Method Acting Is Hollywood's Biggest Red Flag
Acting isn't just art, it's also a job.
There are a bunch of different acting techniques, but only one has become a persistent hot topic for its sheer extremity. In method acting, a performer loses themself in a character, fully embodying this persona even when the director calls “cut” and it’s time to grab some lunch or relax off the set. The idea is to deliver a lived-in portrayal of genuine emotions that’s as authentic as possible, but it comes at a high cost. Because while the character is being super-served, the overall environment must suffer.
It’s not difficult to imagine how frustrating it must be to work with an actor who refuses to break character (especially if that character is mean or meddlesome), and several movie stars have spoken out about the unique irritations of being on set with method actors. Recently, Anya Taylor-Joy — who’s worked with known method actors in the past — pointed out why the technique is most prominently employed by men, and rarely women.
“If you’ll notice, women don’t method act because we have things to take care of, so we can’t completely lose our minds,” Taylor-Joy told Complex. “I see acting as a controlled psychosis in a way. You’re pretending to be somebody else and having their thoughts 16 hours a day and moving like them, in their house, in their clothes ... But I can’t imagine keeping it up all the time.”
She went on to paint the picture of a soundstage full of various crew members who all have to bend to the whims of one method actor. “You’re going to work with hundreds of people and it is your responsibility to be good to them and to help them do their best job,” Taylor-Joy said. “If you’re too invested in being an assh*le, then that’s not gonna be very fun.”
Her last sentiment is one that fellow Dune star Robert Pattinson has also expressed in recent years. “I always say about people who do method acting, you only ever see people do the method when they’re playing an a–holes,” Pattinson said in 2019. “You never see someone being lovely to everyone while they’re really deep in character.”
Taylor-Joy and Pattinson are just two of the several A-list stars who have criticized method acting in recent years. Sebastian Stan has called the practice “irresponsible, narcissistic, [and] self-indulgent.” Will Poulter said method acting is often used as “an excuse for inappropriate behavior.” And Toni Collette has written it off as “total bullsh*t.”
It seems that the true problem at the core of the method technique is that it forces an actor to ignore a large part of their job on a film set. The method actor views acting purely as an artform, a noble sacrifice of self in service of a greater cultural pursuit. What they ignore is that acting is also a job. And jobs have coworkers, who you need to get along with in order to get the best possible work done.
