Is Lee Strasberg’s performance in Godfather II and example of Method acting? When I think of Method acting I think of someone doing a lot of emoting, like Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire. Strasberg’s performance as Hyman Roth, OTOH, is anything but emotional.
Mrs. Cheesesteak studied at the Strasberg institute at NYU, and thought Strasberg’s performance was an excellent example of Method acting. Rather than being over emotional, method acting should provide for a more realistic type of performance. The goal is to kind of live the life that the character is living, and react naturally to the situations, rather than trying to ACT like you think the character should act.
WRT to Brando and Streetcar, the Mrs. attributes that emotion to the directing and the concept behind the character, rather than Method acting itself.
You’d have to ask Lee Strasberg (thought you won’t get much of an answer, since he’s been dead for years) but it would seem unusual for one of the method’s proponents to not use it.
“Method Acting” has become a broad term, but what is basically means is to achieve a higher quality of acting by putting oneself in the psychological state of the character. Strasberg’s idea was tha tthe actor should make her/himself as close as possible to the emotional and motivational state of the character, and that would elicit a better performance. So instead of walking in front of the screen and acting angry, you actually make yourself angry, THEN go act angry.
There’s no particular reason why this means you have to overemote or chew scenery. Hyman Roth is not a character who is given to displays of emotion. Method acting that role would be trying to understand what Roth is thinking and attempting to do in each scene and putting oneself into that mindset before the cameras roll. If that calls for being cautious and guarded and deceitful, as Roth often is, then you would think of a time when you had to be cautious, guarded and deceitful, and try to make yourself feel as you did then. You can then react to the scene in a realistic manner.
Bear in mind that Roth is a guy who apparently just wants to dine on his TV tray at home, even though he’s a wealthy and powerful gangster. Does that seem like the sort of person who ought to be having big displays of emotion?
Plus he was sickly ("I’d give four million just to be able to take a piss without it hurting ") and when he did get worked up when confronting Michael he did that spastic breathing thing and seemed to be on the verge of something not so good happening. Better to keep his emotions in check.
On a semi-related note, when I think of that scene I can’t help but think of John Lovitz in City Slickers - 2.
Lovitz’s character is the doofus brother of one of the leads who evidently had memorized large chunks of dialogue from the Godfather films. Goaded on despite the protestations of I think Billy Crystal, Lovitz launches into the soliloquy from that scene and now it’s hard for me to separate the two.
Surely I’m not the only one with this problem.
I think that it was one of many truly landmark performances that Coppola got out of his actors in I and II. Pacino, Castellano, Kirby, Strassberg and of course the immortal Cazale. (Brando was okay too.) Any of these performances are among the best ever done on film.
I don’t know if his performance is better because of his acting style, but I do like that he doesn’t play Roth as the stereotypical old Jewish man.
Whenever I talk to other lawyers about how tough and time-consuming legal practice is, I say it’s not worth whining about – either deal or don’t, because “this is the business we’ve chosen.” So far, nobody’s picked up on it.
–Cliffy
Has anyone seen Al Pacino’s “And Justice For All”? Strasberg plays Pacino’s senile grandfather in that picture, who’s gentle, but keeps repeating himself.
“So…it’s another week already…”
When he introduces Pacino to his friends at the home, he says, “This is my grandson. He’s studying to be a lawer.” Pacino’s been a lawyer for something like 14 years already.
“So…it’s another week already…”
Strasberg was a great, great actor.