“METHOD ACTING”, please dont use this term!! PLEASE
What is method acting?
Method acting is not an acting tool nor is it a book it does not involve growing beard, loosing or gaining weight, living like the character or becoming a character. The most misunderstood term, misused by everyone and it spells nothing but ignorance about the craft of acting, to who ever use it without knowing what it actually is, now a days it is used more in a derogatory context to undermine the effort put by actors towards the craft of acting.
IN FACT There is nothing like method acting it is a wrong term to use.
What is “the method”?
Method is a school of acting,A training method, a technique, a philosophy towards the craft of acting. Better know generally as the American school of acting and specifically to the work done by a pioneer a legend of acting education lee Strasberg.
Method is the step wise approach to the craft of acting developed by lee Strasberg over a period of 45 Years at the actor’s studio in New York and it is only for actors who have been trained under his banner and by him over a long period of time who can be called method trained actor.
THERE IS NOTHING LIKE “METHOD ACTOR”, THE TERM WHICH IS ACCEPTABLE AND CORRECT IS “METHOD TRAINED ACTOR”
Method training is a training procedure which has nothing to do with an actor’s performance in a specific play or film it is the effort put forward by the actors to imbibe and practice the various acting tools and exercises developed at the studio by lee Strasberg.
It is more about doing solitary Laboratory Behavior work and Practicing in private than with coming on stage and blowing the audience away.
What are the techniques?
Developed over a period of more than 50 years it would be better to practice those techniques than to talk about it, it is something that has to either be learned over a long- long period of time or be taught by a guru who has been trained in the method.
METHOD IS NOT A TOOL IT IS A VERY SPECIFIC TRAINING PROCESS… METHOD TRAINING IS A WORD THAT IS ACCEPTABLE
Tags: Acting, Teaching Film-making
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Megh, this is quite interesting. When you get the chance could you elaborate on this by some example where in an actor followed method training to create a memorable character on screen and the steps the actor followed to achieve this…
Before your post, I too, had misconceptions about the term “Method acting”
Oh by the way, was there any method to playing the cop in No Smoking?
the great actors of the method school are
1. marlon Brando ( although he considers Stella Adler as teacher, he had also spent time with Lee Strasberg)
2. Robert de niro
3. Al pacino
4. james Dean ( his a fav pupil )
and many more.
these people work very privately and people look at them and say all sorts of things.
the famous method films are
godfather, taxi driver, reble without a cause, raging bull many many more
if you want i can write down the steps of teh method training process in short for all our readers
oz i would not like to discuss my craft in a public forum but for teh sake of answering the q i am not much of a Lee strasberg person i am more into sandy meisner and david mamet which i am studying and using in my work right now.
A good article. Lots of people use this term because it gives an intellectual veneer to their acting. I know very good actors who think they’re trained in ‘method’ but are not. You can still be a good actor and not follow this school of thought.
Megh – I think it would be great if you could talk about the differences in the different schools of thoughts and why you subscribe to one over the other…
i find the term quite amusing.. u grow a moustache for a role, and you’re a method actor. you put on some weight, and you’re method. umm.. you’re getting into character. it’s what you have to do, as an actor. as perfectionist and as good of an actor as he may be, aamir khan can’t call himself that (not that i remember him calling himself that), neither can the media glorify him getting into character.. he’s just doing his job.
megh, shripriya poses a good question.. would love to hear your take on that.
There’s a bunch of different versions of the following story (taken from the net):
There is a story about Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier together on the set of Marathon Man. Olivier watches in amazement as Hoffman paces back and forth like a caged tiger, working himself up into a fury for one of their scenes together. Finally he asks someone what Hoffman’s doing, and is told that this is the Method, that he is “working himself inside his character.” “Oh,” Olivier says. “Has he ever tried acting?”
that would be a different article all together. yes there are different schools of acting and what an one do but just talk about them.
one need to practice teh tech step by step to know what it means, i am still learning and am on teh first steps.
accroding to sanford meisner
the simplicity of acting is known in 20 years.
@Navdeep,
i know a little different version, if i remember correctly i saw it in the series “Inside Actors studio”. In the film “Marathon Man” Dustin Hoffman had a scene in which he was supposed to be tired and all so he did not sleep for some 2 days (later confessed that it was more bcos of a lot of partying rather than becoming the character)..so when Laurence oliver heard this he said- ” Why dont you try Acting Son- it`s much easier “.
@Megh pant- i don`t understand why you being so averse to the name “method acting”, its been used quite often i ve heard this term from the greats of this technique.
“Method Acting”, “the method”, “stanislavsky system” is used very often in the same context. when you say –”Method is the step wise approach to the craft of acting developed by lee Strasberg over a period of 45 Years at the actor
Fascinating article, Megh. But tell me if I’m wrong, “The Method” was a school which was only popularised and built-on by Lee Strasberg…it was originally derived out of the “Stanislavsky System”, devised by Konstantin Stanislavsky, a fruit of his years of hard-work to study how an actor can depict intangible human attributes like emotions.
Wow this is like a whole lot of info. i had read about it but never knew this bit.
i personally thought there must be a certain method of getting into a character and a way to get more in tune with who the character is and what his/her habits are and the thought process behind their actions..
is it just tht lee strasberg has always been associated with this term and so it solely belongs to him.Every school gives different terms to their methods of acting and maybe some are very similar to this style and they just have other names..is tht possible?:-?
PLS GIVE ME MORE INFO. :d
One famous example is taxi driver for his role of travis De niro took NY Taxi driver’s license and he drove all around the city to get familiar with the taxi drivers ,roads and there mannerisms etc.,
I think every actor is a method actor he uses his and directors vision for the character and performs according to the scene. every actor has his/her own method to approach a character.If the character has a mustache or beard then actor has to grow them in order to make people believe that he is the character.
There is no single method.
Since you mentioned Lee Strasberg, the question should be:
What is the
all teh famous schools of teh american thought have come from the russian system.
“the method ” is specifically used for the LEE strasberg school and no one else.
lee strasberg is very famous, but how many of you know that Stella Adler had studied directly under Stanislavsky in paris when she returned to teh group theater where lee was stuck in teh old school of though of Stanislavsky she told him.
“we have been doing it all wrong in here” and lee said “Stanislavsky does not know , i know “.
of all those who say they know teh method thought, i want to ask , how many hours have you spent in doing the chair relaxation, it takes months and proper guidance to know what it is, how many have you done the coffee mug exercise i know few people who have.. how many know what the private moment is or the song and dance exercise, and it not just about reading. acting does not come from reading .. iam sorry to say… it take hours of work .. to achieve the basics … i am not saying i am an expert but yes i know i have put in hours in my craft, to know what i am saying .. if any one who has done it .. yes .. he know what he is saying but without it its just talking in air.
@amit
amit there is a huge and by huge i mean huge difference between Stanislavsky system and teh method. if they are used in teh same context it is becuase people dont know and again i would stress reading is not knowing espicially in acting.
@maya
personally i dont believe in getting into teh caracter.. there is also a joke amongst us guys of teh first batch FTII 2006 , some first year student asked me, how do you get into character and a frend of our said to make it sleep on teh ground tear it up and dive straight into it.. another way is to lift it up straight open its body zip and get into it.
i dont believe into this getting into the character thing..
there are steps and methods to achieve teh attributes.
@varun
yes it is true de niro did that, but i would not like to comment why he did it.. i dont know
Thanx … so Friends , i today learned that method acting is … ( shhh … don’t talk about it or author and Lee Strasberg will get angry )
This is all very theorical debate for an art that is focusing on “doing” “acting” ;-)
The “Method” didn’t belong to Strasberg: Sandford Meisner as Stella Adler did develop it too it, even though they develloped it with slight but fundamental differences.
For some reasons (eagerness towards fame?) a shortcut is often make on behalf of Strasberg
It requires work and dedication, it’s a never ending love story for the art of acting that you’ll devellop throughout the years.
In the end any technique is dedicated to make you a better, deeper available actor, so I would consider them as different tools that might work under such & such circumstances. The most completely equipped you are, the better. In the end, it’s the digestion of all these techniques by you the actor that is relevant in its efficiency.
(I’ve been training for 9 years with a teacher more on Stella Adler’s side, 3 years with a more Strasberg’s apostle and am actually completing it with Meisner approach, 1 year for the moment)
I believe that the aim of acting is to make your performance look real and natural. Whatever effort is put in to learn about the character (background, profession etc.) is the important preparation. In the end it is all about getting the character out of you after preparing.
Bullocks to all this so-called ‘Method’. Acting is becoming the character and getting the audience to believe you are that character. The director provides the guidance since it is his or her vision.
Going to acting school or training does not necessarily make one a good actor. There are many trained actors who have unsuccessful careers – maybe because they are bad (too studied) or do not connect with the audience. Who knows? It is all a crap shoot.
@ Megh Pant
By ur definition of whatever this “Method” acting is, what ur trying to say is a young person cannot be a good actor?? You have to put decades of hard work to be a good actor? Isn’t that a lil ridiculous? Age my friend…you have just one lifetime to prove urself as an actor…spending 45 years of it learning how to act… if one starts at 15 he’d be 60 to be a good actor, romeo ka role to pakka nahin mil raha, wonder how u get anywhere with the craft then. Keep practicing, good luck with that coffee mug in ur relaxing chair…
theres a method to insanity too I guess…I wonder if a few bottles of moskovskaya will help :p.
Acting is about connecting, and no school will ever teach you that….it comes with confidence and direction and ‘getting into character’ whatever the ‘method’. Song and Dance exercise gaya ghode ke dichchoo mein, gym mein exercise kar, picture mein song and dance kar.