Method acting
Encyclopedia
Method acting is a phrase that loosely refers to a family of techniques used by actors to create in themselves the thoughts and emotions of their characters, so as to develop lifelike performances. It can be contrasted with more classical forms of acting
Acting
Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play....

, in which actors simulate the thoughts and emotions of their characters through external means, such as vocal intonation or facial expression. Though not all Method actors use the same approach, the "method" in Method acting usually refers to the practice, pioneered by Constantin Stanislavski and advocated by Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...

, by which actors draw upon their own emotions and memories in their portrayals, aided by a set of exercises and practices including sense memory and affective memory.

Method actors are often characterized as immersing themselves in their characters to the extent that they continue to portray them even offstage or off-camera for the duration of a project. However, this is a popular misconception. While some actors have employed this approach, it is generally not taught as part of the Method.

Method acting has been described as "revolutionizing American theater
Theater in the United States
Theater of the United States is based in the Western tradition. Regional or resident theatres in the United States are professional theatre companies outside of New York City that produce their own seasons.- Early history:...

." While classical acting instruction "had focused on developing external talents," the Method was "the first systematized training that also developed internal abilities (sensory, psychological, emotional)."

Method acting continues to evolve, with many contemporary acting teachers, schools, and colleges teaching an integrated approach that draws from several different schools of thought about acting.

Origins

Method acting was first popularized in the United States by the Group Theatre in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in the 1930s and was subsequently advanced by Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...

 at the Actors Studio
Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided...

 from the 1940s until his death in 1982. It was derived from the system created by Constantin Stanislavski, who pioneered similar ideas in his quest for "theatrical truth." Stanislavski developed his system through his friendships with Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

's leading actors, whose work he observed and analyzed; his collaborations with playwright Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...

; and his own acting and teaching at the Moscow Art Theater. It was also influenced by then-current ideas about Realism.

Strasberg's students included many of America's most famous actors in the latter half of the 20th century, including Montgomery Clift
Montgomery Clift
Edward Montgomery Clift was an American film and stage actor. The New York Times’ obituary noted his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men"....

, Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....

, James Dean
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...

, Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...

, Al Pacino
Al Pacino
Alfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy and Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way, though he has also appeared...

, Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....

, Eli Wallach
Eli Wallach
Eli Herschel Wallach is an American film, television and stage actor, who gained fame in the late 1950s. For his performance in Baby Doll he won a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer and a Golden Globe nomination. One of his most famous roles is that of Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...

, Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin
Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...

, Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...

, Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...

, Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...

, and Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn is a leading American actress of film, stage, and television. Burstyn's career began in theatre during the late 1950s, and over the next ten years she appeared in several films and television series before joining the Actors Studio in 1967...

.

Technique

"Method acting" or "the Method" usually refers to the teachings of Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...

, but the term is sometimes also applied to the teachings of his Group Theatre colleagues, including Stella Adler
Stella Adler
Stella Adler was an American actress and an acclaimed acting teacher, who founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and the The Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles with long-time protege Joanne Linville, who continues to teach and furthers Adler's legacy...

, Robert Lewis, and Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner , also known as Sandy, was an American actor and acting teacher who developed a form of Method acting that is now known as the Meisner technique....

, and to other schools of acting derived from Stanislavski's system, each of which takes a slightly different approach. Even Stanislavski himself modified his system dramatically over the course of his career.

In general, however, Method acting combines the actor's careful consideration of the character's psychological motives and personal identification with the character, possibly including a reproduction of the character's emotional state by recalling emotions or sensations from the actor's own life. In this sense, according to Marlon Brando, the actor does not so much become someone else as he becomes himself. It is often contrasted with acting in which thoughts and emotions are indicated, or presented in a clichéd, unrealistic way. Among the concepts and techniques of Method acting are substitution
Substitution (theatre)
In theatre, substitution refers to the method of understanding elements in the life of one's character by comparing them to elements in one's own life. For example, if an actor is portraying a character who is being blackmailed, he or she could think back to some embarrassing or private fact about...

, "as if," sense memory, affective or emotional memory, animal work, and archetype work. Strasberg uses the question, "What would motivate me, the actor, to behave in the way the character does?" Strasberg asks the actor to replace the play's circumstances with his/her own, the substitution.

Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner , also known as Sandy, was an American actor and acting teacher who developed a form of Method acting that is now known as the Meisner technique....

, another Group Theatre pioneer, championed a closely related version of the Method, which came to be called the Meisner technique
Meisner technique
The Meisner technique is an acting technique developed by the American theatre practitioner Sanford Meisner.Meisner developed this technique after working with Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler at the Group Theatre and as head of the acting program at New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse and...

. Meisner broke from Strasberg on the subjects of sense memory and affective memory, basic techniques espoused by Strasberg through which actors access their own personal experiences in order to identify with and portray the emotional lives of their characters. Meisner believed that this approach caused actors to focus on themselves and not fully tell the story. He advocated fully immersing oneself "in the moment" and concentrating on one's partner. Meisner taught actors to achieve spontaneity by understanding the given circumstances of the scene (as did Strasberg) and through interpersonal exercises he designed to help actors invest emotionally in the scene, freeing them to react "honestly" as the character. Meisner described acting as "living truthfully under imaginary circumstances."

Robert Lewis also broke with Strasberg. In his books Method—or Madness? and the more autobiographical Slings and Arrows, Lewis disagreed with the idea that vocal training should be separated from pure emotional training. Lewis felt that more emphasis should be placed on formal voice and body training, such as teaching actors how to speak verse and enunciate clearly, rather than on pure raw emotion, which he felt was the focus of Method training.

Stella Adler
Stella Adler
Stella Adler was an American actress and an acclaimed acting teacher, who founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and the The Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles with long-time protege Joanne Linville, who continues to teach and furthers Adler's legacy...

, an actress and acting teacher whose fame was cemented by the success of her students Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

, Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...

, and Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...

, also broke with Strasberg after she studied with Stanislavski himself, the only Group Theatre teacher to do so, after he had modified many of his early ideas about acting. Her version of the Method is based on the idea that actors should conjure up emotion not by using their own personal memories, but by using the scene's given circumstances. Like Strasberg's, Adler's technique relies on carrying through tasks, wants, needs, and objectives. It also seeks to stimulate the actor's imagination through the use of "as ifs." Adler often taught that "drawing on personal experience alone was too limited." Therefore, she urged performers to draw on their imaginations and utilize "emotional memory" to the fullest.

Contemporary approaches

Contemporary Method acting teachers and schools often synthesize the work of their predecessors into an integrated approach. They reject the notion that any one of the major Method teachers of the 20th century was completely correct or incorrect, and they continue to develop new acting tools and techniques.

Some modern acting theorists and teachers have noted that Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meisner, Stella Adler, and others often misunderstood each other's work, and that their criticisms were based on this misunderstanding. For example, they all taught actors to use their imagination, to connect with each other in performance, to analyze the script for wants, needs, and objectives. Meisner often said that Strasberg actors were too focused on themselves, but Strasberg trained many of the most respected actors of the 20th century.

In addition to taking an integrated approach, contemporary actors sometimes seek help from psychologists or use imaginative tools such as dream work or archetype work to remove emotional blocks. Techniques have also been developed to prevent the world of the performance from spilling over into an actor's personal life in destructive ways.

Teachers

Stanislavski described his acting system in a trilogy of books set in a fictional acting school: An Actor Prepares, Building a Character, and Creating a Role. He also wrote an autobiography, My Life in Art. Acting teachers whose work was inspired by Stanislavski include:
  • Richard Boleslavsky, actor, film director, and founder of the American Laboratory Theatre in New York.
  • Michael Chekhov
    Michael Chekhov
    Michael Chekhov was a Russian-American actor, director, author, and theatre practitioner. His acting technique has been used by actors such as Clint Eastwood, Marilyn Monroe, Yul Brynner, and Robert Stack. Constantin Stanislavski referred to him as his most brilliant student...

    , an actor, director, and author whose technique, largely an outside-in approach and somewhat more metaphysical, diverged from and returned to Stanislavski's over the course of his career.
  • Maria Ouspenskaya
    Maria Ouspenskaya
    Maria Alekseyevna Ouspenskaya was a Russian actress and acting teacher. She achieved success as a stage actress as a young woman in Russia, and as an elderly woman in Hollywood films.-Life and career:...

    , an actress who taught at the American Laboratory Theatre. Her students included John Garfield
    John Garfield
    John Garfield was an American actor adept at playing brooding, rebellious, working-class character roles. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City and in the early 1930s became an important member of the Group Theater. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner...

    , Stella Adler
    Stella Adler
    Stella Adler was an American actress and an acclaimed acting teacher, who founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and the The Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles with long-time protege Joanne Linville, who continues to teach and furthers Adler's legacy...

    , and Lee Strasberg
    Lee Strasberg
    Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...

    .
  • Lee Strasberg
    Lee Strasberg
    Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...

    , a director, actor, and producer whose teachings are most closely associated with the term Method acting.
  • Stella Adler
    Stella Adler
    Stella Adler was an American actress and an acclaimed acting teacher, who founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and the The Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles with long-time protege Joanne Linville, who continues to teach and furthers Adler's legacy...

    , an actress and founder of the Stella Adler Conservatory in New York City.
  • Herbert Berghof
    Herbert Berghof
    Herbert Berghof was an Austrian American actor, director and acting coach. He co-founded HB Studio in New York City with his wife Uta Hagen in 1945...

    , founder of HB Studio
    HB Studio
    Founded in 1945 by Herbert Berghof, the HB Studio is a school that offers professional training in the performing arts. Located in Greenwich Village in New York City, its curriculum includes classes in a variety of areas, including acting, directing, playwrighting, screenwriting, musical theatre,...

     in New York City.
  • Uta Hagen
    Uta Hagen
    Uta Thyra Hagen was a German-born American actress and drama teacher. She originated the role of Martha in the 1963 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee...

    , an actress and the author of Respect for Acting and A Challenge for the Actor, who emphasized the techniques of identity and substitution.
  • Robert Lewis, an actor, director, co-founder of the Actors Studio
    Actors Studio
    The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided...

    , and author of Method—or Madness?

In fact, most post-1930 acting philosophies have been strongly influenced by Method acting, and it continues to be taught at schools around the world, including the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute
Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute
__notoc__The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute is an acting school located at 115 East 15th Street between Union Square East and Irving Place in the Union Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, as well as at 7936 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, California...

 in New York and Los Angeles, the Actors Studio Drama School in New York, the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York and Los Angeles, the Edgemar Center for the Arts
Edgemar Center for the Arts
Edgemar Center for the Arts is a sculptural and cultural complex and art school in Santa Monica, California that offers professional training in theatre, dance, music, film, and visual arts. It also provides acting classes by professional coaches, including Michelle Danner, who is also the artistic...

 in Santa Monica, Calif., HB Studio
HB Studio
Founded in 1945 by Herbert Berghof, the HB Studio is a school that offers professional training in the performing arts. Located in Greenwich Village in New York City, its curriculum includes classes in a variety of areas, including acting, directing, playwrighting, screenwriting, musical theatre,...

 in New York, Le Studio Jack Garfein
Jack Garfein
Jack Garfein, born July 2, 1930 in Mukacevo, Carpathian Ruthenia, Czechoslovakia, now Mukacheve, Ukraine, is an acting teacher and former motion picture and theater director....

 in Paris and American Conservatory Theater
American Conservatory Theater
American Conservatory Theater is a large non-profit theater company in San Francisco, California, that offers both classical and contemporary theater productions. A.C.T. was founded in 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Playhouse and Carnegie Tech by theatre and...

 in San Francisco.

Major books on Method acting

  • The Technique of Acting by Stella Adler
    Stella Adler
    Stella Adler was an American actress and an acclaimed acting teacher, who founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and the The Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles with long-time protege Joanne Linville, who continues to teach and furthers Adler's legacy...

  • Acting—The First Six Lessons by Richard Boleslavsky
  • To the Actor by Michael Chekhov
    Michael Chekhov
    Michael Chekhov was a Russian-American actor, director, author, and theatre practitioner. His acting technique has been used by actors such as Clint Eastwood, Marilyn Monroe, Yul Brynner, and Robert Stack. Constantin Stanislavski referred to him as his most brilliant student...

  • A Dream of Passion by Lee Strasberg
    Lee Strasberg
    Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...

  • Sanford Meisner on Acting by Sanford Meisner
    Sanford Meisner
    Sanford Meisner , also known as Sandy, was an American actor and acting teacher who developed a form of Method acting that is now known as the Meisner technique....

  • Method—or Madness? by Robert Lewis
  • Advice to the Players by Robert Lewis
  • Respect for Acting
    Respect for Acting
    Respect for Acting by actress and teacher Uta Hagen is a textbook used in many acting classes. Hagen's instructions and examples guide the aspiring actor through practical problems such as "How do I talk to the audience?" and "How do I stay fresh in a long run?" She advocates the actor's use of...

    by Uta Hagen
    Uta Hagen
    Uta Thyra Hagen was a German-born American actress and drama teacher. She originated the role of Martha in the 1963 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee...

  • No Acting Please by Eric Morris
    Eric Morris (actor)
    Eric Morris is an American acting teacher and actor who founded his own theory of acting based on the works of Lee Strasberg and Martin Landau...

     and Joan Hotchkis
    Joan Hotchkis
    Joan Hotchkis is an American stage, screen and television actress, writer and performance artist....

  • Strasberg's Method: As Taught by Lorrie Hull by S. Loraine Hull
  • Life and Acting: Techniques for the Actor by Jack Garfein
    Jack Garfein
    Jack Garfein, born July 2, 1930 in Mukacevo, Carpathian Ruthenia, Czechoslovakia, now Mukacheve, Ukraine, is an acting teacher and former motion picture and theater director....


Books on contemporary approaches to Method acting

  • The Intent to Live by Larry Moss
  • Dreamwork for Actors by Janet Sonenberg
  • O poetică a artei actorului by Ion Cojar
    Ion Cojar
    Ion Cojar was a Romanian theatre director and method acting professor at UNATC. He is the pioneer of the Romanian method acting school.-See also:* Ion Cojar * Stanislavski's system* Method acting...


External links

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