The Method
 |
Description
Book Introduction
From the 19th-century Russian “system” to the 20th-century American “method”
How the Acting Revolution Changed the World
A surprising, ever-changing, confusing, and controversial acting technique
The only book on the history of method!
*** Winner of the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award
*** 2022 Book of the Year by Time, The New Yorker, and San Francisco Chronicle
*** 2022 Vox, Salon, Lit Hub Book of the Year
“The Method is not simply a theory of acting or a solid method that makes you cry as soon as the director gives you a cue.
It is a modern art movement that brought about change and revolution, and a great idea of the 20th century.
Like atonal music, modernist architecture, and abstract art, “systems” and methods offered new ways of imagining human experience that would change the way we see the world and ourselves.” _From the introduction
Anyone who likes movies, plays, and actors has probably heard the word 'method' at least once.
Method is a term used to describe a state in which an actor becomes one with the character he or she is playing.
Even if it is not specifically referred to as method acting, it is safe to say that method acting is a foundation of modern acting to some extent.
The emergence of method was called a 'revolution in acting' because it changed not only the approach to acting but also the concept of acting in people's minds.
However, the method is also a controversial technique.
Because some of the methods used to elicit emotions made the actors mentally unhealthy.
Author Isaac Butler, a critic and director, was a child actor and once a young actor who fell in love with the Method.
However, he eventually quit acting and turned to directing because it was not easy for him to manage the emotions required for acting.
This experience led him to question the acting technique known as the Method, and led him to write this book, Method.
Butler took the Method out of its frame as a story of a few legendary geniuses or the bizarre acting techniques of a few star actors, and created a new cultural history in which the Method itself is the main character.
He argues that methods have parents, and that to properly understand methods and the debates surrounding them, we need to see them in the context of the times and cultural context in which they lived.
This book explores how the acting philosophy that originated in pre-revolutionary Russia made its way to the United States, conquering Broadway and Hollywood and ushering in a new era in American acting.
How the Acting Revolution Changed the World
A surprising, ever-changing, confusing, and controversial acting technique
The only book on the history of method!
*** Winner of the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award
*** 2022 Book of the Year by Time, The New Yorker, and San Francisco Chronicle
*** 2022 Vox, Salon, Lit Hub Book of the Year
“The Method is not simply a theory of acting or a solid method that makes you cry as soon as the director gives you a cue.
It is a modern art movement that brought about change and revolution, and a great idea of the 20th century.
Like atonal music, modernist architecture, and abstract art, “systems” and methods offered new ways of imagining human experience that would change the way we see the world and ourselves.” _From the introduction
Anyone who likes movies, plays, and actors has probably heard the word 'method' at least once.
Method is a term used to describe a state in which an actor becomes one with the character he or she is playing.
Even if it is not specifically referred to as method acting, it is safe to say that method acting is a foundation of modern acting to some extent.
The emergence of method was called a 'revolution in acting' because it changed not only the approach to acting but also the concept of acting in people's minds.
However, the method is also a controversial technique.
Because some of the methods used to elicit emotions made the actors mentally unhealthy.
Author Isaac Butler, a critic and director, was a child actor and once a young actor who fell in love with the Method.
However, he eventually quit acting and turned to directing because it was not easy for him to manage the emotions required for acting.
This experience led him to question the acting technique known as the Method, and led him to write this book, Method.
Butler took the Method out of its frame as a story of a few legendary geniuses or the bizarre acting techniques of a few star actors, and created a new cultural history in which the Method itself is the main character.
He argues that methods have parents, and that to properly understand methods and the debates surrounding them, we need to see them in the context of the times and cultural context in which they lived.
This book explores how the acting philosophy that originated in pre-revolutionary Russia made its way to the United States, conquering Broadway and Hollywood and ushering in a new era in American acting.
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index
Introduction: Method, the great idea that shook the 20th century
Act 1.
Kingdom of Dreams
Chapter 1 Mr. Stanislavsky, are you in Moscow?
Chapter 2: People Find New Answers in New Works
Chapter 3 [The Seagull] Performance, Great Success, Endless Curtain Calls
Chapter 4: Inspiration Lives in the Superconscious
Chapter 5 “The System” is just a ‘Stanislavsky Disease’
Chapter 6 I Need a New Extreme
Chapter 7 Do you know the secret of art?
Act 2.
Solidarity
Chapter 8: I Saw a 'Real Person' on Stage
Chapter 9: Strasberg, Adler, Clurman, and the Sprouts of the Method
Chapter 10 I really like this work
Chapter 11: The Soviet Stage Makes People Cry
Chapter 12: "Emotional Memory" is neither the starting point nor the core.
Chapter 13: A Powerful Voice Representing the Times
Chapter 14: Towards Hollywood, the Dream Factory
Chapter 15: A New and Unfamiliar Actor, Marlon Brando
Chapter 16 British Acting vs.
American-style acting
Act 3.
monstrous being
Chapter 17: The McCarthy Surge in Hollywood
Chapter 18: From Method to Method
Chapter 19: Is James Dean a Carbon Copy of Marlon Brando?
Chapter 20: The Method Is Ruining American Actors
Chapter 21: The London Disaster at the Actors Studio Theatre
Chapter 22 How on earth do you act in front of a machine?
Chapter 23: Another Standard of the Method, Robert De Niro
Chapter 24: The Different Forms of Good Acting
Going Out: Methods and the Future
Acknowledgements
main
References
Copyright of the painting
Search
Act 1.
Kingdom of Dreams
Chapter 1 Mr. Stanislavsky, are you in Moscow?
Chapter 2: People Find New Answers in New Works
Chapter 3 [The Seagull] Performance, Great Success, Endless Curtain Calls
Chapter 4: Inspiration Lives in the Superconscious
Chapter 5 “The System” is just a ‘Stanislavsky Disease’
Chapter 6 I Need a New Extreme
Chapter 7 Do you know the secret of art?
Act 2.
Solidarity
Chapter 8: I Saw a 'Real Person' on Stage
Chapter 9: Strasberg, Adler, Clurman, and the Sprouts of the Method
Chapter 10 I really like this work
Chapter 11: The Soviet Stage Makes People Cry
Chapter 12: "Emotional Memory" is neither the starting point nor the core.
Chapter 13: A Powerful Voice Representing the Times
Chapter 14: Towards Hollywood, the Dream Factory
Chapter 15: A New and Unfamiliar Actor, Marlon Brando
Chapter 16 British Acting vs.
American-style acting
Act 3.
monstrous being
Chapter 17: The McCarthy Surge in Hollywood
Chapter 18: From Method to Method
Chapter 19: Is James Dean a Carbon Copy of Marlon Brando?
Chapter 20: The Method Is Ruining American Actors
Chapter 21: The London Disaster at the Actors Studio Theatre
Chapter 22 How on earth do you act in front of a machine?
Chapter 23: Another Standard of the Method, Robert De Niro
Chapter 24: The Different Forms of Good Acting
Going Out: Methods and the Future
Acknowledgements
main
References
Copyright of the painting
Search
Detailed image
Into the book
Acting is a strange and mysterious thing.
Anyone who watches Hollywood movies—or rather, almost everyone—spends an enormous amount of time talking and thinking about the actors.
We know the actors' private lives inside out.
We watch the actors' movements to get people talking about the hot topics of the day.
They consistently evaluate actors and give out awards that would fill a car trunk to those who deliver outstanding performances.
But when pressed to explain what good acting actually is, it's common to break out in a sweat and struggle to articulate it properly.
Even critics like us, who are supposed to be professionals who discuss art in depth, often resort to clichés like “persuasive,” “highly artistic,” “charismatic,” and “highly realistic.”
(…) most are more likely to apply Justice Potter Stewart's famous remarks on obscenity:
'You can tell great acting when you see it.' But how do you see great acting?
--- p.13~14
One day, while on tour playing the role of Stockmann in An Enemy of the People, he realized that he was just going through the motions, performing the role mechanically and without any realism.
The inspiration, the soul of the character, has disappeared.
He later said, “I imitated actions that came from innocence, but I was not naive.
“I moved my feet quickly and briskly, but I failed to sense the urgency within me that should have caused my quick steps,” he wrote.
Several of these works were performed by Stanislavsky over the years.
As time passed, it was natural for acting to become a part of my daily life.
But settling for routine was something he could not bear, a betrayal of art itself.
--- p.114~115
The Method—everyone started using a capital M when referring to the Method—was now the acting fad in America.
(…) As Strasberg's method spread through American actors, battle lines were being drawn between the old and the new, between Strasberg's version of the Stanislavsky method and the version taught by the group's old rivals.
(…) Even after the group's dissolution and the decade that followed, neither Stella Adler nor Sanford Meisner's views on Lee Strasberg had softened one bit.
Although all three teachers shared the same belief in "experiencing," Stella and Sanford saw Strasberg as a fraud who propagated a theory of acting that was not only harmful but also unhelpful.
--- p.419
A running joke on Broadway in the 1950s involved a confrontation between writer/producer/director George Abbott, best known for "The Pajama Game" and "Damn Yankees," and a method actor.
One day during rehearsal, Abbott instructed an actor to cross the stage.
When the actor asked, “But what motivates me to do that?” Abbott replied,
“Your bread and butter!” The meaning behind this joke is clear.
These people who are stuck in the method only care about themselves, so they can't act or don't act.
(…) After Marlon Brando appeared in “Fast and Furious,” the Actors Studio and Method became symbols of the rebellious spirit that was brewing among disaffected white American youth.
Brando's convincing performance spawned countless imitators.
(…) “Marlon is Marlon.
But all the Xerox copies called themselves Brando from the Actors Studio.
Damn it!” James Dean may have been one of these copies, but he still had a huge impact on American culture and the way we view the Method.
--- p.440~441
After De Niro, the two forms of Method diverged almost completely.
As elaborate narratives of preparation, research, and physical transformation became staples of media and awards campaigns, the method became synonymous with a baroque style of acting where actors inhabit characters, transform their bodies completely, and refuse to stop once they start acting on set.
When Spy magazine ran a lengthy, in-depth article about New York acting teachers in 1988, its author, Jay Martel, listed dozens of examples of Method overuse.
They were all modified versions based on De Niro's obsessive preparation process and physical transformation.
(…) The examples that appear one after another are nothing less than a collection of bizarre behaviors in the name of serving great art.
--- p.552~553
Looking at this new world, methods may seem to have died, perhaps even lost their effectiveness and become ineffective forever.
(…) You can find the “system” and the children of the “system” there.
You can find them everywhere in American culture.
Because it has become the foundation of how we think about acting, dramatic interpretation of text, and the truth of what it means to be human.
The method that still teaches, misunderstands, defends, and slanders exists and does not exist here at the same time.
It hovers above our heads, always present, yet never visible to our eyes.
Anyone who watches Hollywood movies—or rather, almost everyone—spends an enormous amount of time talking and thinking about the actors.
We know the actors' private lives inside out.
We watch the actors' movements to get people talking about the hot topics of the day.
They consistently evaluate actors and give out awards that would fill a car trunk to those who deliver outstanding performances.
But when pressed to explain what good acting actually is, it's common to break out in a sweat and struggle to articulate it properly.
Even critics like us, who are supposed to be professionals who discuss art in depth, often resort to clichés like “persuasive,” “highly artistic,” “charismatic,” and “highly realistic.”
(…) most are more likely to apply Justice Potter Stewart's famous remarks on obscenity:
'You can tell great acting when you see it.' But how do you see great acting?
--- p.13~14
One day, while on tour playing the role of Stockmann in An Enemy of the People, he realized that he was just going through the motions, performing the role mechanically and without any realism.
The inspiration, the soul of the character, has disappeared.
He later said, “I imitated actions that came from innocence, but I was not naive.
“I moved my feet quickly and briskly, but I failed to sense the urgency within me that should have caused my quick steps,” he wrote.
Several of these works were performed by Stanislavsky over the years.
As time passed, it was natural for acting to become a part of my daily life.
But settling for routine was something he could not bear, a betrayal of art itself.
--- p.114~115
The Method—everyone started using a capital M when referring to the Method—was now the acting fad in America.
(…) As Strasberg's method spread through American actors, battle lines were being drawn between the old and the new, between Strasberg's version of the Stanislavsky method and the version taught by the group's old rivals.
(…) Even after the group's dissolution and the decade that followed, neither Stella Adler nor Sanford Meisner's views on Lee Strasberg had softened one bit.
Although all three teachers shared the same belief in "experiencing," Stella and Sanford saw Strasberg as a fraud who propagated a theory of acting that was not only harmful but also unhelpful.
--- p.419
A running joke on Broadway in the 1950s involved a confrontation between writer/producer/director George Abbott, best known for "The Pajama Game" and "Damn Yankees," and a method actor.
One day during rehearsal, Abbott instructed an actor to cross the stage.
When the actor asked, “But what motivates me to do that?” Abbott replied,
“Your bread and butter!” The meaning behind this joke is clear.
These people who are stuck in the method only care about themselves, so they can't act or don't act.
(…) After Marlon Brando appeared in “Fast and Furious,” the Actors Studio and Method became symbols of the rebellious spirit that was brewing among disaffected white American youth.
Brando's convincing performance spawned countless imitators.
(…) “Marlon is Marlon.
But all the Xerox copies called themselves Brando from the Actors Studio.
Damn it!” James Dean may have been one of these copies, but he still had a huge impact on American culture and the way we view the Method.
--- p.440~441
After De Niro, the two forms of Method diverged almost completely.
As elaborate narratives of preparation, research, and physical transformation became staples of media and awards campaigns, the method became synonymous with a baroque style of acting where actors inhabit characters, transform their bodies completely, and refuse to stop once they start acting on set.
When Spy magazine ran a lengthy, in-depth article about New York acting teachers in 1988, its author, Jay Martel, listed dozens of examples of Method overuse.
They were all modified versions based on De Niro's obsessive preparation process and physical transformation.
(…) The examples that appear one after another are nothing less than a collection of bizarre behaviors in the name of serving great art.
--- p.552~553
Looking at this new world, methods may seem to have died, perhaps even lost their effectiveness and become ineffective forever.
(…) You can find the “system” and the children of the “system” there.
You can find them everywhere in American culture.
Because it has become the foundation of how we think about acting, dramatic interpretation of text, and the truth of what it means to be human.
The method that still teaches, misunderstands, defends, and slanders exists and does not exist here at the same time.
It hovers above our heads, always present, yet never visible to our eyes.
--- p.584~585
Publisher's Review
From acting that was like shouting eloquently to acting that seemed like living real life
What is great acting?
It's difficult to describe great acting in words, but the moment we see an actor's performance on stage or screen, we intuitively know whether it's great acting or not.
Unlike artists in other fields, acting is a special field in which the actor himself is the material.
He is a painter and a painting at the same time.
How can actors take their 'self' out of their bodies and minds and pour it into their art?
About 130 years ago, in Tsarist Russia, there was someone who tackled this problem.
It was Stanislavsky, who was an actor and director.
He and Nemirovich-Danchenko created the Moscow Art Theatre to improve the theater that was trapped in the Russian censorship system and stereotyped acting, and led [Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich] and [The Seagull] to success despite the difficult circumstances.
Stanislavski's new approach to acting began when he played the role of Stockmann in Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People.
Because I felt like I was just pretending to act on stage without any realism.
He had been using stage direction and design to draw inspiration from actors, but he realized that that alone was not enough.
How can I get inspired on stage at the 'time written on the performance poster'?
Stanislavsky argued that the then-popular acting style of expressing emotions and rhetoric should be abandoned and that acting should be done through 'perezhivanye', or 'experiencing'.
Perezhivanye occurs when an actor is so immersed in the imaginary reality of a character that he or she can feel and think what the character feels and thinks.
In other words, it can be said to be ‘living the role.’
But that doesn't mean Perezhivanye completely becomes that character.
Rather, it is closer to the meaning of the actor's living consciousness and the character's fictional consciousness meeting.
For this purpose, Stanislavsky developed an acting technique called “the system.”
One concept that is still a subject of controversy is ‘emotional memory.’
Stanislavsky believed that emotional impressions, like memory, could be stored and recalled, and could be trained and improved.
And it was used in the plays [Blue Bird], [The Inspector], and [A Month in the Country], receiving favorable reviews from both audiences and critics.
This allowed Russian theatre and acting to leap to a new level.
The "system" that crossed over to America becomes a method.
Meanwhile, World War I broke out, and the revolution that followed shook Russia.
The Moscow Art Theatre went on a tour of the United States following its European tour, and there were Americans who were shocked by the performances they saw.
They couldn't believe it even though they were watching the actors performing naturally on stage right before their eyes.
Richard Boleslavsky and Maria Uspenskaya, who were members of the Moscow Art Theatre, remained in the United States for political reasons after the tour and founded the American Laboratory Theatre to spread Stanislavsky's "system" in the United States.
Among the students who attended here were Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, and Harold Clurman.
In the 1920s, New York's Broadway was at its peak, but it was full of formulaic melodramas.
In acting, the technique of conveying emotions through external expression was the main one.
But after the Spanish flu and the Great Depression, people wanted to see dramas that reflected their own experiences, and this desire pushed American theater in new directions.
Lee Strasberg and Harold Clurman, recognizing the need for new theater for the new America, founded Group Theatre.
And they developed their own acting technique called 'Method' to apply the "system" they had learned to American theater.
Lee Strasberg introduced the Method to audiences with plays like The Connellys and The White Men.
But Strasberg's method was difficult for the actors.
The practice of tapping into trauma to tap into emotional memory has left actors exhausted.
Stella Adler, in particular, was distressed that the “system” had taken away the joy of acting.
Then, Adler met Stanislavsky on a trip to Paris, studied acting directly with him, and upon returning, he officially opened the way for a split by informing the group members that Strasberg's methods were wrong.
Adler emphasized action and imagination over Strasberg's emotional memory, arguing that there was no need to delve too deeply into emotions.
Sanford Meisner also pioneered a new path by creating his own acting techniques, including 'repetitive training.'
Method goes beyond Broadway to Hollywood
Many actors who were dissatisfied with the group headed to Hollywood.
Hollywood, which had moved from silent films to sound films, welcomed method actors.
Acting in front of a camera, unlike on stage, required more detailed and intimate acting.
This was an acting technique specialized for method actors.
Elia Kazan also discovered the actor of the century, Marlon Brando, and introduced the birth of method acting to American audiences.
Kazan, who was enjoying great success on Broadway, also headed to Hollywood, and with several hits such as [A Streetcar Named Desire] and [On the Waterfront], he established a bridgehead for the Method movement to take root in Hollywood.
Later, Kazan, Bobby Lewis, and Cheryl Crawford created the Actors Studio, a group still famous today, to provide a place for actors to hone their skills.
With actors like Montgomery Clift, Kim Stanley, Rod Steiger, and Maurice Karnovsky, all from the Actors Studio, and directors like Sidney Lumet, Michael Nichols, and Arthur Penn, taking over TV and screen, Method emerged as a mainstream form of 20th-century American acting.
Audiences now encounter the lives of ordinary people, the human aspects of life that we see around us in movies and TV, fully expressed.
Method acting made this possible, and for that reason, method became known as the 'everyday acting style'.
The subsequent appearance of James Dean added another image to the Method.
Although he was sometimes accused of imitating Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, people were drawn to his dangerous charm and embraced Method as a style rather than an approach to acting.
The Method, which symbolized America's rebellious youth through Marlon Brando, became intertwined with the new youth culture of the 1950s created by James Dean, shifting the target of the Method from adults to teenagers and creating another form of rebellious style.
Is Method ruining American actors?
The actor who helped define the Method style as we know it today is Robert De Niro.
De Niro, who learned from Stella Adler, prepared for the role by reading books, interviewing people related to the character, and learning the training and habits required for the role.
These are known as basic preparations for today's actors, but at the time, they were a very sensational preparation process.
There were many cases where I analyzed the script in detail and wrote new lines myself.
In [Fist of Fury], he learned boxing and spent time with the character's real-life persona to analyze him.
He built up his muscles to build a boxer's body, but when he retired from the sport, he gained 27 kilograms.
After De Niro, the method underwent another semantic shift.
It was divided into the 'private method', which refers to Strasberg's teachings, and the 'public method', which refers to the actors' working process.
The elaborate story, consisting of preparation, investigation, and physical transformation, was perfect for piquing people's interest.
As these stories became staples of media and awards campaigns, Method became synonymous with the acting process where actors inhabit characters, transform their bodies completely, and refuse to stop once they start acting on set.
But as time went by, exaggerations gradually became added, and various ridicules and gossip about the method were created, which lowered the status of the method.
In Hollywood, which had entered the era of super blockbusters, method acting was no longer necessary, and method acting gradually began to decline.
A fun and original cultural history with method as the main character
This book is a narrative of the Method's birth, success, and decline, but what enriches and vividly envelops the story surrounding it are the various anecdotes created by the intertwining of historical events and figures of the time.
As mentioned earlier, the method is also a product of the political situation and cultural changes of the time.
It goes without saying that political, social, and cultural events that occurred over the 100 years Method has lived through, such as the Russian Revolution, the Great Depression in the United States, the McCarthy period, the Hollywood star system, and the advancement of film technology, have also influenced Method's life.
These stories add to the enjoyment of reading this book as a great cultural history.
The story begins in Moscow in 1897, when Stanislavsky first met Nemirovich-Danchenko, and continues from Moscow to New York (Broadway) and Los Angeles (Hollywood).
In the process, it covers in detail the performances of plays such as [The Seagull], [Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich], [The Men in White], and [Waiting for Lefty], Hollywood films such as [A Streetcar Named Desire], [The Godfather], [The Graduate], and [Raging Bull], and the acting characteristics of method actors such as Marlon Brando, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro.
It also introduces various acting techniques, including 'American Gonzo' and Meryl Streep, which emerged in the 1980s, and also introduces changes after the Method.
Method, which enjoyed its heyday in the mid-20th century, continues to exert considerable influence on American culture even now, long after its heyday has passed.
“As in ancient Greek mythology, Method is a constellation in the night sky, always watching over us, and Method’s ideas about truth and art are so powerful that they remain unshaken no matter how much we shake them,” the author says.
Method continues to hold a firm place today as an innovative way of looking at art and humanity, going beyond acting techniques for actors.
“The history of the Method is the history of intensity,” said theater critic Vinson Cunningham.
This powerful story will give you a new perspective on appreciating the art of acting.
What is great acting?
It's difficult to describe great acting in words, but the moment we see an actor's performance on stage or screen, we intuitively know whether it's great acting or not.
Unlike artists in other fields, acting is a special field in which the actor himself is the material.
He is a painter and a painting at the same time.
How can actors take their 'self' out of their bodies and minds and pour it into their art?
About 130 years ago, in Tsarist Russia, there was someone who tackled this problem.
It was Stanislavsky, who was an actor and director.
He and Nemirovich-Danchenko created the Moscow Art Theatre to improve the theater that was trapped in the Russian censorship system and stereotyped acting, and led [Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich] and [The Seagull] to success despite the difficult circumstances.
Stanislavski's new approach to acting began when he played the role of Stockmann in Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People.
Because I felt like I was just pretending to act on stage without any realism.
He had been using stage direction and design to draw inspiration from actors, but he realized that that alone was not enough.
How can I get inspired on stage at the 'time written on the performance poster'?
Stanislavsky argued that the then-popular acting style of expressing emotions and rhetoric should be abandoned and that acting should be done through 'perezhivanye', or 'experiencing'.
Perezhivanye occurs when an actor is so immersed in the imaginary reality of a character that he or she can feel and think what the character feels and thinks.
In other words, it can be said to be ‘living the role.’
But that doesn't mean Perezhivanye completely becomes that character.
Rather, it is closer to the meaning of the actor's living consciousness and the character's fictional consciousness meeting.
For this purpose, Stanislavsky developed an acting technique called “the system.”
One concept that is still a subject of controversy is ‘emotional memory.’
Stanislavsky believed that emotional impressions, like memory, could be stored and recalled, and could be trained and improved.
And it was used in the plays [Blue Bird], [The Inspector], and [A Month in the Country], receiving favorable reviews from both audiences and critics.
This allowed Russian theatre and acting to leap to a new level.
The "system" that crossed over to America becomes a method.
Meanwhile, World War I broke out, and the revolution that followed shook Russia.
The Moscow Art Theatre went on a tour of the United States following its European tour, and there were Americans who were shocked by the performances they saw.
They couldn't believe it even though they were watching the actors performing naturally on stage right before their eyes.
Richard Boleslavsky and Maria Uspenskaya, who were members of the Moscow Art Theatre, remained in the United States for political reasons after the tour and founded the American Laboratory Theatre to spread Stanislavsky's "system" in the United States.
Among the students who attended here were Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, and Harold Clurman.
In the 1920s, New York's Broadway was at its peak, but it was full of formulaic melodramas.
In acting, the technique of conveying emotions through external expression was the main one.
But after the Spanish flu and the Great Depression, people wanted to see dramas that reflected their own experiences, and this desire pushed American theater in new directions.
Lee Strasberg and Harold Clurman, recognizing the need for new theater for the new America, founded Group Theatre.
And they developed their own acting technique called 'Method' to apply the "system" they had learned to American theater.
Lee Strasberg introduced the Method to audiences with plays like The Connellys and The White Men.
But Strasberg's method was difficult for the actors.
The practice of tapping into trauma to tap into emotional memory has left actors exhausted.
Stella Adler, in particular, was distressed that the “system” had taken away the joy of acting.
Then, Adler met Stanislavsky on a trip to Paris, studied acting directly with him, and upon returning, he officially opened the way for a split by informing the group members that Strasberg's methods were wrong.
Adler emphasized action and imagination over Strasberg's emotional memory, arguing that there was no need to delve too deeply into emotions.
Sanford Meisner also pioneered a new path by creating his own acting techniques, including 'repetitive training.'
Method goes beyond Broadway to Hollywood
Many actors who were dissatisfied with the group headed to Hollywood.
Hollywood, which had moved from silent films to sound films, welcomed method actors.
Acting in front of a camera, unlike on stage, required more detailed and intimate acting.
This was an acting technique specialized for method actors.
Elia Kazan also discovered the actor of the century, Marlon Brando, and introduced the birth of method acting to American audiences.
Kazan, who was enjoying great success on Broadway, also headed to Hollywood, and with several hits such as [A Streetcar Named Desire] and [On the Waterfront], he established a bridgehead for the Method movement to take root in Hollywood.
Later, Kazan, Bobby Lewis, and Cheryl Crawford created the Actors Studio, a group still famous today, to provide a place for actors to hone their skills.
With actors like Montgomery Clift, Kim Stanley, Rod Steiger, and Maurice Karnovsky, all from the Actors Studio, and directors like Sidney Lumet, Michael Nichols, and Arthur Penn, taking over TV and screen, Method emerged as a mainstream form of 20th-century American acting.
Audiences now encounter the lives of ordinary people, the human aspects of life that we see around us in movies and TV, fully expressed.
Method acting made this possible, and for that reason, method became known as the 'everyday acting style'.
The subsequent appearance of James Dean added another image to the Method.
Although he was sometimes accused of imitating Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, people were drawn to his dangerous charm and embraced Method as a style rather than an approach to acting.
The Method, which symbolized America's rebellious youth through Marlon Brando, became intertwined with the new youth culture of the 1950s created by James Dean, shifting the target of the Method from adults to teenagers and creating another form of rebellious style.
Is Method ruining American actors?
The actor who helped define the Method style as we know it today is Robert De Niro.
De Niro, who learned from Stella Adler, prepared for the role by reading books, interviewing people related to the character, and learning the training and habits required for the role.
These are known as basic preparations for today's actors, but at the time, they were a very sensational preparation process.
There were many cases where I analyzed the script in detail and wrote new lines myself.
In [Fist of Fury], he learned boxing and spent time with the character's real-life persona to analyze him.
He built up his muscles to build a boxer's body, but when he retired from the sport, he gained 27 kilograms.
After De Niro, the method underwent another semantic shift.
It was divided into the 'private method', which refers to Strasberg's teachings, and the 'public method', which refers to the actors' working process.
The elaborate story, consisting of preparation, investigation, and physical transformation, was perfect for piquing people's interest.
As these stories became staples of media and awards campaigns, Method became synonymous with the acting process where actors inhabit characters, transform their bodies completely, and refuse to stop once they start acting on set.
But as time went by, exaggerations gradually became added, and various ridicules and gossip about the method were created, which lowered the status of the method.
In Hollywood, which had entered the era of super blockbusters, method acting was no longer necessary, and method acting gradually began to decline.
A fun and original cultural history with method as the main character
This book is a narrative of the Method's birth, success, and decline, but what enriches and vividly envelops the story surrounding it are the various anecdotes created by the intertwining of historical events and figures of the time.
As mentioned earlier, the method is also a product of the political situation and cultural changes of the time.
It goes without saying that political, social, and cultural events that occurred over the 100 years Method has lived through, such as the Russian Revolution, the Great Depression in the United States, the McCarthy period, the Hollywood star system, and the advancement of film technology, have also influenced Method's life.
These stories add to the enjoyment of reading this book as a great cultural history.
The story begins in Moscow in 1897, when Stanislavsky first met Nemirovich-Danchenko, and continues from Moscow to New York (Broadway) and Los Angeles (Hollywood).
In the process, it covers in detail the performances of plays such as [The Seagull], [Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich], [The Men in White], and [Waiting for Lefty], Hollywood films such as [A Streetcar Named Desire], [The Godfather], [The Graduate], and [Raging Bull], and the acting characteristics of method actors such as Marlon Brando, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro.
It also introduces various acting techniques, including 'American Gonzo' and Meryl Streep, which emerged in the 1980s, and also introduces changes after the Method.
Method, which enjoyed its heyday in the mid-20th century, continues to exert considerable influence on American culture even now, long after its heyday has passed.
“As in ancient Greek mythology, Method is a constellation in the night sky, always watching over us, and Method’s ideas about truth and art are so powerful that they remain unshaken no matter how much we shake them,” the author says.
Method continues to hold a firm place today as an innovative way of looking at art and humanity, going beyond acting techniques for actors.
“The history of the Method is the history of intensity,” said theater critic Vinson Cunningham.
This powerful story will give you a new perspective on appreciating the art of acting.
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of issue: December 5, 2023
- Format: Hardcover book binding method guide
- Page count, weight, size: 704 pages | 1,110g | 152*215*47mm
- ISBN13: 9791198123121
- ISBN10: 1198123125
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