Method Acting Myths
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Transcription of podcast: Method Acting Myths Brian Timoney with Joe Ferrera July 2016 Debunking the myths: A look at what Method Acting is really all about Brian and Joe discuss their take on some of the myths surrounding Method Acting, with a look at the idea of actors going to extremes for roles – with examples from some of today’s acting greats – and why The Method goes much deeper than gaining weight and pulling teeth! 10 things you will learn about: • Method Acting – Is it really all about gaining weight & pulling teeth? • What do Method Acting and baking a cake have in common? • Expanding on art – The creative side of acting • How the acting greats do it: De Niro, Day-Lewis, Streep, Jolie • The process: Getting it right – Step by step • The Method: 30 years’ experience condensed into a year • Why it’s not all fun: The hard graft and boring stuff • How Lee Strasburg got it just right • The Method and depth of characterisation • Is anyone a born actor? Learning to be a natural Page 2 Full Transcript One man – One mission: To rid the world of low-standard and mediocre acting, once and for all. Brian Timoney, the world’s leading authority on Method Acting, brings you powerful, impactful, volcanic acting and ‘business of acting’ techniques in his special Acting Podcasts. It’s Brian Timoney’s World of Acting – unplugged and unleashed. Brian: Hi everyone, it’s Brian here. Welcome onto today’s podcast. And I have Joe with me – welcome, Joe. Joe: Thank you very much for having me, Brian. Hello everyone out there. Brian: So, Joe, we are going to be talking about Method Acting Myths today. Joe: Yes – nice. Brian: There’s quite a few of these... Joe: Yes, we know, yes. Brian: …we can get our teeth into. Now, what do I mean by “Method Acting Myths”? Well, sometimes people think Method Acting is when somebody puts on a lot of weight – for example, I guess De Niro in Raging Bull: half of the film or more than half, you see him as a really fit boxer, and he got really into shape, and then for the other half he went out of shape – he just put on a lot of weight and was really unfit and overweight. Joe: Yes – which was in line with Jake LaMotta film, with what happened in his life. Brian: Yes – which is actually a true story. Joe: Which is a true story, yes. Brian: So that’s why that happened. Now, when that happened, some people looked at that and went, ‘Ah – that’s Method Acting: when you go really extreme on living the character or you become the character and you in your regular life. And there’s other examples of this – you know, Christian Bale in The Machinist: he lost an insane amount of life, until he was a skeleton. Joe: Yes. Brian: Again, ‘Oh, that’s Method Acting – somebody going to the extreme.’ There was another chap that pulled out a tooth to play a role. Joe: Oh, yes, Shia LaBeouf. Brian: Shia, yes – who I love, by the way. Joe: We do love him, yes. We do love a bit of Shia. Brian: You’ve got to love Shia. But he pulled his tooth in order to – and people hear that and they go, ‘Oh, that’s Method Acting.’ And, you know, it’s really not [laughs]. Joe: [laughs] Yes! Brian: But it’s become the myth of Method Acting. Joe: Yes. It’s what people want it to be so that they can shoot you down – do you know what I mean? Brian: Yes. It can be so extreme. Joe: Yes – they go, ‘Oh, they must all be mental. They’re all crazy actors!’ Brian: That’s right; the people that you say, ‘Oh, they’re Method Acting – pulling their teeth out!’ Page 3 Joe: Yes – ‘They pull their teeth out, they put on loads of weight. You know, Christian Bale puts on weight, loses weight – he must be mental!’ It’s like, shut up! It’s like shut up! You know nothing about the craft! You know nothing about it! And given the opportunity to express yourself artistically and creatively, and you’re allowed to take time to really evolve a piece of artistry – why is Raging Bull considered one of the greatest films? It’s in maybe my top three films – why? Because it encompassed all the things: that amazing way of thinking that you could actually go and put on this weight. And let me tell you that Martin Scorsese in that was very, very concerned for Robert De Niro, because he didn’t want Robert De Niro to fall ill or get some – you know, he was very concerned, from what I’ve heard historically and through conversations. But it was an opportunity to really go after something creative and give yourself the opportunity to expand on art and the creative side of acting. But equally, with Daniel Day-Lewis doing Abraham Lincoln’s voice and finding the voice – it’s the same thing, right? He was looking to find that voice, to find the inner; he was looking towards inside himself to find that. Or, for a matter of fact, for someone like Meryl Streep – what she’s done to her body. You know, nobody says of Meryl when she’s in The Devil Wears Prada – she made her hair grey and short, and made herself a certain look… Brian: That’s true, yes. Joe: …or Charlize Theron when she does the thing in Monster. And then she does Mad Max: Fury Road – that look. You know, nobody says anything about that, you know? Brian: No. Actually, you’re right; there’s a lot of myths that have grown up around The Method that it’s these activities that make The Method The Method… Joe: And it’s not that! Brian: It’s so not that. Joe: No. Brian: So, let’s just talk about what it is. I can understand why it’s happened in a way as well, because part of The Method is that an actor is encouraged to really understand, in depth, the character that they’re playing. Joe: Yes. Brian: So sometimes, for example, De Niro when he did Taxi Driver went and drove a taxi for a month – so, yes, I can understand why that’s the right thing to do in his position. I would think, ‘Yes – why not.’ You need to know what that world is like. Joe: But equally – sorry, Brian – but equally, if you’re playing a surgeon in Grey’s Anatomy or in Casualty, you need to know technically how to handle an instrument, if you’re doing like a really powerful scene in an operation and something goes wrong. You know, that’s also Method Acting – knowing how to do that. But equally, and more importantly, it’s the internal life that we’re really compelled and moved by. That’s what we want to… Brian: Yes. You know, trying to explain The Method in this short podcast is kind of tricky but let’s have an attempt, because I think that we’re dispelling this myth about what it’s not. And what it really is is a process. It’s called The Method for a reason: in the same way that when you’re going to bake a cake, you start with a set amount of ingredients and then you have (literally, if you’re looking at a recipe), a method. Joe: Yes. Page 4 Brian: And you add the ingredients at a certain time and in a certain way, and then you produce the nice juicy, fluffy cake. Now, in The Method, learning Method Acting, the same is true: basically we start off with the raw materials, which are you, and there are going to be certain things in that raw material that are cool the way they are, and there will be certain things in that raw material that need to be improved. Joe: Yes. Brian: And it’s about starting to understand that and look at that. Then we start to take you through a process of The Method, a method, which is about doing certain exercises in a certain progression and a certain way that allows you to become more expressive, more in touch with your emotions, and be able to take risks, go out there and take action, and also to do it as if you’re not being watched – which is important because in acting you get watched and that changes the actor; often they may try too hard… Joe: Too hard – push for things, yes. Brian: And they create fake acting or ham acting, over-the-top, just not believable. Joe: Yes. Brian: So The Method was a way of getting an actor, instead of having to spend 20/30 years treading the boards learning all of this, it was a quicker way of doing it. It was basically saying, ‘Look; we understand the raw material that needs to be brought. We understand. Here’s a series of exercises and ethos and way of working that we’re going to take you through one by one, one step by one step to the next step, in order to produce this type of work. Joe: Yes. Brian: And that is what The Method is about. Joe: Yes. Brian: I’d love to tell you it was sexier than that. I think the things that people talk about seem – ‘Oh, that’s really cool and out there, edgy.’ Actually, the reality for Method Acting is hard work, repeated and sometimes really boring stuff as well we have to do… Joe: Yes.