In the world of acting, various schools of performance are adopted by different actors.
Some adhere to the “Expressionist” school, where the actor remains separate from the character, using their skill to portray the role while being able to detach immediately once the performance is over.
Others take the opposite approach, the “Experiential” school, advocating that actors should fully “become” the character, merging their thoughts and expressions with the role. This method offers authenticity, devoid of the craftiness of “acting,” but it’s taxing on the actor, making it hard to break character. 
Then there’s the “Method” school, which can be seen as a modified or less extreme version of the experiential approach. The general idea is that everyone has “emotional memory.” For instance, if an actor needs to cry for a scene where the character has lost a loved one, they might not have had the exact experience, but they can evoke similar emotions through related memories.
Of course, these schools are just a way to help people understand; in reality, the lines between them aren’t so clear-cut. For example, everyone knows Christian Bale, known as “The Shape-Shifter,” who can lose or gain significant weight for roles, which is quite “experiential.” But when he played Batman, could he truly “become” a fictional character? That’s debatable.
(Christian Bale’s body transformation for different films)
To get back on track, Hollywood has been dominated by method acting for decades because many of the recognized acting greats were method actors:
- The late Marlon Brando
- Older generation actors like Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Dustin Hoffman
- Mid-career actors like Matthew McConaughey, Cillian Murphy, and the aforementioned Christian Bale
- And now, younger actors with the potential to become legends, like Andrew Garfield… the list goes on.
However, in recent years, method acting has become less popular in Hollywood due to the increasingly bizarre behaviors of actors “getting into character”… or worse, finding it hard to break character even after filming ends.
In the early days, method actors were not as eccentric, and their dedication was often seen as “professionalism.” For instance, in the 1970s, Robert De Niro drove a taxi in New York to better understand his role in “Taxi Driver.”
(Taxi Driver)
Similarly, in the 1990s, Al Pacino lived as if he were blind in real life to prepare for his role in “Scent of a Woman.”
But Daniel Day-Lewis, affectionately known as “Emperor Liu” by fans, took method acting to absurd heights.
In 1989, for “My Left Foot,” where he played a writer and painter with cerebral palsy, Day-Lewis made friends with disabled individuals, used a wheelchair on set, refused to break character, and even had crew members feed him with a spoon…
(Scene from My Left Foot)
His performance in this film earned him numerous accolades and awards, and since then, he has become increasingly committed to his method acting. For example, to portray a Mohawk warrior, he carried a gun throughout filming; to play a prisoner, he spent days in a cell, insisting that crew members drench him with cold water and insult him…
He was harsh on others but even harsher on himself. Unsurprisingly, his methods have drawn both praise and criticism in the industry, but one thing is certain: after Day-Lewis, more actors began to adopt his approach.
This, however, has brought trouble not only to themselves but also to other crew members…
In 1999, Jim Carrey starred in “Man on the Moon,” where he insisted that everyone on set call him “Andy,” his character’s name, rather than his own. He even refused to break character when directed, maintaining this for four whole months.
(Man on the Moon)
In 2017, Netflix made a documentary about Carrey’s antics, and Martin Freeman, in an interview, harshly criticized Carrey’s behavior, using a string of expletives:
“To me, I genuinely believe Jim Carrey is a lovely and intelligent person, but what he did was the most goddamn self-indulgent, selfish, and narcissistic thing I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s so amateurish, it’s not the attitude of a professional actor. Imagine if it were someone else; they’d be straight to jail, not to mention being fired.”
(Martin Freeman criticizes Jim Carrey)
By 2006, Meryl Streep tried Day-Lewis’s method acting for “The Devil Wears Prada,” where she played a cold, arrogant, and distant boss. To stay in character, Streep avoided interacting with other actors even during breaks…
(Scene from The Devil Wears Prada)
On the 15th anniversary of the film’s release, Streep admitted in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:
“It was awful! (After work), I had to sit alone in my trailer while I could hear the other actors chatting and laughing. It was so depressing!” “After that, I told myself, this is the price you pay for being the boss. I never tried method acting again.”
After Streep, perhaps the most tragic example was Heath Ledger.
Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in “The Dark Knight” remains legendary, but the cost of playing such a disturbed character was high. Ledger locked himself in a room for weeks, writing the Joker’s backstory to delve into his psyche, hoping to “become” the character.
The intense conflict between his real life and the role led to severe insomnia, which resulted in his dependency on sleeping pills. Shortly after filming, Ledger died of an accidental overdose…
If the previous examples were more about actors torturing themselves through method acting, then the following examples show actors torturing others.
In 2013, Jamie Dornan, known for “Fifty Shades of Grey,” played a deranged serial killer in the TV series “The Fall.” To experience the character’s mindset, Dornan admitted:
“I once followed a woman off a train just to get the feeling of tracking someone.”
This was already toeing the line of legality…
(Jamie Dornan)
In 2016, Jared Leto played the Joker in “Suicide Squad.” Perhaps because Heath Ledger’s portrayal was so hard to top, Leto seemed to push himself into becoming the character, doing many bizarre things…
Before filming began, he sent a series of “gifts” to his co-stars, including a dead rat to Margot Robbie, bullets to Will Smith, a “sticky Playboy magazine” to someone else, and a dead pig to the entire crew.
Later, he revealed to E! magazine that he also sent used condoms and anal beads to each co-star…
(Jared Leto admits to sending odd gifts)
His defense was: “The Joker is someone who doesn’t respect personal space or boundaries.”
For this, Leto was heavily criticized, and he later backtracked, saying the dead rat to Robbie was “not true.” However, more than just Robbie received these strange gifts, making it hard to believe he didn’t send them…
(Later retraction)
Nowadays, it seems more actors are starting to abandon method acting. For instance, the well-known “Hannibal,” Mads Mikkelsen.
In 2022, Mikkelsen was interviewed by GQ, discussing his aversion to method acting, with the interview’s headline being “Mikkelsen Replaces Depp to Play Grindelwald, and His Disdain for Method Acting.”
(Mads Mikkelsen’s interview with GQ)
He said:
“(Method acting), it’s all nonsense.” “If you end up making a bad film, what have you done? Sure, you didn’t ‘break character,’ but should that be praised? You should have broken character from the start!” “How do you prepare to play a serial killer? Spend two years studying a killer?”
Although not directly criticizing Jamie Dornan, the statement fits perfectly…
Similarly, Robert Pattinson, known for “Twilight,” once summarized method acting:
“You only see actors adopting ‘method acting’ when they play assholes, but if it’s a character who’s nice to everyone, no one ‘gets into character.’ No one ‘goes method’ then.”
At the beginning of this year, Natalie Portman, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, also discussed method acting:
“I’ve gone deep into characters before, but honestly, I think it’s a luxury women can’t afford. I think if I forced everyone to call me ‘Jackie Kennedy,’ my kids and partner would not understand…”
(Interview headline: Why Portman Doesn’t Use “Method Acting”)
In conclusion, actors dedicating time and effort to explore their roles is undoubtedly a sign of professionalism, but it doesn’t give them a free pass to send dead mice, confuse co-workers, or stalk strangers… No matter how much they emphasize “the method,” it’s still not justifiable.
