I’ve heard of “method acting”, which I understand to mean that an actor embodies a character throughout the production (and not just when performing scenes), with the goal of actually experiencing the emotions of the character. I believe that James Dean was a notable practitioner.
Are there other types or schools of acting besides “method”? Or is it simply a case that typical acting consists of “pretend to be another person by delivering lines in a scene”, and so method is just a deviation from this norm, and there aren’t actually a multitude of styles?
Dustin Hoffman has long been known as one of method acting’s most earnest exponents. A showbiz story involves his collaboration with Laurence Olivier on the 1976 film Marathon Man. Upon being asked by his co-star how a previous scene had gone, one in which Hoffmann’s character had supposedly stayed up for three days, Hoffmann admitted that he too had not slept for 72 hours to achieve emotional verisimilitude. “My dear boy,” replied Olivier smoothly, “why don’t you just try acting?” (Hoffman subsequently attributed his insomnia to excessive partying rather than artistry).
Method acting today has expanded a lot since Srasberg,Adler, and Meisner. I took a few theater classes for fun. Our acting teacher use Meisner’s book.
I liked the British training. They work from the outside and then inward. It starts with costume, the haircut and maybe a personal prop. Then they begin working on the emotional connection. I saw a great interview with Anthony Hopkins describing his training. Method acting - Wikipedia
As already stated, there are plenty of acting approaches other than “Method.” I think of “method” acting as more trying to actually physically experience the same things your character does, in order to have a true and real reaction to them. The idea of “staying in character all the time,” which I think is more the public perception of Method acting, is kind of a bastardization of that.
The Acting I textbook in my college class was “Respect For Acting” by Uta Hagen. One of the main takeaways I got from that was “sense memory” - you take something your character is experiencing and relate that to something similar from your past, and by experiencing that memory again your senses (and therefore your performance) will react in a true way. I consider that different from going out and trying to create those experiences during the rehearsal/filming process, but mileages may vary.
And there’s also the “let’s just pretend to be different people” approach, reflected by Olivier’s purported quote to Hoffman mentioned above.
I am not an actor but found A Practical Handbook for the Actor fascinating. It is based on an acting course conducted by David Mamet and William H. Macy.
Mamet’s introduction, which you can read in the Amazon preview, begins:
Most acting training is based on shame and guilt. If you have studied acting, you have been asked to do exercises you didn’t understand, and when you did them, as your teacher adjudged, badly, you submitted guiltily to the criticism. You have also been asked to do exercises you did understand, but whose application to the craft of acting escaped you, and you were ashamed to ask that their usefulness be explained.
As you did these exercises it seemed that everyone around you understood their purpose but you—so, guiltily, you learned to pretend. You learned to pretend to “smell the coffee” when doing sensory exercises. You learned to pretend that the “mirror exercise” was demanding, and that doing it well would somehow make you more attuned on stage. You learned to pretend to “hear the music with your toes,” and to “use the space.”