Andrew Garfield comes forward as method acting defender
"I’m kind of bothered by this idea that 'method acting is fucking bullshit,'" he tells Marc Maron
Aux News Andrew Garfield
If there’s one debate that has occupied the film world in recent years, it’s Marvel vs. Cinema. But if there’s another, it’s: “Is method acting okay?” The question has mainly arisen after certain performers gave The Method a bad name for doing stuff like mailing co-stars condoms and pretending to be disabled between takes.
Stars including Brian Cox, David Harbour, and Mads Mikkelsen have all disavowed the practice. But on a new episode of WTF With Marc Maron, Andrew Garfield came to its defense. “There [have] been a lot of misconceptions about what method acting is, I think,” he said. “People are still acting in that way, and it’s not about being an asshole to everyone on set. It’s actually just about living truthfully under imagined circumstances, and being really nice to the crew simultaneously, and being a normal human being, and being able to drop it when you need to and staying in it when you want to stay in it.”
He continued, “I’m kind of bothered by the misconception, I’m kind of bothered by this idea that ‘method acting is fucking bullshit.’ No, I don’t think you know what method acting is if you’re calling it bullshit, or you just worked with someone who claims to be a method actor who isn’t actually acting the method at all.”
The bottom line here (as in most things) is that you can do whatever you want as long as you’re not being a jerk to others. In fact, Garfield advocates not letting others in on your method at all: “It’s also very private. I don’t want people to see the fucking pipes of my toilet. I don’t want them to see how I’m making the sausage.”
It would definitely be less controversial if method actors weren’t bothering anyone else on set, but there’s still a bit of a concern that going method might be dangerous to the actor themselves–in extreme roles, it can be a form of personal torture, mentally or physically. Garfield hasn’t had a problem in that regard, even during his intense fasts for Martin Scorsese’s Silence. “It was very cool, man,” he claimed. “I had some pretty wild, trippy experiences from starving myself of sex and food at that time.” Well, as long as he’s having fun…?
64 Comments
Method acting is fucking bullshit. I don’t care what you’re bothered by, ya little jerkoff.
Ooooh, you really got him.
What experience do you have with it?
The usual: I never drop the accent, even between scenes, used condoms all around, everyone has to call me “Mr. Lincoln” at all times even though I’m playing Mark Antony.
Sooooo, no experience at all then. Bye.
I don’t want people to see the fucking pipes of my toilet. I don’t want them to see how I’m making the sausage.Kind of an ill-considered pair of examples
Maybe he’s playing Super Mario?
Yet not terribly far off.
Why, where does your sausage end up?
If I really enjoy it I wait for second harvest.
Ask your momBurn
That’s some primo username/comment synergy right there. Have a star.
well played LOL
Just going to refer to shitting as “making the sausage” from now on
Every time this debate comes up the only actor I think I could defend using it is Daniel Day Lewis. Dude let his teeth rot and built a cabin.
You mean he’s playing Jack White?
He’s right. A lot of actors, if not the majority, employ techniques for eliciting and bringing emotional memories into one’s performances which were cornerstones of the early champions and teachers of The Method. It’s very ironic that such an internal process has a broad public conception built on the people who externalize it through outlandish behavior which media outlets pounce on so quickly.
Kinda weird that it’s becoming another part of the culture wars, too. Like, judging from this article, are we supposed to now hate Andrew Garfield for defending method acting? Is everyone who criticizes it a hero? Just tell me where I’m supposed to direct my anger today because honestly I’m a bit out of the loop.
we need method man’s take before we can decide where to be angry!
you don’t have to direct it anywhere man. no one is asking you to do anything. maybe you should stop approaching articles assuming that “annoyed defensiveness” is the posture you have to approach them with.
I know this site no longer acknowledges a world where we can understand that both good and bad come from the Method, depending on its interpretation, but *we* can still live in that world.
And the outlandish behavior thing seems to stem more from ego than acting, since they almost never have anything to do with working on a scene. Even if it’s something harmless, like Lady Gaga not dropping her accent for months while shooting House of Gucci, it’s silly, and for a musician-turned-actress who’s relatively newer to the craft, it shows the wrong lessons younger artists are learning about Method.
Eh, accents are pretty hard to learn and maintain. Part of acting naturally is pulling off as much as you can with little effort or muscle memory. Something like practicing in off hours makes total sense, and her maintaining the accent imposes little on others.
Yeah the Method is just “try to feel like the character would feel”, as opposed to an external approach of “what is the best way to look angry”.
Please watch the “Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond ” documentary about how Jim Carrey’s method acting was a nightmare.
I feel like “method acting” is approaching “fan-service,” “politically correct” and “socialist” as phrases that are just so overused as to have little meaning.
So long as people aren’t hurting others, let them have their process. I’m a big fan of David Harbour and Mads, son of Mikkel, but they couldn’t carry Brando and DDL’s acting jocks if you gave them a suitcase. Heath Ledger got himself to a space where he gave one of the all-time great performances in cinema history. He is no more to blame for Leto taking that into deeply weird and offensive territory than Elvis is to blame for every fat-ass pathetic impersonator.Anyway, just give me good performances and be decent. Otherwise, fuck off.
You forgot, “Jimminy-jillickers”…
By the sounds of it, I don’t think he understands what method acting actually is.
Other than fun Hollywood anecdotes (“maybe he should try acting”), has there really been a big backlash against method acting as a technique?My impression has been that the problem people have is with using “method” as an excuse to treat people like garbage.
“Other than fun Hollywood anecdotes (“maybe he should try acting”), has there really been a big backlash against method acting as a technique?”
What do you think backlash is?
honestly it felt like this “debate” had pretty much disappeared until the interview with Jeremy Strong exposed his method acting “method” (pats self on back), followed in short order by acting king Brian Cox’s epic response to said method.
He is correct. The common perception of what Method acting is…is bullshit. But then, that misconception has been repeated so much, the definition has changed. So he’s right and wrong. I guess? I dunno. I just know he shouldn’t be making sausages in his toilet.
I agreed with his first point, but then his second point about starving himself for a role does seem a bit extreme. like it’s his decision, but it just seems like a Hollywood parody when you hear performers doing things like that.But more seriously, I remember reading how Christina Ricci ate nothing of nutritional value and the group sex scenes were very painful and felt like she was being assaulted in Black Snake Moan, and it just makes you feel like someone should step in when the performer confuses that for method. That sounds like not a safe place to work.
“like it’s his decision, but”
Nonono, no “but”. It’s his decision, PERIOD.
Yeah, him publicly talking about the physical torment he put himself through kinda contradict’s his point about it being a very private process he doesn’t want people to know about. But, the fact is, a lot of actors wear that self-inflicted suffering as a badge of honor. It is silly human nature. See how much pain I’m in? Look how hard I worked!
It’s funny to imagine a cadre of people who want screen acting in 2022 to resemble screen/stage acting in the 1920s or 1930s, before “the method” became mainstream.
There’s always going to be a “thinking actor” part of a performer’s brain that’s processing the logistics of the scene, thinking about lines, blocking, timing and rhythm, the arc of their performance, etc. A good actor balances that with the “character” part of their brain that is experiencing the scene in the moment. You can be Method and still navigate those waters.This weird notion among a handful of extremely elite actors that they can only do their job if they are completely subsumed by their character 24/7, that they can’t respond unless called by their character’s name, that they are obliged to behave like their jackass characters outside of the scene, is such an absurd form of insecure self-wankery. And they may get away with it because they happen to be very gifted actors, but the notion that they can’t walk and chew bubble gum at the same time is eye-rolling.Whenever this Method stuff comes up I always think about this Thomas F. Wilson talking about working with Eric Stoltz on Back to the Future, and how he was super Method, insisting everyone call him Marty, except of course for Lea Thompson who he happened to want to bone.
I’m all for method acting if it’s
A) an important role, not just important to youB) if it doesn’t put you at serious physical and/or mental riskChristian Bale turning himself into a skeleton for The Machinist, while effective, was just painful to look at and is lucky he didn’t cause and serious or permanent organ and muscle damage.Jared Leto carrying-on on and off set, pulling disgusting practical jokes for Joker and being an insufferable asshole pretending to be a cripple for Morbius is probably the biggest reason why many people find method acting bullshit.
The lesson here is Jared Leto ruined method acting for everyone. Andrew Garfield is 100% right about how internal it is, and the last thing it should be doing is getting movies bad press. I love method acting, and I’ve got the same guidelines you do, which is why it’s important to have that third:
C) Don’t use it as an excuse to be a dick to the people you’re working with
yeah Bale took it to an extreme that was actually dangerous. He seriously looked like a concentration camp prisoner.
Losing weight for a role is NOT method, it is just losing weight for a role.
“A) an important role, not just important to you
I’m sorry, but who exactly decides that?
I dunno, I think Heath Ledger is probably the more cautionary tale. Leto basically uses “method” to excuse his assholic tendencies. Ledger basically ended up dying because he drove himself too close to actual insanity – the mental version of what Christian Bale does to his body in every movie.
People’s fantasies about mental health are wild. Heath Ledger didn’t method-act his way into “madness.” He overdosed on pills that he was prescribed for the mundane stress of a grueling and relentless schedule.
so you’re saying Sir Ian is NOT a fan of method acting LOL. When I watch him I imagine Laurence Olivier’s quote to Dustin Hoffman for Marathon Man being said in his voice and it’s epic.he’s not a national treasure, he’s a GLOBAL treasure.
Roughly 90% of the hatred of method acting these days comes from stories of whatever new dipshittery Jared Leto did while play acting as “method” on his latest film.
Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the modern kings of method acting but every story about him is that he is not hard to work with and very nice to the crew. He just gets really into character. That is fine. The problem is those who use their “method” to act like assholes. Aka The Jared Leto approach.
I don’t know if this rates as “asshole,” but the fact that he apparently said no to Spielberg when the latter mentioned that Obama was asking if he could visit because it’d be two presidents on set. The first Black American president should’ve been able to visit… Mind, I don’t remember where I read this.
yeah he seems like an asshole. Spielberg shouldve said “im the boss, you get overruled.”
During the filming of My Left Foot Daniel Day-Lewis refused to do anything his character couldn’t do, which included making crew carry him around the set and feed him by hand. Feels kind of “asshole” to me.
Method acting, fine. Using method acting as as an excuse to be an asshole, not fine.
I believe it’s a case by case basis. It depends on the people and their tolerance level. I believe Jared Leto is an example of taking method acting too far, but doesn’t represent it as a whole. Some people can tolerate it, others can get annoyed by it. Seldom does it ever result in major blowups. Martin Freeman is not a fan of method acting while his costar at the time Benedict Cumberbatch uses it. That wasn’t the reason why they had a fued, but I’m sure it didn’t help. Andrew Garfield included in his statement that it’s also about being able to drop it when you need to and staying in it when you want to stay in it. If he was playing Freddy Krueger, I would give him the benefit of the doubt that he would know when to drop the child killer/teen slasher maniac persona when it was lunchtime and people just want to eat and relax.
I think it’s just a matter of common sense of how far to take it. When an actor is off the clock but is still “in character,” they need to know when to scale it back or stop when they’re coworkers tell them to cut the bullshit.
There’s definitely different schools of Method, certainly. The Jared Leto one takes it too far.The Jim Carrey one (that he used on Man in the Moon) I find interesting in that he was using the opportunity to be another person as escapism from a life where he felt trapped playing a character 24/7 for the media/cameras. If anything he needed therapy.One thing worth noting too mind is that Method was conceived for the theatre, not for the cinema. As a theatrical technique it makes a lot of sense because you’re on for several hours straight every night, and I can see why an actor wouldn’t want to lose their intensity. But a film set is not a theatre production so it doesn’t map 1:1.
My dear Spider-Boy, why don’t you just try acting?
Thank you!You just completed my Method bingo line.Danny Day Lewis.Brando.Not dropping accents between filming.Jare Leto being an arsehole.And Finally Larry Olivier’s quote !
Had to be done.
Firsties!
CancerAIDS!
Why not both?
Sir, this is an Arby’s!
You guessed it . . . Frank Stallone!
Not with that attitude you won’t!
Dawes!
Grooming!
I kind of think its bullshit, but as long as the final result is good, does it matter? As long as youre not a jerkoff about it like Jared Leto or Daniel Day Lewis.
exactly. This “debate” is a manufactured tempest in a teapot. Should Jared Leto or anyone else be allowed to be a dickhead under the pretense of “method acting”? No, but he’s not gonna change and those people’s lives will go on in spite of that trauma.
I almost feel bad that all these other famous method actors like Brando, DDL, Leto, and now Garfield are being discussed while the guy who really IMO revived the debate recently, Jeremy Strong, is over here waving his hand for attention like “uh, hello? remember me?” LOL the plight of the character actor.
It’s funny how you never hear a story about an actor being method for a character who is a nice person.
Why are all method actors playing angry people?
I thought Brian Cox’s take was less “Method acting is bullshit” and more “Jeremy Strong is annoying to work with.”
Bro do you even read Stanislavsky?