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Method Acting

A background of method acting

Actors before the turn of the 20th century were very phony, they would often emote they would have long and drawn out emotions and it often was shown as fake and not realistic. At the turn of the 20th century created by Russian theater operator Konstantin Stanislavski created a method where actors would draw from their own emotions and go deep into their childhood traumas and memories to create a much more realistic and nuanced performance it came to America in the 1930's and was bought in by Stella Adler, Sandford Meisner, and Lee Strausberg.

Marlon Brando in the trailer for A Streetcar Named Desire. Playing the vicious brute Stanley Kowalski a film that changed acting forever.

The first time it was ever seen on film was in 1951's A Streetcar Named Desire by young actor Marlon Brando . Changing the course of acting forever, with his portayl more male actors wanted to be seen as masculine not fine and polished. With method acting it inspired more realistic films than the phoniness of the actors before. It also inspires actors to draw from their own experiences, to become the character rather than to just be yourself you become the character when you act you don't just play yourself actors like Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, and Al Pacino exemplified that example. One of the most famous method actors is Daniel Day Lewis however he takes his roles very seriously and knows after production he gets out of character. Jared Leto is an example of a method actor who takes it to far by his antics on set of Suicide Squad by sending dead rats and reportedly used condoms to his co-stars. Method Acting can be an effective tool for actors to portray a believable and honest character yet it can be used for good and it can be used for bad.

The Psychology of Method Acting

Primary Emotions consist of,

Anger

Sadness

Disgust

Happiness

Suprise

and

Contempt

Secondary Emotions Consist of

Remorse

Guilt

Submission

Shame

Love

Bitterness

and

Jealousy

Actors need to be able to portray a wide and varying array of emotions which is why many actors are so well versed in psychology is because Actors need to use psychological aspects of their character and make it seem believable such as Joaquin Phoenix in joker he slimmed down to a startling 126 pounds looking near emaciated in the process of filming, yet he looked and he was able to act deeply disturbed portraying multiple facets of Arthur Fleck a man with Pseudo-bulbar Affect A condition which makes him laugh uncontrollably. Or another famous method actor Christian Bale he reportedly lost 70 pounds and went down to a frail 126 pounds for his role in the machinist making the production worry about his mental health and sanity. He then regained 90 pounds to play Batman in Batman Begins.

Method acting takes a personal approach to portraying a character, they often will choose a character based on many different reasons depending on the actor and what the role could potentially require of them. "Possible selves are “manifestations of enduring goals, aspirations, motives, fears, threats and fantasies” (p. 954). Specifically, in acting, this pertains to the exploration of a role, as it might relate to an investigation of elements within the actor’s own personality, as well as research about somebody else (a created character) and a fantasy connection to that character. According to Markus and Nurius (1986), the idea of possible selves might also represent specific fantasies that actors might live out when embodying a role (see Doyle, 2013 on her observations about acting rehearsals and role creation). As an actor myself I often will pull from my own experiences, yet actors will often use some form of mimicry for a character. Almost every actor I know has a different method to get into character most actors who are playing the antagonist aren't staying in character for long periods of time as it could begin to blur the lines and actors could think they are that character such as Jared Leto in Suicide Squad. Actors on that set had said he was not fun to work with as he would send disgusting gifts saying they were from the joker.

Actors need to have a slight ego to them they need to be real. Actors can have a form of narcissism that could manifest itself as actors are often attention seeking you need to have that slight edge of narcissism as an actor to play a wide range of characters. Actors are often egotistical they need to have some form of grandiosity to be who they are, they want admiration and attention as actors they want to be looked at as good and powerful you need to have an ego bought to the stage and screen you need a presence. Yet they often score quite low when compared to others. according to Psy Post. “the intimate and cooperative social interactions involved in acting repel such individuals.” You do need to have a presence it's not easy as well with method acting it's useful yet without personality and flare to pull in it doesn't often work. Actors are known to project just look at all of the things supporting actors and actresses.

Acting and The Job

Actors have a stressful job quite often, which if you are the lead of the play you need to be able to bring in a multi figure salaries which for someone like Tom Cruise or Leonardo Dicaprio is something that isn't very hard to do. Yet for the newer actors like myself it makes it much harder to do than you'd think, even just getting your foot in the audition room to potentially play the lead character is very hard to do, you need to be the leader the pressure is on you to play the lead not to end up playing a shell of a leading man. Method acting is a useful tool to being the leading male actor in theater production, student, or blockbuster film.

Theater is one of the best ways to play an leading man without going straight to the big stage on Broadway. Actors often can play a wide range of characters on stage and off stage, as actors you need to be able to play a wide range of characters some actors will often play two characters on stage. As actors in film however only around 6% of the world will make it big as actors leading to issues with stress and mental health. Many actors due to the stress of the world often will give up and leave the profession of acting. The audition is the scariest part for most actors in the world your going up against often times 1,000 or more people and they are only looking for one actor. Actors are quite often more than not hate the audition process, a solution to that is taking audition classes and working harder than next time to get the part.