirrors and being too focused on their outward appearance. Later in the book, the teacher also warns against what he calls an exhibitionistic approach to acting, in which the actor is trying to show the audience how hard they are working at their craft.</p>
<h2>Come at me, bro</h2>
<p>And then there are stories of actors who prod, tease and surprise their co-stars to try to elicit authentic responses.</p>
<p>During the height of the #MeToo movement, <a href="https://people.com/movies/meryl-streep-dustin-hoffman-slapping-overstepping/">a story about the filming</a> of “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079417/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Kramer vs. Kramer</a>” (1979) resurfaced. Meryl Streep recalled that co-star Dustin Hoffman slapped her before shooting one of their scenes in order to get a response from her. Those actions were allegedly part of a larger pattern of behavior and strained relations between the two during the making of the film.</p>
<p>Similarly, when “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1386697/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_suicide%2520squad">Suicide Squad</a>” (2016) was being filmed, Jared Leto reportedly sent gag gifts to his co-stars from his character, The Joker, that included dead animals and used condoms. <a href="https://www.eonline.com/news/1309072/jared-leto-defends-his-gag-gifts-to-castmates-says-he-never-crossed-any-lines">Leto has alternately endorsed and walked back</a> the stories about the pranks.</p>
<p>Contrast these stunts with Stanislavski’s take on working with acting partners: Create communion and engage in active listening. Ticking them off, whether it’s in service of a scene or part of their own technique of “staying in character,” is selfish.</p>
<h2>Is it process or privilege?</h2>
<p>Since Stanislavski’s book was published, a number of acting approaches have emerged that do favor the kind of personal psychological investment that seems to blur the line between actor and character, most notably those of American acting teacher and theater director <a href="https://newyorkimprovtheater.com/2023/09/28/the-legacy-of-lee-strasberg-stella-adler-and-sanford-meisner-shaping-american-acting-methods-derived-from-stanislavski/#:%7E:text=Strasberg's%20emphasis%20on%20emotional%20recall%2C%20Adler's%20championing%20of%20imagination%20and,on%20the%20art%20of%20acting.">Lee Strasberg</a>.</p>
<p>However, in Chapter 8 of “An Actor Prepares,” Stanislavski makes a clear distinction between what’s true and real for the actor and what’s true and real for the character they are playing.</p>
<p>In other words, he did not subscribe to the idea that an actor can lose themselves in their part.</p>
<p>Yes, the media loves these kinds of stories, and they can demonstrate a certain type of commitment. But they can also paint actors as pampered and pretentious “artistes” <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/13/on-succession-jeremy-strong-doesnt-get-the-joke">whose process is self-indulgent</a>. A working actor struggling to pay the bills doesn’t have the luxury of, say, insisting that everyone address them by their character’s name.</p>
<p>In fact, these narratives about Method acting can swing the other way: Much of the praise around Ryan Gosling’s turn in “Barbie” plays on the idea of a serious actor’s willingness to get blond, goofy and take a decidedly un-Methody approach, something <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/ryan-gosling-ken-casting.html">the actor cheekily embraced while doing press for the film</a>.</p>
<p>So when the acting Oscars get handed out, hopefully it will be because voters believed in the performances – not because of some meta narrative about their off-screen behavior.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224340/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Malia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hopefully, Academy Award winners will be chosen because voters believed in the actors’ performances − not because of some meta narrative about their off-screen behavior.Scott Malia, Associate Professor of Theatre, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2209522024-01-12T13:25:22Z2024-01-12T13:25:22ZNatalie Portman says method acting is a ‘luxury women can’t afford’ – but my research shows how it can empower them<p>As an actor and teacher of method acting, as well as a mother, I was surprised by Natalie Portman saying <a href="https://www.wsj.com/style/natalie-portman-may-december-skin-care-books-garden-state-7678b097">in a recent interview</a> that method acting is a “luxury women cannot afford”. The actor was questioning how acting processes – most of which have been created by men – clash with parts of the female experience, such as motherhood. </p>
<p>Referencing her experience with the 2016 film Jackie (for which she was Oscar-nominated), Portman explained: “I don’t think that children or partners would be very understanding of, you know, me making everyone call me ‘Jackie Kennedy’ all the time.” However, having used the method style successfully for more than 15 years, I believe there is a way to make it work for women.</p>
<p>Portman was speaking to promote her new film, May December, in which she portrays Elizabeth, an actor cast in a biopic as a sex offender who went on to marry and have children with the underage boy she had seduced. </p>
<p>Elizabeth is presumably a method actor – at one point in her preparation, she sleeps with the victim herself, who is now a grown man. But immersion into the life of a character is not the only way to apply method acting. </p>
<h2>Many ways to approach method</h2>
<p>No one acting method works for everyone. Most accounts of the method style focus on male actors misbehaving under the guise of the character. For example, when Jared Leto starred as the Joker in Suicide Squad (2016), <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/08/hollywood-has-ruined-method-acting/494777/">media coverage</a> focused on his decision to gift his costars a range of disturbing items, including used condoms. </p>
<p>However, as I argue in my <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003330882-6/emotion-memory-versus-physical-action-evi-stamatiou">recent research</a>, method acting can empower marginalised social groups including women. This is because it prioritises the actor’s internal process and real-life experience over scripts and fictional characters. </p>
<p>This highly influential technique requires self reflection from the actor, in particular exploring what moves and excites them. Alongside movement and voice exercises, visualisation exercises offer a unique approach to developing the actor’s imagination. </p>
<p>Through visualisation exercises, method actors can blend their real memories with those of their character. This then informs the characterisation processes. </p>
<p>My own method training was accompanied by reading Russian theatre director <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vnZccrAbPXcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Yevgeny+Vakhtangov&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=1&sa=X&redir_esc=y">Yevgeny Vakhtangov’s writing</a> about the actor’s process. I believe the Vakhtangov-informed version of the method is most beneficial for female actors.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xiPGBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT34&lpg=PT34&dq=%22We+don%E2%80%99t+need+characters%22%C2%A0Vakhtangov&source=bl&ots=AJhJ4ISCMX&sig=ACfU3U2fOo3_HIU80qZfRdmB7OXt6mfUYg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiWppax1dWDAxXBgf0HHQjPBAoQ6AF6BAgOEAM#v=onepage&q=%22We%20don%E2%80%99t%20need%20characters%22%C2%A0Vakhtangov&f=false">Vakhtangov said</a>: “We don’t need characters, characterisations. Everything you have makes up your characterisation; you have individuality – this is your character.” This contradicts the idea that a method actor would lose themselves into a character, going to the extreme of asking family members to call them Jackie Kennedy, for example. </p>
<p>Similarly, Vakhtangov <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xiPGBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT34&lpg=PT34&dq=%22an+actor%E2%80%99s+own+appearance,+plasticity,+and+voice%22+Vakhtangov&source=bl&ots=AJhJ4ISDIT&sig=ACfU3U3hRWKzcpqdiODEe25kYsYiQ1PdYg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwicufDL1dWDAxXSi_0HHQiNDXgQ6AF6BAgOEAM#v=onepage&q=%22an%20actor%E2%80%99s%20own%20appearance%2C%20plasticity%2C%20and%20voice%22%20Vakhtangov&f=false">considered</a> “an actor’s own appearance, plasticity, and voice [as] more appropriate than the manufactured characterisation”, urging the actor to “transform by the power of their inner impulse”, while preserving their “God-given face” and “God-given voice”. </p>
<p>Vakhtangov considers it key for the actor to find emotional and experiential associations between themselves and their character, so they can bring their own authentic experience to their acting. Through the visualisation exercises, actors discover their own emotional “buttons” which they can then push as appropriate for a role.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BBKb1WoXokc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for May December.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The above understanding of the method does not align with Elizabeth’s immersive, literal process in May December. Using the Vakhtangov approach instead, Elizabeth would invent and visualise controversial actions from her own life and her own emotional responses to such actions, to consider which could benefit her performance. </p>
<p>So even though the audience watches a sex offender at ease with their sexual crime, the actor’s private creative reality would orient around moments drawn from her own experience. </p>
<h2>The benefits of method acting</h2>
<p>Method acting develops actors who know themselves well enough to trigger emotional responses when acting, while protecting themselves from emotional harm. Self-care is an important part of this. Actors are discouraged, for example, from thinking of loved ones who have recently passed away during visualisation exercises. </p>
<p>In May December, if Elizabeth remained within her own sphere of experience, she would protect herself from the disturbing visualisation of the sex offence that could be traumatising. Keeping the visualisation in control would also keep in check the emotional responses that she would lend the character, allowing for a repetition of the process for the multiple takes.</p>
<p>I suggest that my students use method acting only to solve a problem, such as an emotionally demanding scene – not throughout a film or play. This means that they can choose when to let go of their own emotional buttons. </p>
<p>Contrary to Portman’s comments, I believe that method acting can deepen women’s experiences both on and off screen. A role could inspire an actor to find in themselves a more self-caring mother, for example, or a more assertive partner. Method acting should be envisioned, not as taking work home, but as taking home a playful sense of self-knowledge and self-exploration. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220952/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Evi Stamatiou does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Having used the method style successfully for more than 15 years, I believe there is a way to make it work for women.Evi Stamatiou, Senior Lecturer in Acting for Stage and Screen, University of East LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1844622022-09-19T20:13:31Z2022-09-19T20:13:31ZBlonde: Joyce Carol Oates’ epic Marilyn Monroe novel captures the violence of celebrity myth-making<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481446/original/file-20220829-48396-cjqzte.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Blonde Netflix</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Marilyn Monroe died <a href="https://theconversation.com/marilyn-monroe-why-are-we-still-obsessed-60-years-after-her-death-187818">60 years ago</a>, on August 4 1962. And on September 28, Netflix will release <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781841153728/blonde/">Blonde</a>, a film by Australian director Andrew Dominik, starring Cuban actress Ana de Armas as Monroe.</p>
<p>It’s an adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ bestselling novel of the same name: an epic doorstop of a book that was shortlisted for the 2000 National Book Award and 2001 Pulitzer Prize.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481445/original/file-20220829-49491-8ddjov.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The Netflix tie-in edition of Joyce Carol Oates' novel, Blonde" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481445/original/file-20220829-49491-8ddjov.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481445/original/file-20220829-49491-8ddjov.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481445/original/file-20220829-49491-8ddjov.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481445/original/file-20220829-49491-8ddjov.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481445/original/file-20220829-49491-8ddjov.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481445/original/file-20220829-49491-8ddjov.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481445/original/file-20220829-49491-8ddjov.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When Oates’ novel was previously adapted as a 2001 TV miniseries, starring Australian actress Poppy Montgomery, it opened with the disclaimer that it was fiction: an approach that, as Variety critic Steven Oxman <a href="https://variety.com/2001/tv/reviews/blonde-1200468468/">wrote at the time</a>, “allows the creators to be far more imaginative in their suppositions about the characters’ private thoughts”.</p>
<p>Oates has always insisted Blonde is a work of imagination. It’s a towering literary achievement. Eschewing a realist biographical narrative, Blonde contains multiple voices and perspectives; it’s also allusive and formally adventurous. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/would-marilyn-monroes-career-and-life-have-been-different-if-she-had-acted-on-stage-70117">Would Marilyn Monroe's career (and life) have been different if she had acted on stage?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Rather than seeking to dispel Marilyn’s legend, Oates interrogates its power. She <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/joyce-carol-oatess-blonde-is-the-definitive-study-of-american-celebrity">saw Blonde</a> “as my Moby Dick, the powerful galvanizing image about which an epic might be constructed, with myriad levels of meaning and significance”. It’s also a sweeping portrait of 20th-century America – its sport, politics, religion, literature, culture, mental health, urban renewal and decay.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aIsFywuZPoQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Netflix’s Blonde, to be released on 23 September, is Andrew Dominik’s adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ novel of the same name.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A postmodern ‘bio-novel’</h2>
<p>In his 1995 book <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674940987">Visions of the Past</a>, historian Robert Rosenstone describes a “historically reinventive” kind of biopic “that, refusing the pretense that the screen can be an unmediated window onto the past, foregrounds itself as a construction”. </p>
<p>For Rosenstone, such stories don’t </p>
<blockquote>
<p>attempt to recreate the past realistically. Instead they point to it and play with it, raising questions about the very evidence on which our knowledge of the past depends, creatively interacting with its traces.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Blonde is just such a postmodern bio-novel, and Dominik’s film shows every promise of being such a <a href="https://offscreen.com/view/todd-haynes-im-not-there-and-the-postmodern-biopic">postmodern</a> <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/tesla-movie-review-ethan-hawke-1044700/">biopic</a>. But online pushback against the film has already blistered (like <a href="https://www.self.com/story/joyce-carol-oates-foot-hiking-in-sandals">Oates’ foot</a> after that time she went hiking in sandals).</p>
<p>Some <a href="https://twitter.com/storytails/status/1524322271334223873">angry social media users</a> feel because it’s based on a novel, Blonde will become a misleadingly canonical account of its protagonist’s life, “when what Marilyn Monroe deserves, apart from Respect is The Truth”.</p>
<p>That the film includes sexual violence <a href="https://twitter.com/riverandkurt/status/1557297035509841920">has upset others</a> who interpreted this as Dominik’s own prurient creative choice: a male director symbolically re-violating a now-dead abused woman who cannot speak for herself.</p>
<p>Such criticisms exasperate me. Blonde summons, as only fiction can, the violence of being mythologised. Its protagonist insists heroically on her right to be seen and valued as herself; yet her betrayal, her tragedy, is to be extinguished by the ideas others project onto her.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-postmodernism-20791">Explainer: what is postmodernism?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Archetypes and ambiguities</h2>
<p>Oates deliberately characterises separate aspects of her protagonist, to show overlapping views of her. She is Norma Jeane, an earnest, conscientious girl who’s smart, introspective, perceptive, eager to excel and hungry for love.</p>
<p>“Marilyn Monroe” (at first always in quote marks) is the work: the studio confection that bled through painfully into real life, so that many people confused this suite of subtle performances with Norma Jeane, the gifted performer.</p>
<p>The Blond Actress is the celebrity: the Warholian cipher whose “private” life became public property. She is always viewed from outside, sometimes menacingly.</p>
<p>Then there are the almost <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungian_archetypes">Jungian archetypes</a> of the Fair Princess and Beggar Maid (and the Dark Prince). Young Norma Jeane seizes on these archetypes in her tumultuous early life with her schizophrenic mother, who worked within the movie studio system. Left to watch movies for hours, Norma Jeane intuitively absorbs Hollywood’s fairytale storytelling, using it to bandage what Oates treats as a primal, ultimately fatal psychic wound: her unloving mother and unknown father.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481465/original/file-20220829-58590-o8c1u0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481465/original/file-20220829-58590-o8c1u0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481465/original/file-20220829-58590-o8c1u0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481465/original/file-20220829-58590-o8c1u0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481465/original/file-20220829-58590-o8c1u0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481465/original/file-20220829-58590-o8c1u0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481465/original/file-20220829-58590-o8c1u0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Norma Jeane.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Conover/US Army</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The book glides effortlessly from interiority to voyeurism. Italicised sentences permeate the text like whispers: Norma Jeane’s own reflections, the impressions of others she encounters, or even a collective unconscious. “<em>It’s history. What happens to us. No one to blame.</em>”</p>
<p>Sometimes Oates uses a Greek-chorus-like “we”, in the same wistful, retrospective way as Jeffrey Eugenides’ <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780008485160/the-virgin-suicides/">The Virgin Suicides</a>. Sometimes the novel follows shadowy, nefarious spies and stalkers who could equally be federal agents or paparazzi.</p>
<p>Oates sets up an unsettling ambiguity: is the Blond Actress being photographed for the gossip media or surveilled by the state? Blonde is full of satisfyingly traced connections between the different modes of <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-the-male-gaze-mean-and-what-about-a-female-gaze-52486">the gaze</a> that characterised a woman whose gift – and curse – was her mastery of to-be-looked-at-ness.</p>
<p>Her soon-to-be husband, The Playwright (the archetype Oates constructs of Arthur Miller) notes, as do her various directors, that <a href="https://theconversation.com/would-marilyn-monroes-career-and-life-have-been-different-if-she-had-acted-on-stage-70117">her magic isn’t theatrical</a>, intended for a live audience. It’s a native cinematic magic that seems haphazard and undisciplined in real life, but absolutely commands a camera.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3D7_emPvoIU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Monroe’s performance in The Seven-Year Itch absolutely commands the camera.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Performance as magical sacrifice</h2>
<p>Oates emphasises how wrenchingly hard-won this alchemy is. Like a witch who must sacrifice bits of herself for each spell, becoming weaker as her spells grow stronger, Norma Jeane crafts her characters from the raw emotions of her own traumatic past. </p>
<p>She can’t <em>be</em> Marilyn until she can summon her shadow self, her fetch, her Friend in the Mirror: a magical persona through whom she does her acting. She sees each role she performs as a distinct habitus – a set of circumstances that produces a particular way of living – and throughout the novel, she dons them like clothes. Indeed, the chapters are named after her characters.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-moscow-stage-to-monroe-and-de-niro-how-the-method-defined-20th-century-acting-179088">From the Moscow stage to Monroe and De Niro: how the Method defined 20th-century acting</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is a sophisticated, intellectually exhilarating interpretation of Monroe’s work. Peppered with references to <a href="https://theconversation.com/hollywood-has-got-method-acting-all-wrong-heres-what-the-process-is-really-about-172568">method-acting</a> handbooks by Konstantin Stanislavski and Michael Chekhov, the novel is aware of its own performativity. Because I had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/04/why-are-we-all-still-obsessed-with-marilyn-monroes-eyebrow-pencil">previously researched</a> Monroe’s life and career, I recognised how shrewdly Oates has assembled it from the contested “facts” of Monroe’s life. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xRlR3f9Hc7k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Norma Jeane’ crafts her characters from the raw emotions of her own traumatic past – and her performance in Bus Stop was among her most personal.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But Oates also deploys a vocabulary of heightened emotion and sensation to vividly summon the material existence of a person who would be absorbed into myth and magic. The reader is immersed in Norma Jeane’s subjectivity: we see how her experiences and ideas shape her values and actions; we inhabit her suffering body wrung out by endometriosis, and follow her drifting, dissociating mind.</p>
<p>A scene that has already stirred controversy in the film adaptation – in which studio boss “Mr Z” rapes 21-year-old Norma Jeane – forms one of the book’s most thematically rich and formally experimental chapters. Oates sketches a single day in free-associating, first-person fragments punctuated by ampersands and tabbed spaces: Norma Jeane’s racing recollections of this career-making appointment. </p>
<p>Mr Z shows her his “aviary”, where, like Bluebeard’s wife, she’s shocked that his birds are taxidermy objects, posed in elaborate sets “as in a cave inside a box or a coffin”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Yet I saw the AVIARY was fascinating the more I stared for the birds were beautiful & lifelike not seeming to grasp that they were dead I seemed to hear a voice like Mother’s <em>All dead birds are female, there is something female about being dead</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Death stalks this stunning novel; but Blonde also confers immortality. To quote one of its epigraphs, from drama theorist <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Actor_s_Freedom/FdZSAAAAMAAJ?hl=en">Michael Goldman</a> (to whom Oates dedicated the book): “The acting area is a sacred space … where the actor cannot die.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184462/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mel Campbell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Joyce Carol Oates saw Blonde, her epic novel interrogating the legend of Marilyn Monroe, as ‘my Moby Dick’. Mel Campbell celebrates Oates’ achievement, in the lead-up to the Netflix adaptation.Mel Campbell, Subject Coordinator, Publishing and Communications, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1790882022-05-11T19:55:04Z2022-05-11T19:55:04ZFrom the Moscow stage to Monroe and De Niro: how the Method defined 20th-century acting<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462355/original/file-20220511-22-sn6soo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP/Courtesy Running Press</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When an actor is criticised for peculiarly excessive preparation for a role, or an inability to break character off-camera, an ill-defined notion of “Method” acting (note the capital “M”) is rarely far away.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act by Isaac Butler (Bloomsbury).</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Living rough on the streets to prepare for a role. Abusing fellow performers to provoke an “authentic” response. Or never breaking from character throughout an entire shoot – like Daniel Day-Lewis, who <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-21572983">supposedly insisted</a> on being addressed as “Mr President” throughout the three-month filming of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1qjtugr2618?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But while it’s easy to ridicule or parody, the Method – which casts a long shadow over European and (in particular) American acting – is complex and varied. </p>
<h2>What is Method acting?</h2>
<p>As detailed in Isaac Butler’s <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/method-9781635574777/">The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act</a>, the Method was developed in Russia in the latter part of the 19th century.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460497/original/file-20220429-17-a1p5av.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460497/original/file-20220429-17-a1p5av.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460497/original/file-20220429-17-a1p5av.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460497/original/file-20220429-17-a1p5av.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460497/original/file-20220429-17-a1p5av.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460497/original/file-20220429-17-a1p5av.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460497/original/file-20220429-17-a1p5av.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460497/original/file-20220429-17-a1p5av.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Its creators, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko and Konstantin Stanislawski, transformed Russian theatre with their new approach to acting, writing and theatre production. Their system encouraged more subjective, interior approaches to performance, and more realistic, naturalistic approaches to staging.</p>
<p>Acting had been largely externalised and action-centred, often understood in terms of preconceived gestures. The Method helped transform it into a dynamic process that unlocked deep recesses of personal experience and “emotion memory”, which could then be funnelled into a performance.</p>
<p>It is hard to imagine modern acting without this development.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hollywood-has-got-method-acting-all-wrong-heres-what-the-process-is-really-about-172568">Hollywood has got method acting all wrong, here's what the process is really about</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Collateral damage to shooting stars</h2>
<p>The Method is strongly linked to the new realism that emerges in New York theatre in the 1930s and 1940s, and Hollywood cinema in the 1950s and 1960s. </p>
<p>It’s also connected to the performance styles of many of the key actors and stars of mid-century American theatre and cinema: Marlon Brando, Kim Stanley, Montgomery Clift, Anne Bancroft, Rod Steiger, Paul Newman, and many others.</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uBiewQrpBBA" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>Its excesses and dangers are deployed as damning evidence to help explain the tragic fate of figures like James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. Shooting stars caught within the orbit of abusive Method teachers, they seemed to suffer the collateral damage of drawing on their traumatic past too deeply.</p>
<p>The Method is often brought into debates about the distinction between performing and being, acting and reacting. But such dichotomies are unhelpful in understanding the complex interior, exterior and collaborative processes at play in any great performance.</p>
<p>This is particularly true for film acting, a mode of performance that requires actors to register minute changes of expression, small actions and gestures – all of which are then blown up in microscopic detail. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man and woman stare at each other, balloons in background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460503/original/file-20220429-19-a1p5av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460503/original/file-20220429-19-a1p5av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460503/original/file-20220429-19-a1p5av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460503/original/file-20220429-19-a1p5av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460503/original/file-20220429-19-a1p5av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460503/original/file-20220429-19-a1p5av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460503/original/file-20220429-19-a1p5av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anne Bancroft is a key mid-century actor whose performance style is linked to the Method. She’s pictured (right) with Dustin Hoffman, another famous Method actor, in The Graduate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As James Harvey <a href="https://thedissolve.com/features/interview/689-film-scholar-james-harvey-talks-about-watching-the/">has claimed</a>, the art of acting for the camera in the 20th century is largely a matter, for the spectator, of “watching them be”. </p>
<p>In some ways, the Method, which at its base foregrounds individual agency and psychology, is brilliantly suited to self-centred notions of both society and art. And to the curious alchemy that fuses actor, celebrity and character in star-centred theatre and cinema. </p>
<p>It is unsurprising that this often mannered style reached its peak of fame in the 1950s, an era of rising individualism. It rocketed to ascendancy alongside Abstract Expressionism in American painting, stream of consciousness in various forms of writing (such as the work of the Beats), and in the improvisational modes of jazz favoured by artists like <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-miles-davis-electrified-jazz-168785">Miles Davis</a>, Charlie Parker and Ornette Coleman.</p>
<h2>Revolution, individualism and Freud</h2>
<p>Isaac Butler’s book is a fascinatingly detailed, brilliantly readable and often compelling account of the hundred-year journey of the Method from pre-revolutionary Russia to the stages of New York – and the rise of New Hollywood and actors like <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-godfather-at-50-set-among-the-american-mafia-of-the-40s-coppolas-film-is-unmistakably-a-film-of-the-disillusioned-70s-178030">Al Pacino</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/goodfellas-at-30-scorseses-massively-influential-virtuoso-gangster-film-144738">Robert De Niro</a> and Ellen Burstyn. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460498/original/file-20220429-15-a1p5av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young man in a suit and tie talks to an older, white-haired man." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460498/original/file-20220429-15-a1p5av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460498/original/file-20220429-15-a1p5av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460498/original/file-20220429-15-a1p5av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460498/original/file-20220429-15-a1p5av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460498/original/file-20220429-15-a1p5av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460498/original/file-20220429-15-a1p5av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460498/original/file-20220429-15-a1p5av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Method actor Al Pacino and Lee Strasberg, famous Method acting teacher (and actor), in The Godfather II, as Michael Coreleone and Hyman Roth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is not shy in exploring the complexities of this journey and the many offshoots and variations produced along the way. Butler examines the social, cultural and political implications of the evolving and splintering Method system, and how it responded to various forces. </p>
<p>These include: proletarian demands, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-putin-memory-wars-and-the-100th-anniversary-of-the-russian-revolution-72477">Russian revolution</a>, the rise of leftist politics in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-dangerous-method-in-defence-of-freuds-psychoanalysis-5989">Freudian psychology</a>, the increased individualism of post-war America, and the anti-communist blacklist. And, of course, there was the Method’s ultimate canonisation and popular recognition in plays and films like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044081/">A Streetcar Named Desire</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047296/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">On the Waterfront</a>, and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048356/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Marty</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V6TrgQxf3lk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Butler also meticulously introduces and describes the first-tier actors and directors of the New Hollywood of the late 1960s and 1970s who proclaimed (and in some cases denied) the Method’s direct influence and legacy. </p>
<p>For a significant period in the 1960s and 1970s, with the increasing celebrity of prominent acting teachers of the Method like <a href="https://strasberg.edu/about/what-is-method-acting/">Lee Strasberg</a> (of the Actors Studio) and <a href="https://tophollywoodactingcoach.com/2016/06/what-is-the-stella-adler-acting-method/">Stella Adler</a>, the Method’s various offshoots could claim true cultural dominance. The influence and fiery disagreements of these teachers are a focus of Butler’s book.</p>
<p>Butler details Marilyn Monroe’s increasingly close and personal relationship with Strasberg (and his relationship with second wife <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Strasberg">Paula</a>, Monroe’s acting coach) and the influential patronage of actors like James Dean, Montgomery Clift and Rod Steiger. He also describes truly terrifying classes and feedback sessions conducted by Strasberg at the Actors Studio. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460508/original/file-20220429-15-9ol1xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C16%2C1516%2C982&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Older man and daughter laughing over a piece of paper while glamorous blonde sits to their side." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460508/original/file-20220429-15-9ol1xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C16%2C1516%2C982&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460508/original/file-20220429-15-9ol1xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460508/original/file-20220429-15-9ol1xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460508/original/file-20220429-15-9ol1xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460508/original/file-20220429-15-9ol1xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460508/original/file-20220429-15-9ol1xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460508/original/file-20220429-15-9ol1xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Method acting coach Lee Strasberg (centre) with actor daughter Susan Strasberg (left) and famous student Marilyn Monroe (right).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Laura Loveday/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In contrast, Adler insisted on an approach to acting that stuck more closely to Stanislawski’s original concept of “emotion memory”, and recommended extensive processes of research and preparation in the creation of any performance. Among her most significant students were Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Elaine Stritch and Warren Beatty.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/would-marilyn-monroes-career-and-life-have-been-different-if-she-had-acted-on-stage-70117">Would Marilyn Monroe's career (and life) have been different if she had acted on stage?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A particular strength of Butler’s cultural history is how he carefully plots this rise, while granting equal space to each stage of the journey. His book is, nevertheless, a little too focused on the impact of the ideas of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vladimir-Nemirovich-Danchenko">Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Konstantin-Stanislavsky">Konstantin Stanislavski</a> on the stages and screens of Russia and then the United States. </p>
<p>There is little sense of the impact of these ideas elsewhere in Europe, and British acting is mainly used as a counterweight, put forward as a haven for a more exterior form of acting, epitomised by the work of Laurence Olivier (who <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/why-hollywood-finally-over-method-acting-1700143">famously scorned</a> Method acting). </p>
<p>Butler also provides accounts of writers important to the Method. Anton Chekhov, central to the initial work of the seminal Moscow Open Art Theatre, is a key source throughout.</p>
<p>And he charts the contributions of Clifford Odets, Tennessee Williams, James Baldwin and Paddy Chayefsky, who were equally integral to various stages of the Method’s development, dissemination and devolution.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460500/original/file-20220429-26-h0umhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="four men at a party in the 70s" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460500/original/file-20220429-26-h0umhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460500/original/file-20220429-26-h0umhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460500/original/file-20220429-26-h0umhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460500/original/file-20220429-26-h0umhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460500/original/file-20220429-26-h0umhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460500/original/file-20220429-26-h0umhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460500/original/file-20220429-26-h0umhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tennessee Williams was one of the writers integral to various stages of the Method’s development. He’d pictured here (third from left), with Truman Capote (second from left). From the Key West Art and Historical Society.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/keyslibraries/">Florida Keys Public Library/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The book gives space to the competing approaches of writers and directors like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bertolt-Brecht">Bertolt Brecht</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vsevolod-Yemilyevich-Meyerhold">Vsevolod Meyerhold</a>, along with the more varied approaches of actors like Meryl Streep. Its compelling chronological narrative ends up focusing, however, on a judicious selection of key figures within the US and Russia. </p>
<p>As Butler documents, the outcomes of this change – though he is also careful to note the seeds of this style even earlier and elsewhere – could be truly astounding or monumentally disastrous.</p>
<h2>Triumphs, failures and major players</h2>
<p>Among the pleasures of Butler’s book is how it documents these triumphs and failures – sometimes within the performance of the same play by a single company, as in the case of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1964/06/23/archives/theater-a-tender-three-sisters-actors-studio-excels-in-chekhov.html">the Actors Studio’s staging of Chekhov’s Three Sisters</a>. He also provides evocative portraits of many key figures like Elia Kazan, Maria Ouspenskaya, Howard Clurman, Richard Boleslavsky and John Garfield. </p>
<p>He focuses on people who were particularly important in managing entities such as the American Laboratory Theatre, the Actors Studio, the Group Theatre and the Moscow Art Theatre, directing breakthrough films and plays (the duplicitous Kazan emerges as a titan in this regard), writing accounts of how the “system” worked, or introducing new styles of acting.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460504/original/file-20220429-25-9ol1xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460504/original/file-20220429-25-9ol1xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460504/original/file-20220429-25-9ol1xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460504/original/file-20220429-25-9ol1xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460504/original/file-20220429-25-9ol1xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460504/original/file-20220429-25-9ol1xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460504/original/file-20220429-25-9ol1xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460504/original/file-20220429-25-9ol1xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Konstantin Stanislawski.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As in many books of this kind, such a focus and approach is also a limitation. This is a cultural history less concerned with the nuts and bolts of theatre and film production – though it is often incisive in this department and is plainly written by someone with a deep knowledge of these processes – than the collaborations and conflicts between figures adapting and transforming Stanislavski’s initial “system”. </p>
<p>This, of course, also makes this very well-written and carefully organised book a true pleasure to read.</p>
<p>Butler provides a convincing account of the Method’s importance in the history of ideas. He doesn’t shy away from arguing for the decreased currency of many of its techniques and lessons, but make claims for its ongoing influence alongside a range of other approaches and methods. </p>
<p>He provides a complex account of The Method’s various forms and variations across almost 150 years. He also provides important cultural and social context for helping understand why a shift to a more “realist” or personal, self-centred form of acting was both hard fought for and inevitable. </p>
<p>Even a simple thing like the improved lighting in theatres from the late 19th century had a profound impact on what was possible in terms of more interior and subtle forms of staging and performance. </p>
<p>This was, of course, amplified in the rise of sound cinema in the late 1920s and its more tempered forms of screen acting that led to the minimalist styles of stars like Gary Cooper, Clint Eastwood and Juliette Binoche.</p>
<p>Popular accounts of the Method’s legacy tend to steer towards trivial excesses, like Jared Leto <a href="https://ew.com/movies/jared-leto-clarifies-suicide-squad-gifts/">allegedly</a> sending his co-stars various “gifts” like used condoms in preparation for his role as the Joker in Suicide Squad. (Which, for the record, Leto now denies.) But Butler’s book makes convincing claims for why we should continue to take this approach and its legacy seriously.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q0IHL6WGFY0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In so doing, it answers its pointed epigraph from Tom Stoppard’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosencrantz_and_Guildenstern_Are_Dead">Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead</a>: “We’re actors. We’re the opposite of people.” </p>
<p>If this magisterial book does little else, it certainly convinces the reader that nothing could be further from the truth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179088/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adrian Danks does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Living rough to prepare for a role. Abusing fellow actors to provoke an ‘authentic’ response … It’s easy to ridicule the Method but the truth of this approach to acting is far more complex.Adrian Danks, Associate professor in Cinema and Media Studies, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1814832022-04-22T05:49:14Z2022-04-22T05:49:14ZNicolas Cage is the most fascinating and exciting actor working today<p>In Nicolas Cage’s latest film, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Cage plays a character called … Nick Cage. This meta-commentary on fame and celebrity, wrapped around a thriller plot, is full of Cage-inspired “Easter eggs” and knowing nods to the audience. </p>
<p>Once again, Cage reminds us that he might just be the most interesting and exciting actor working in mainstream cinema today.</p>
<p>As a Cage super-fan, I’ve always been struck by his prodigious work ethic (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000115/">over 100 films</a>, many shot back-to-back or concurrently); his appeal to venerated auteurs like David Lynch, Werner Herzog and Martin Scorsese; his eclectic, quirky choices that bamboozle us; and his approach to stardom. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x2YHPZMj8r4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Take three other actors of a similar age: Cage is not Tom Cruise, whose precision-engineered career allows no risks to be taken. Nor is he Jim Carrey, whose early career blazed brightly and then faded away. Nor is he George Clooney, who has traded stardom for activism and advocacy. </p>
<p>Cage’s take on stardom is different: a chance to reinvent himself with each role, to try something new, to push barriers and surprise jaded viewers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-easy-going-everyman-with-vulnerability-beneath-the-bravado-the-best-performances-of-bruce-willis-180502">An easy-going everyman, with vulnerability beneath the bravado: the best performances of Bruce Willis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>From character actor to action to schlock</h2>
<p>Early in his career, Cage established himself as an off-beat character actor renowned for his eccentric vocal delivery, his commitment to <a href="https://theconversation.com/hollywood-has-got-method-acting-all-wrong-heres-what-the-process-is-really-about-172568">the Method</a> and his ability to effortlessly pivot between genres. </p>
<p>In quick succession, he made Peggy Sue Got Married (1986, directed by his uncle, Francis Ford Coppola), Raising Arizona (1987), Moonstruck (1987) and Vampire’s Kiss (1988). None of these films are alike. </p>
<p>Co-stars were both baffled and bewildered. Some admired his verve that pushed performance <a href="https://www.theringer.com/movies/2019/6/13/18663380/nicolas-cage-vampires-kiss-breakout-performance-30-years">to the limits</a>. Others were <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2018/08/kathleen-turner-in-conversation.html">dismayed</a> at his peculiar decisions and what they saw as a “look-at-me” descent into excess and histrionics.</p>
<p>By 1996, with an Oscar win for Leaving Las Vegas (1995) as an alcoholic screenwriter seeking redemption, Cage had announced himself as a star.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6jXi-Z3M9Us?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Cage shortly became a fully-fledged 90s action hero, with roles in The Rock (1996), Con Air (1997) and Face/Off (1997). </p>
<p>Watched back now, those performances seem to foreshadow Cage’s descent into self-parody, but at the time it was refreshing to see Cage play roles usually reserved for Bruce Willis or Arnold Schwarzenegger. </p>
<p>He was a nerdy everyman, with a lithe, fluid body. His nerdiness and ad-libbing was a refreshing antidote to the muscular action stars. </p>
<p>For sure, there were missteps along the way as he navigated his new-found status: the tabloid press had a field day reporting on his <a href="https://financebuzz.com/finance-nicolas-cage-buying-spree">lavish spending</a>. But in an era of changing modes of film distribution, audience fragmentation and the existential <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/death-of-movie-star-era_n_5df2b7bae4b0ca713e5b7710">demise of the film star</a>, his presence felt both reassuring and addictive. </p>
<p>We looked forward to what he would do next. </p>
<p>But the wheels soon fell off. Cage drifted into generic video-on-demand schlock, such as Rage (2014) and The Runner (2015).</p>
<p>He has <a href="https://variety.com/2022/film/news/nicolas-cage-vod-films-best-acting-1235234458/">vigorously defended</a> this work, but the suspicion remains he was motivated by commerce not art. </p>
<p>At the same time, the internet, and in particular meme and gif culture, began to work alongside Cage’s career, both undermining and reinforcing his peculiar brand of stardom. </p>
<p>Fan edits, memes and YouTube mashups eventually became a source of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/sep/19/nicolas-cage-rage-internet-meme-mandy">great frustration</a> for Cage as he struggled to reassure fans and critics alike he was a serious performer.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aEtm69mLK6w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But this was not always backed up by his career choices or his own pronouncements on his craft. Sean Penn, his contemporary and early rival, disparagingly called him a “performer”. Cage referred <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/dec/31/call-me-a-thespian-not-an-actor-says-nicolas-cage">to himself</a> as a thespian, a troubadour entertaining the mob. </p>
<p>Most intriguing, he defined his heightened acting style as “<a href="https://filmschoolrejects.com/nouveau-shamanic-the-enigmatic-style-of-nicolas-cage/">nouveau shamanism</a>”: a singular blend of trancelike “being” and pure Kabuki “playacting”. </p>
<p>For some, Cage’s ideas gloriously pointed to the new direction film acting was headed: brave, gonzo, idiosyncratic. For others, it cemented his status as a self-promoting charlatan. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hollywood-has-got-method-acting-all-wrong-heres-what-the-process-is-really-about-172568">Hollywood has got method acting all wrong, here's what the process is really about</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>His finest performances</h2>
<p>So it comes as a great relief that the last five years or so have heralded a remarkable return to form for Cage. </p>
<p>His career was revitalised in 2018 with a quite extraordinary performance as the grieving lover turned avenging angel in Mandy. There is a scene from that film which distils Cage’s career into 60 magnificent seconds. </p>
<p>Sat alone in a garishly lit bathroom, he chugs a bottle of vodka, moans and mumbles and screams with grief. The “Cage Rage”, as it has become known, is there in full technicolour detail.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NFsc-Adl50w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>He followed that up with two memorably strange films: Colour Out Of Space (2019) and Willy’s Wonderland (2020). </p>
<p>The first is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovecraftian_horror">Lovecraftian</a> tale of meteors, glowing goo and hostile alpacas. In the latter, he plays the silent janitor of a demonically possessed funhouse. </p>
<p>Cage attacks both roles with typical insouciance and stoic resignation. </p>
<p>But best of all is Pig (2021). Here, Cage plays a grieving chef who has retreated to the Oregon wilderness with only a truffle-hunting pig for company. When the pig is kidnapped, Cage re-enters the world, intent on finding his only true companion. </p>
<p>Gone is the Elvis coolness of Wild At Heart (1990), the physical dexterity of National Treasure (2004) and the childlike blankness of City of Angels (1998). In Pig, Cage is bloated and bearded, wracked by grief and remorse. </p>
<p>It is one of his finest performances.</p>
<p>The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent once more showcases Cage’s skills. He remains an intense, immersive actor whose career blends kitsch and Method commitment and who realises that stardom – and what it means to be a movie star – has changed. </p>
<p>As he once <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2021/12/nicolas-cage-defends-his-acting-style-1234688243/">famously said</a>: “You tell me where the top is, and I’ll tell you whether or not I’m over it.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181483/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben McCann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nicolas Cage has been in over 100 productions. In his most recent films, he is showing some of the finest acting of his career.Ben McCann, Associate Professor of French Studies, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1725682021-12-15T11:13:29Z2021-12-15T11:13:29ZHollywood has got method acting all wrong, here’s what the process is really about<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437278/original/file-20211213-25284-exm6a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C30%2C5089%2C2843&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/on-big-film-studio-professional-crew-1793697901">Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>So-called method acting seems to be having a moment. <a href="https://www.nme.com/features/film-interviews/benedict-cumberbatch-interview-radiohead-the-power-of-the-dog-3097698">Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst</a> apparently didn’t speak to each other on the set of their new film, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10293406/">Power of the Dog</a>, to help them stay in character. While Lady Gaga is said to have spoken entirely with an Italian accent for nine months while working on her new film, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11214590/">House of Gucci</a> – using it even when <a href="https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/lady-gaga-method-acting-house-of-gucci-extreme-accent-1308207">calling her mother</a>. </p>
<p>Jared Leto is <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/jared-leto-method-acting-examples-movies/">also a fan</a>. While playing the Joker in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1386697/">Suicide Squad</a>, Leto is said to have sent animal carcasses to his castmates. <a href="https://fabiosa.com/ctclb-rsvlk-auokh-pbimk-phnkz-this-is-extreme-matthew-mcconaughey-nearly-went-blind-as-a-result-of-dramatic-weight-for-a-film-role/">Matthew McConaughey</a>, meanwhile, lost so much weight he started to go blind for his role in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790636/">Dallas Buyers Club</a>. And <a href="https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/daniel-day-lewis-method-acting-in-my-left-foot/">Daniel Day-Lewis</a> demanded that production staff pushed him around in a wheelchair and spoon-fed him for his performance in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097937/">My Left Foot</a>, where he played Christy Brown, a painter born with cerebral palsy.</p>
<p>But not everyone is keen. Actor <a href="https://www.thethings.com/martin-freeman-jim-carres-method-acting-controversy-man-on-the-moon-hate/">Martin Freeman</a> recently called out Jim Carrey for his over-the-top antics during the filming of the 1999 film, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0125664/">Man on the Moon</a>, which included “stuffing his pockets with smelly cheese and hanging out with Hell’s Angels”. Freeman said: “It was the most self-aggrandising, selfish, narcissistic fucking bollocks I have ever seen…You need to keep grounded in reality, and that’s not to say you don’t lose yourself in the time between ‘action’ and ‘cut’, but I think the rest of it is absolute pretentious nonsense”.</p>
<h2>What is method acting?</h2>
<p>While many actors may aim to fully “become” their character with the use of method acting it seems there is a serious misunderstanding of the term and what its founder actually had in mind.</p>
<p>The originator of “the method” was US acting coach Lee Strasberg who crafted an acting technique in the 1930s that he claimed was based on the work of Konstantin Stanislavski, a Russian theatre practitioner. In his book <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/A_Dream_of_Passion.html?id=jQPsAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">A Dream of Passion</a>, Strasberg stated his belief that “the fundamental work of the actor – the training of his internal skills – is preceded by the development of the actor’s relaxation and concentration”. The goal of these exercises is to “free the expression of the actor” because “neuromuscular tension makes it difficult for thought, sensations, and emotions to be transmitted and properly experienced”. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LRDPo0CHrko?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>An exercise in a standard method based training session has the actor sit in a chair and put themselves into a highly relaxed state. They will then explore a memory from their past where they experienced very strong emotions. As the exercise proceeds, the actor describes what they were wearing, what the temperature of the place was like, and how it affected them until they feel the original emotion. Strasberg believed that this exercise created a path for actors to recreate the same emotion over and over, on-demand, with complete control since because it is a “remembered emotion” it will not be felt like a real emotion. It is not about what happened to the actor but rather “what he sees, hears, touches, tastes, smells, and what he is experiencing”. </p>
<p>Essentially, the method actor will be “using his own reality to properly relate to that of the character in the scene”. In short, the actor should behave in a real manner, really performing an action or feeling an emotion rather than pretending to do so. At no point does Strasberg expect a method actor to carry this work outside of the theatre or sound stage, instead, they should be feeling real emotions and behaviours in the performance.</p>
<h2>Staying in character</h2>
<p>Where confusion seems to set in is with the notion that a method actor should “live the life of the character” full time. This paraphrasing derives from Stanislavski but is incomplete. What he said in his seminal acting text, <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/An_Actor_Prepares/Ihl5CgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">An Actor Prepares</a>, is: “In our art, you must live the part every moment you are playing it, and every time.” Which is to say, live the life of the character on stage. </p>
<p>Neither he nor Strasberg ever said to go further than that. But, oddly, it’s what many people consider the method to be – immersing the self so deeply, that the actor is no longer “themselves” but this other person. It might be pedantic to say so, but this is not method acting. It is very much something else.</p>
<p>It’s also worth, perhaps, being sceptical of many of the tales of actors immersing themselves so deeply. It makes a great story, but ask yourself if the actor is living the life of a character from 100 years ago, how do they get to the set each day? Do they still carry a smartphone? How do they do their shopping? </p>
<p>Looking more deeply at the Cumberbatch story, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/kirsten-dunst-benedict-cumberbatch-power-of-the-dog-b1963367.html">Dunst has confirmed</a> that they didn’t speak on set because the characters so despised each other. But she continued: “He’s so sweet. And he’s so British. Polite British, you know? I was like, ‘I can’t talk to you!… We didn’t talk at all during the filming unless we were out to dinner on a weekend, all together, or playing with our kids.”</p>
<p>It seems then that they didn’t speak on set because they and their families were becoming such good friends, they didn’t want that to accidentally colour their performances. This has nothing to do with method acting.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172568/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Hetzler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While many actors may aim to fully “become” their character with the use of “method acting” it seems there is a serious misunderstanding of the term and what its founder actually had in mind.Eric Hetzler, Senior Lecturer, Department of Media and Performance, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1543712021-02-08T05:29:09Z2021-02-08T05:29:09ZDrawing inspiration in a pandemic — breath has always been central to theatre<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382908/original/file-20210208-15-7r2iyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=119%2C44%2C4857%2C3248&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Eryn Jean Norvill in Sydney Theatre Company's The Picture of Dorian Gray. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Boud/STC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Wrapped in COVID Safe vigilance, Australian theatre has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/oct/26/australias-theatres-are-slowly-reopening-but-will-subscribers-return">cautiously begun</a> to welcome back guests. <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/theatre/2021/01/23/sydney-festival/161132040010953#hrd">The Sydney Festival</a> withstood border closures and local outbreaks to offer a wide variety of events to summer revellers in the open air, online and in theatres. The Perth festival has scrambled to reschedule performances after the city’s short, sharp lockdown. Across the nation, performers are still holding their breath. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/entertainment-and-culture">In Victoria</a>, they must remain two metres apart when rehearsing or performing and singers must wear masks. In NSW, <a href="https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/covid-safe/outdoor-music-rehearsal-and-performance">no more than five singers</a> should perform indoors and they should face outwards. Arts special interest groups have prepared useful, if complex, tables of <a href="https://paca.org.au/projects/coronavirusresources2/">state-by-state rules and restrictions</a>.</p>
<p>My first trip back to theatre in person was <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-picture-of-dorian-grey-review-eryn-jean-norvill-stuns-in-all-26-roles-150165">The Picture of Dorian Gray</a> late last year. It was strange not being able to enjoy a pre-show drink in the foyer and the sea of masks in the audience was an unsettling sight. Uncannily, the one-woman show conveyed isolation in a social world obsessed by appearance. I found it a bit hard to breathe in the auditorium.</p>
<p>Inspiration — <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/inspiration">meaning</a> both to draw breath and the power that brings forth creativity — has always been integral to theatre and performance. Of course, the two are intimately linked.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-proximity-and-the-theatre-of-touch-what-losing-live-audiences-may-mean-for-theatre-133515">The power of proximity and the theatre of touch: what losing live audiences may mean for theatre</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Controlling and conveying emotions</h2>
<p>Breath is one of the few functions of the body that can both occur automatically and also be <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/control-of-breathing">controlled consciously</a>, although we still have so much more to learn about it.</p>
<p>Breath control is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0892199788800560">crucial to actor training and performance</a>. It supports the voice, punctuates spoken phrases, sustains concentration, allows relaxation, and can assuage performance anxiety.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382922/original/file-20210208-19-25cv0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="person exhaling smoke" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382922/original/file-20210208-19-25cv0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382922/original/file-20210208-19-25cv0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382922/original/file-20210208-19-25cv0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382922/original/file-20210208-19-25cv0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382922/original/file-20210208-19-25cv0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382922/original/file-20210208-19-25cv0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382922/original/file-20210208-19-25cv0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These days, we are more consciously aware of breath.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1520259075182-da7db177117b?ixid=MXwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHw%3D&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1500&q=80">Pavel Lozovikov/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Inspiration literally means to “<a href="https://medlineplus.gov/ency/anatomyvideos/000018.htm#:%7E:text=The%20first%20phase%20is%20called,and%20decreases%20the%20pressure%20inside.">breathe in</a>”, as the atmosphere of the outside world enters into our body. In theatrical terms, breath has long been harnessed to fuel an emotional connection with an audience. </p>
<p>First century CE Roman orator and teacher <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Quintilian/Institutio_Oratoria/6A*.html">Quintilian tells a devastating story</a> of his own grief when he breathed in the last exhalation of his dying son. The act was driven by the belief that it would allow his child’s spirit to live on in his own body, a reversal of a practice whereby sons would do this for their parent.</p>
<p>Quintilian went on to develop a theory of rhetoric and the communication of emotion. His 12-volume <a href="http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Primary%20Texts/Quintilian.htm">Institutio Oratoria</a> established the theory and practice of rhetoric, and provided a lifelong manual for the public speaker. </p>
<p>The key point is that in order to convey emotion, you first need to feel it yourself and then transmit it through breath. </p>
<p>Centuries later, <a href="https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/the-definitive-guide-to-the-stanislavsky-acting-technique-65716/">Constantin Stanislavski</a>, Russian director and founder of modern acting, drew on <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20567790.2018.1507071?casa_token=ieAJ106CLjEAAAAA%3A-JUybkeAo3hqG7GgZDFgLbs39cJlcNrZroxHkj0uW42VNnMhC-6R8fYcNKhJ9GPECZeoTnoMDJ49O4I">the theory of breath in yoga</a>. </p>
<p>Stanislavski’s approach — which later developed into Method Acting employed by players from Marlon Brando, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Angelina Jolie to the late Heath Ledger - uses <a href="https://www.yogajournal.com/how-to/pranayama/"><em>prana</em></a> breath and visualises the different parts of his system as a set of lungs.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iB1fPZX5Zgk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Harnessing breath, Stanislavski’s teaching influenced generations of actors.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-method-gone-bananas-how-motion-capture-actors-are-embracing-their-inner-ape-78257">The Method gone bananas? How motion capture actors are embracing their inner ape</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Around the same period, avant-garde French theatre theorist <a href="https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/antonin-artaud-and-the-theatre-of-cruelty">Antonin Artaud</a> wrote about a “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13528165.2003.10871934">hieroglyphics of breath</a>” whereby performers can communicate directly with the audience through a language of breathing grounded in nature.</p>
<p>In contrast, the modernist playwright Samuel Beckett <a href="https://www.openculture.com/2015/03/take-a-breath-and-watch-samuel-becketts-one-minute-play.html">did away with actors altogether</a> in his one-minute play <a href="https://search.proquest.com/openview/7a73350cbdcd3197fb4fb4aad89ae778/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=416399">Breath</a>, which consisted of a pile of rubbish, lights fading up to the sound of a baby’s first cry and then fade to black. The body is cut off from breath.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-lessons-from-musical-improvisation-to-help-navigate-2021-152385">3 lessons from musical improvisation to help navigate 2021</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Breath and ritual</h2>
<p>If we take <a href="https://www.sutori.com/story/evolution-of-theatre-from-religious-rituals--wekFRYXXpNNBY1NnFqXYRemw">theatre’s origin to lie in religious ceremony</a>, it is worth noting the role that <a href="https://religionnews.com/2020/07/08/breath-the-divine-metaphor/">breath plays is crucial to rituals too</a>. In the Christian tradition, The Holy Spirit is depicted as a divine and invisible breath that can enter one’s body. </p>
<p>In Islam, the Qu’ran is a set of practices intended to <a href="https://aboutislam.net/muslim-issues/science-muslim-issues/breath-of-life/">keep the lungs healthy</a>, in one sense. </p>
<p>In Buddhism, <a href="https://thebuddhistcentre.com/text/mindfulness-breathing">practices of the breath</a> can illuminate the world like a moon freed from a veil of clouds.</p>
<p>In physical terms, singing and dancing bring a group’s breath in sync and <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-of-singing#benefits">increase oxygen to the brain with positive effect</a>.</p>
<p>To breathe the same air in an intimate space brings us close together. Theatre and performance afford that opportunity. </p>
<p>For now, we must be safe but the precautions will be worth it. As <a href="http://shakespeare.mit.edu/romeo_juliet/full.html">Shakespeare’s Romeo</a> says,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy</p>
<p>Be heaped like mine, and that thy skill be more</p>
<p>To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath</p>
<p>This neighbours air, and let rich music’s tongue</p>
<p>Unfold the imagined happiness that both</p>
<p>Receive in either by this dear encounter</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We will wait a bit longer for such a close encounter of breath again.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/latest-arts-windfalls-show-money-isnt-enough-we-need-transparency-154725">Latest arts windfalls show money isn't enough. We need transparency</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154371/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Johnston does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Theatre and audiences are slowly beginning to share the same airspace again. We are freshly conscious of breath, but it has always been intimately linked with the dramatic arts.Daniel Johnston, Research Affiliate, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1110052019-02-04T14:07:29Z2019-02-04T14:07:29ZOscars 2019: Roma, Yalitza Aparicio and the fascinating history of non-professional actors<p>The surprise nomination of non-professional indigenous woman Yalitza Aparicio for this year’s best actress Oscar for her role as a domestic servant in Alfonso Cuarón’s critically acclaimed Roma has been greeted as a “<a href="https://www.eonline.com/uk/news/1007415/from-school-teacher-to-oscar-nominee-inside-roma-star-yalitza-aparicio-s-fairy-tale-road-to-fame">fairytale”</a>. </p>
<p>Aparicio was training to be a teacher when she reluctantly went to an audition where Cuarón was immediately struck by her. Her presence and her similarity to his own childhood maid – on whom the film is based – secured her the role. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zquPaLZEPu8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Propelled into the spotlight by her role, she has become the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/dec/21/yalitza-aparicio-vogue-mexico-cover-roma-indigenous">first indigenous woman</a> to grace the cover of Mexican Vogue. She also endeared herself to her growing social media following by uploading to Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/YalitzaAparicio/status/1087747265421283331">a video of her sobbing reaction</a> to news of her nomination.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1087747265421283331"}"></div></p>
<p>If Aparicio wins, she will be the <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/yalitza-aparicio-first-indigenous-woman-oscar">first indigenous Latina Oscar winner</a> and will join the small number of non-professional actors to win an Oscar in recent times. This number includes <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/mar/05/oscars2000.oscars">Anna Paquin</a> for her role in The Piano (1993) and <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/the-day-haing-s-ngor-won-the-oscar">Haing S Ngor</a>, a former doctor from Cambodia, who won the 1985 best supporting actor Oscar for his role in Roland Joffe’s The Killing Fields, in which his own traumatic experiences informed his outstanding performance as a local journalist.</p>
<p>In the same year as acclaimed indie hits such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/20/rider-review-bronco-rider-chloe-zhao-south-dakota-drama-documentary">Chloé Zhao’s The Rider</a>, in which <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/brady-jandreau-s-strange-journey-from-rodeo-star-to-film-star-1.3625517">Brady Jandreau</a> played a version of himself as an injured rodeo rider, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/aug/09/skate-kitchen-review-crystal-moselle-the-wolfpack">Crystal Moselle’s Skate Kitchen</a>, featured an all-girl skate collective from New York, it seems that authenticity in casting and performance is all the rage. </p>
<p>But Aparicio also stands out as being typical of the non-professional’s experience throughout cinema history. Her “journey” from naïve provincial girl to the red carpet hits many familiar notes. Interviews emphasise how little she understood of cinema, and how she had never heard of Cuarón and feared the job offer <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/nov/30/roma-star-yalitza-aparicio-i-dont-think-i-am-an-actor">might be a trafficking scam</a>. </p>
<h2>Authenticity</h2>
<p>Aparicio’s unpolished and untrained authenticity is sharply juxtaposed with the glamorous world in which she now finds herself. Part of the non-professional’s effect is to throw into relief the extraordinariness of stars, as well as their proficiency, understood as a product of years of training and dedication to their craft. Aparicio’s novelty, spontaneity, and natural appearance are all singled out as antithetical to the professionalism of her co-star, experienced stage actress <a href="https://film.avclub.com/yalitza-aparicio-and-marina-de-tavira-on-roma-and-captu-1831074602">Marina De Tavira</a>, who has also been nominated for an Oscar.</p>
<p>Her story mirrors the “discovery” of <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/much-actors-really-earn-surprisingly-low-movie-star-salaries/barkhad-abdi-65000-captain-phillips/">Barkhad Abdi</a>, the untrained Somali-American who played a memorable co-lead to Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips. It also recalls the children recruited by Danny Boyle from the Mumbai slums for global hit Slumdog Millionaire.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AIzbwV7on6Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In the latter case, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/danny-boyle-looks-back-kids-683909">ethical concerns</a> around the effects of sudden fame on vulnerable children were recognised by Boyle. He set up a trust fund for them, though this didn’t prevent allegations that the father of one of the girls tried to sell her to <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/5180216/Slumdog-Millionaire-actress-Rubina-Ali-offered-for-sale-by-her-father.html">capitalise on her fame</a>.</p>
<h2>Power imbalance</h2>
<p>The non-professional child actor came to prominence in post-WWII Italian neorealism, which <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/140877232/Non-Professional-Actors-in-Neorealism">specialised in taking performers from the streets</a>. Vittorio De Sica’s Oscar-winning 1948 classic Bicycle Thieves was particularly celebrated for its non-actors, chosen for their faces and bodies rather than any acting talent. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_DHiz4lH1qk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Lamberto Maggiorani, who played the tragic father, lost his factory job after the film and struggled to find work as an actor; he repeatedly <a href="http://www.italyonthisday.com/2017/08/lamberto-maggiorani-unlikely-movie-star.html">begged De Sica to help him out</a>. Meanwhile, nine-year-old Enzo Staiola made several further films and retired at the age of 15. However, <a href="https://deepfocusreview.com/definitives/bicycle-thieves/">accounts of his treatment on set </a>, which included De Sica publicly humiliating him to make him cry, match other testimonies of neorealist directors extracting performances from non-professionals by insulting and even beating them. </p>
<p>This power differential, always implicit in the actor-director relationship, is obviously exacerbated when the actor is inexperienced and has no manager to guide them through the film industry. While Aparicio and Cuarón’s on-set relationship seems to have been affectionate, one anecdote about the film’s shooting is somewhat disturbing. In a central, traumatic scene for her character Cleo, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/21/18103486/yalitza-aparicio-interview-roma-cuaron">Cuarón admitted</a> that he deliberately withheld from Aparicio what would happen. Her anguished reaction is genuine – and presumably she could not be trusted to generate that response otherwise. </p>
<p>Aparicio has declared that she would like to continue to act, though she admits that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXC1FuDt3E4">Roma may be a one-off</a>. French film critic André Bazin <a href="https://archive.org/stream/Bazin_Andre_What_Is_Cinema_Volume_2/Bazin_Andre_What_Is_Cinema_Volume_2_djvu.txt">wrote of neorealist actors</a> that the non-professional can be used only once because their effect can never be replicated. But non-professionals have gone on to career success – Paquin, obviously, as well as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/oct/13/american-honeys-sasha-lane-im-exhausted-by-people-i-want-to-be-alone-so-bad">Sasha Lane</a>, discovered by Andrea Arnold for her film American Honey, is continuing to work. So is Abdi, though in low-profile parts. Others, like the kids of Slumdog Millionaire, <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/rewind-years-later-slumdog-child-stars-rubina-and-azhar-still-have-a-lifeline/">have returned to their old lives</a>.</p>
<p>In all the press talk and interviews with Cuarón and Aparicio, one thing is never mentioned: pay. While one presumes that she received a fair salary for the part, non-professionals <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/4347472/Poor-parents-of-Slumdog-millionaire-stars-say-children-were-exploited.html">generally come cheap</a> because it’s often assumed that part of the reward is the experience itself, the fairytale story. But when the magic finishes and the closing credits roll, they all too often find themselves alone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111005/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine O'Rawe received funding from the British Academy for a research project on non-professional actors in Italian cinema.</span></em></p>Director Alfonso Cuarón’s gamble on a non-professional has paid off. But how do amateur actors fare once the end credits have rolled?Catherine O'Rawe, Professor of Italian Film and Culture, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/843122017-09-27T11:29:13Z2017-09-27T11:29:13ZA time traveller’s guide to television acting<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187551/original/file-20170926-10570-1l41wv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">William Hartnell as the original Dr Who.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009y3yj">BBC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>British television acting has changed a lot since the days of live drama. With the exception of soaps and some sitcoms – such as Ben Elton’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4793190/">Upstart Crow</a> – production has shifted from multi-camera studio to single camera location and the rehearsal process that was once so vital is now little more than a table-read at best. At worst, it’s a brief discussion with the director on the shoot. The other side of this coin is that training for TV – which used to be an afterthought at drama schools focused on stagecraft – is now a much larger part of a performer’s toolkit. So, what impact have these changes had on how actors work for TV? </p>
<p>That was the question I wanted to answer when I undertook <a href="http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781784992989/">my own research</a>. I interviewed more than 30 actors, directors and producers from six decades of television drama and looked at a selection of TV sci-fi programmes, including <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045436/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3">The Quatermass Experiment</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006q2x0">Doctor Who</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072572/">Survivors</a> – each of which was remade in the 2000s. These provided both a historical overview and a “then and now” comparison of changing acting styles.</p>
<p>As most early television was live, we don’t have many recorded examples of TV acting before the 1950s. The accusation often made about these performances is that they are “stagey” or “mannered”. But watching the opening episode of Quatermass shows that some actors were already learning to scale down their theatre performances to something more suited to the small screen. </p>
<h2>‘Studio realism’</h2>
<p>Yes, there are wide, and at times hilarious, variations in the level of projection used for voice and body (by modern standards, <a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/519559bd6f135">W. Thorp Devereux</a> is particularly wooden). But the lead actor, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Tate">Reginald Tate</a>, had already perfected a style that wouldn’t be entirely out of place today. Unlike some of his colleagues he keeps unnecessary gestures to a minimum and his voice is only as loud as it needs to be for the boom microphones. I’ve called this emerging style “studio realism”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ipZwi8tZk8Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Ten years later, the cast of Doctor Who were much more consistent when it came to gesture and vocal projection. Studio realism was beginning to bed in. The coming of videotape made little difference to the BBC’s production routine: the cast still practised lines and actions in a rehearsal room before moving into the studio. However, there is less sense of a theatre performance being given – despite the fact that the stage is where most actors still cut their teeth.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aXBmQz2r2M8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>‘Location realism’</h2>
<p>In the mid 1970s, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUi_ZHiImRw">Survivors</a> saw the start of a sea change, away from the studio and on to location, albeit with outside broadcast cameras more often used to cover football matches. This is the start of modern “location realism”. Being out on site means the “frontal” acting required by three-walled studio sets can be abandoned and – no longer surrounded by the technological paraphernalia of Television Centre – many of the cast are pitching their lines at a more natural level.</p>
<p>Thirty years on, the relaunched Doctor Who and Survivors featured actors who had spent more time on screen than on stage and an arguably more spontaneous acting style has emerged. These day rehearsals have virtually disappeared and the production block is devoted primarily to filming. Scenes are usually recorded out of story order and the emphasis is now on repeated takes. Whereas multi-camera meant actors were playing scenes (and sometimes whole episodes) all the way through, the modern TV actor’s job is less a case of staying “in the moment” for a practised performance than an attempt to maintain “the illusion of the first time” (a phrase coined by US actor William Gillette to describe the actor’s art of making a scripted scene seem live and unrehearsed) while keeping continuity firmly in mind. All on increasingly tight shooting schedules.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WX-R1lfycmw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In addition, the screen training now provided at drama schools, where students are warned they will be “too big” for TV, has led to an under-projected physical and vocal style that can sometimes <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/472670/Jamaica-Inn-Disappointing-BBC-drama-with-mumbling-dialogue-and-absent-plot">frustrate audiences</a> and directors. BBC shows such as Jamaica Inn and <a href="https://theconversation.com/speak-up-why-some-tv-dialogue-is-so-hard-to-understand-75423">SS-GB</a> have both come under fire for inaudibility. </p>
<p>When The Quatermass Experiment was remounted live by the BBC in 2005, the cast and crew were attempting to recreate a production template that fell out of use decades before. Intensive and lengthy rehearsals were required and nerves ran so high on the night that the adrenaline-fuelled, accelerated production came in significantly under time.</p>
<p>While most of those involved enjoyed the challenge – particularly the generous preparation time – few wanted to see such a stressful model become the norm again. However, nearly everyone I spoke to said they would like more rehearsal. Actress <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0417062/">Louise Jameson</a> explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The absolute ideal is film, one camera – hours to light it, hours to rehearse it. When you’ve got that kind of luxury it’s fabulous, but it’s so rare.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My research showed that, while British TV acting hasn’t always followed a straight or predictable path, the scaled-down style of location realism has now almost entirely replaced studio realism. What direction it will take next, in an age of multi-platform and mobile viewing, remains to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84312/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Hewett is affiliated with Manchester University Press, who published his book, The Changing Spaces of Television Acting, in August 2017. </span></em></p>TV acting has evolved from the early performances of actors like William Hartnell. It’s a more subtle craft and quite different from stage acting.Richard Hewett, Lecturer in Media Theory, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/782572017-08-01T20:14:24Z2017-08-01T20:14:24ZThe Method gone bananas? How motion capture actors are embracing their inner ape<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180438/original/file-20170801-22136-qtxidn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Andy Serkis as Caesar in War for the Planet of the Apes.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chernin Entertainment, TSG Entertainment </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>All hail the Monkey King. Andy Serkis’s touching performance as Caesar in War for the Planet of the Apes has been critically acclaimed as <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes-review-expectations-defied-in-fitting-finale-20170724-gxhgu2">heart-rending</a>, <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/07/war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes-review">emotionally harrowing </a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/summer-movies/2017/7/13/15955878/review-war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes-bible-moses-exodus">worthy of an Oscar</a>.</p>
<p>Serkis continues to revolutionise screen performance using a motion captured avatar, conveying extraordinary emotional depth in the role. His success, often attributed to the mastery of animators and technicians, is testament to the rise of an entirely new approach to acting animals in an age of CGI, animation and motion capture. </p>
<p>Performance Capture (the total recording of a performance using a motion capture system) was first used in 2004. It is inherently theatrical, since a performance is filmed in its entirety - without multiple takes of a single scene. Actors wear suits with markers to help computers track their movements during the scene. </p>
<p>To perform as apes, Serkis and others are drawing on the techniques of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_acting">method acting </a> to emotionally connect with their simian characters. For Serkis, and Planet of the Apes movement choreographer and actor Terry Notary, this has meant going to extraordinary lengths to feel their way into their roles.</p>
<p>Serkis was led by Notary on all fours for hikes in the Canadian woods. They would spend two-hour stints not talking, only communicating as apes. The aim, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/14/15973578/war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes-movie-motion-capture-movement-terry-notary">says Notary,</a> was to allow “the human conditioning to fall away”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FT9YCYQZ4Vs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<hr>
<p><em>Further reading: <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-motion-capture-performances-deserve-an-oscar-67138">Why motion capture performances deserve an Oscar</a></em></p>
<hr>
<h2>A brief history of monkey business on film</h2>
<p>1968 was a big year for apes on film. Primates appeared in Stanley Kubrick’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/?ref_=nv_sr_1">2001: A Space Odyssey</a> and the original <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063442/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Planet of the Apes</a>, starring Charlton Heston, first aired. In Space Odyssey, actors such as John Ashley donned monkey suits and set about charting the early history of tool use in the celebrated opening sequence known as The Dawn of Man.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ypEaGQb6dJk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In Planet of the Apes, actors such as Maurice Evans and Roddy McDowall relied on monkey masks with furry hands and feet to convey their simian characters. Their bodies were clothed in remarkably human-looking outfits.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pBMvR_RnKu4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Fully costumed performances of primates in films continued until 1995, when Misty Rosas as Amy the Gorilla in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112715/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Congo</a> performed alongside “enhanced gorillas” running through the jungle at an extraordinary pace, complete with appendages to extend their front limbs.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jfgWw43Fcuw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Over the last decade, we’ve seen a resurgence of cinematic apes, with a full reboot of the Planet of the Apes franchise, a couple of King Kongs, and more than one Tarzan. But the monkey suit has shifted from a furry outer layer to the modern motion capture suit as actors such as Ace Ruele in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0918940/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Legend of Tarzan</a> (2016) and Notary (alongside Serkis and others) in War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), and Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) transform how they perform - and we consume - monkeys on the screen. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180436/original/file-20170731-28521-1mqohtm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180436/original/file-20170731-28521-1mqohtm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180436/original/file-20170731-28521-1mqohtm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180436/original/file-20170731-28521-1mqohtm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180436/original/file-20170731-28521-1mqohtm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180436/original/file-20170731-28521-1mqohtm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180436/original/file-20170731-28521-1mqohtm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180436/original/file-20170731-28521-1mqohtm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A motion capture suit worn in The Legend of Tarzan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Feeling like an Apeman (or woman)</h2>
<p>With these new technologies, comes a revitalised interpretation of “The Method”. Primate actors are now exploring their performance by inhabiting and feeling “Ape”, and have developed their own “system” to perform as primates.</p>
<p>This system is built around the aspirations of Stanislavski - the father of method acting. It includes embodying the emotional state of the primate via practising regimented gait and walk cycles and using specific breathing techniques and even numbered approaches to gaze and smell. So, for instance, the scent of another primate in the distance would be given a number and a correlating pose, which ape actors would be instructed to adopt.</p>
<p>The Ape method includes a bespoke, non-verbal language used by actors to communicate with each other during filming. Aspiring actors can even take masterclasses with the likes of Notary, as seen in this video.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8FF64Wpskts?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Serkis calls Notary (who also starred in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Kong: Skull Island</a>) “the greatest unsung hero of this entire [Planet of the Apes] franchise”. </p>
<p>Notary <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/14/15973578/war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes-movie-motion-capture-movement-terry-notary">talks of “de-conditioning” to an play ape</a> and finding each ape character’s “first position foundation” (a neutral non-human, pose). He says,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>most of the actors that do play apes have told me that it’s been one of the most profound things they’ve done, because you have to be so honest with yourself. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>He describes his own ape character, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3450958/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Rocket</a>, as “that open, vulnerable, grounded, connected, feeling creature that I aspire to be all the time”. </p>
<p>As humans, our development of tools was made possible by our eventual rising to two feet, releasing our hands from the earth, Freed from holding objects (such as bones and babies) our hands and mouths could then perform other functions. </p>
<p>Our hands and minds now grasp vastly complicated objects, like virtual studios and motion capture systems, and use these to perfect the art of pretending to be monkeys. It’s a strange full circle – an origin story returning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78257/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matt Delbridge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Apes on film once wore monkey suits but today’s actors are drawing on techniques of method acting to bring complex, motion captured simian characters to life.Matt Delbridge, Head, VCA Theatre, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.