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Method Acting: Difference between revisions
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==== '''Examples''': ====
* Probably no actor has been associated with method acting quite as prominently as [[Daniel Day Lewis]]. He simply IS his character for the duration of his role. For his Academy Award-winning performance in ''My Left Foot'', he did not leave his wheelchair, speak coherently, or even feed himself for the entire filming. For ''[[The Last of the Mohicans
* [[Christian Bale]] is the most recent big actor to be known for method acting. Specifically, his physical transformations for roles are very jarring. He was literally anorexic for the filming of ''[[The Machinist]]'', only to bulk up to a practically bodybuilder-like physique for ''[[Batman Begins]]''. Bale is also, like Daniel Day Lewis, notorious for being someone hard to work with.
* [[Marlon Brando]] is arguably the first great method actor.
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** It should also be noted that this is heavily contested by those who worked with Ledger on the film. Micheal Cain in particular insists that Ledger was quite friendly and gregarious between takes who enjoyed swapping stories with the cast and crew about their children (or grandchildren) and entertained them with skateboarding tricks on long shoots.
* Interestingly, [[Military and Warfare Tropes|military fiction]] is an entire GENRE that pretty much demands method acting from performers. Actors getting actual military training for their roles is pretty much a given in any proper military work.
** An interesting double-twist: for ''[[
* [[James Dean]] was a method actor.
** To the extreme, although it often worked: he kept everyone waiting while he brooded in his dressing room on the set of ''[[Rebel Without a Cause]]'', but then pulled off the police station scene in one take. He also ad-libbed the very effective moment in ''[[East of Eden]]'' when Cal breaks down and tearfully embraces his father when he refuses to accept the money he is offering (much to Raymond Massey's obvious shock). Not everyone was a fan of his style, though; he annoyed Rock Hudson to no end with his extensive preparation on ''Giant''.
* [[In
** This may be a nod to Christian Bale, who kept his American accent in promotional appearances for ''Batman Begins'' before it was released so the [[Fan Dumb]] wouldn't complain about a Welsh Batman.
** In the actual [[DVD Commentary]] for ''[[Tropic Thunder]]'' [[Robert Downey, Jr.]] did it as Kirk Lazarus ''as'' his character Osiris.
* [[Dustin Hoffman]] is another Method actor. (There's a famous anecdote about classical actor [[Laurence Olivier]]'s reaction to his method when they worked together on ''[[Marathon Man]]'', but it turns out the anecdote isn't actually true.)
* In the webcomic ''[[Superosity]]'', one actor acting Jar Jar Binks went for this to an extreme point: having his brain moved to an actual bioengineered body of Jar Jar Binks.
* [[Jim Carrey]] pretended to be [[Andy Kaufman]] for the entire duration of filming ''[[Man
** It actually became strange as Jim Carrey began developing strange tics and specific movements that Kaufman himself would do, ''but which weren't actually in the script''. Andy Kaufman's old friends who were working on the movie just decided to let it ride and figured "hey, Andy's back with us for a few months".
* [[John Simm]] received Stanislavskian training at drama school. He's been known to starve himself, consuming only coffee and cigarettes in order to play Van Gogh and to refuse hospital treatment after breaking some ribs while playing Raskolnikov because the fever and the pain "added to his performance". He also experimented with drugs when preparing for ''[[Human Traffic]]''. When he was preparing to play Bernard Sumner in ''24 Hour Party People'', he was constantly listening to tapes of Sumner's interviews on his Walkman in order to get his voice right.
* Andy Serkis met his wife while they were playing a couple on stage. They went on a date in character to prepare for the role, and then started seeing each other in real life.
* In ''[[
* [[Johnny Depp]] would never call himself a Method actor, but appears to have shades of it nonetheless--he does extensive research and background reading on nearly all of his roles, especially when portraying real people. He even lived with friend Hunter S. Thompson when portraying him in ''[[Fear and Loathing
* Michael Fassbender dropped a terrifying amount of weight to accurately portray activist Bobby Sands in ''[[Hunger]]''--and he doesn't have a lot of weight available to lose in the first place. He also did extensive interviews with real-life sex addicts for ''[[
* Similarly, [[Ellen Page]] dropped weight over the course of filming ''An American Crime'', in which she portrayed Sylvia Likens, a real-life young woman who was tortured and starved {{spoiler|and eventually died}} in her neighbor's basement. When asked if she was eating normally, she said "No, because Sylvia wasn't being fed."
* Ed Harris is famous for his method acting bringing intensity and sometimes [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GGd6Y3978Q scaryness.]
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