# "Method" Directing / Getting an Actor's Performance By Real-Life Constraints **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 19, 2016, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/method-directing-getting-an-actors-performance-by-real-life-constraints/769013 "2016-10-19T06:20:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2016, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/method-directing-getting-an-actors-performance-by-real-life-constraints/769013/41 "2016-11-19T06:07:47Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I can think of three cases where it might be a good idea: > > 1. The actor is an idiot and can’t be trusted to interpret how a real human should act. > 2. The actor isn’t a very good actor and will broadcast everything, every time he’s on screen. > 3. The actor’s vision of how the scene should play out differs from the director’s, and he refuses to play it any other way than his own. > [@](#): > > Even if you trust that the actors can act, disregarding all information. If you give them that information, suddenly you’re hostage to their directorial abilities. Heh. I only just stumbled across this, in IMDB’s trivia for “The Last of Sheila”: to get the right performance out of Raquel Welch, she was told that – just like Dyan Cannon is playing a Sue Mengers type, and James Coburn is playing an Orson Welles type, and Richard Benjamin is playing an Anthony Perkins type – _her_ character was written as a thinly-veiled Ann-Margret type. So make with the unflattering portrayal and ham it up, lady! Just get out there and do an insulting riff on Ann-Margret! Yeah, the character was based on Raquel Welch. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2016, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/method-directing-getting-an-actors-performance-by-real-life-constraints/769013/42 "2016-11-20T08:27:00Z")
I think it makes sense to not let other people know who the killer is. But the killer probably should know. I think that idea that it’s okay if the character also wouldn’t know is a good dividing line. That also works for the “surprise” aspect. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2016, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/method-directing-getting-an-actors-performance-by-real-life-constraints/769013/43 "2016-11-20T08:48:11Z")
Meh. For me, it’s infinitely easier to just…act. I can understand doing some research…this is how one holds a scalpel, or performs some other action defined in the script…but otherwise, I don’t need to go to medical school to play a doctor. I don’t care for the various forms of warm up exercises some performers use, either. I need a little bit of alone time to get ready to perform, but that’s my process. I don’t begrudge other actors their process. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2016, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/method-directing-getting-an-actors-performance-by-real-life-constraints/769013/44 "2016-11-20T09:46:58Z")
All this crap just seems tiresome and childish, part of a trivial attitude to life. Hitchcock must have been an odious little boy. Plus his films are over-rated. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/method-directing-getting-an-actors-performance-by-real-life-constraints/769013/45 "2016-11-21T02:49:21Z")
> [@eunoia](#): > > Sorta meta but Richard Rush’s The Stunt Man [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081568/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081568/) has Peter O’Toole brilliantly portraying such a director. An excellent example from that film of directorial subterfuge comes at 1:30: Mephistophelian director played by Peter O'Toole (who'd'a thunk?) pep talks actor Barbara Hershey into showing shame for next scene, and just before the cameras roll, he tells her in a sort of "a little aside" fashion that unfortunately one of the rushes that her parents saw had a nude scene with her in it, and then he reiterates, with a whisper, \*shame\*, and walks away, saying action. Yeah I’d call that a douchey play, and a breach of any trust that those characters may have established. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/method-directing-getting-an-actors-performance-by-real-life-constraints/769013.md?page=2)