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Method of madness in actors
Marlon Brando was a world class actor. He was also a ?world class pain? to his directors. The man whose name is synonymous with the ?method? form of acting could be very difficult and demanding when he wanted.
Marlon Brando was a world class actor. He was also a ‘world class pain’ to his directors. The man whose name is synonymous with the ‘method’ form of acting could be very difficult and demanding when he wanted. It was a fact that Brando would insist on retakes till he got the shot right, much to his co-actors discomfiture.
He would also immerse himself completely in the role, so much so that he forgot that he had a life beyond acting. Of course, all this translated into magic on the big screen and the huge fan following that Brando created stemmed from his dedication to his craft.
Method acting was Brando’s forte, the form which was first introduced by Russian theatre director Konstantin Stanislavsky, in which an actor had to feel a particular emotion by recalling past incidents and then using it to portray emotions on-screen.
Whether it was to portray sensitivity or savagery, Brando relied on the ‘method’ to bring dynamism and passion to his character. His flirtation with technique worked in his favour, whether it was to portray a washed out pugilist in On The Waterfront or a Sicilian mobster in Godfather.
His co-star Eva Marie Saint in On The Waterfront recalls how the famous scene where he toys with her shy and unassuming character with a glove came about. It was while rehearsing that Brando got the idea for that particular scene. Director Elia Kazan liked the suggestiveness of it so much that he went ahead with Brando. That was the great man at work– a legend even in his lifetime.
Another actor who followed in his footsteps was Robert De Niro. He could get very carried away with his roles, so much so that he spent a lot of time at boxer Jake LaMotta’s house to inject more authenticity into his character for the 1980 classic Raging Bull, where he played LaMotta.
He also underwent a transformation from 30 kilo (60 pounds) overweight to a hard body of muscles worthy of a world champion. It was one of his best performances to date and De Niro won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for the part.
He also won two boxing matches in real life after the rigorous training for the movie! He was wedded to the method school of acting and each film of his had that distinctive ‘real’ touch, whether it was in Taxi Driver, Cape Fear or Mean Streets. De Niro is the perfect example of a pure ‘method actor.’
It wasn’t the kind of madness that was limited to a few actors. In fact, most of the big names in Hollywood subscribe to the method school of acting and even US theatre director Lee Strasberg advocates it in his acting school. Actors Charlize Theron and Sean Penn, who won the Oscar awards this year for Monster and Mystic River respectively are staunch disciples too.
Theron who was formerly better known for her glam girl looks wowed critics with her true to life portrayal of America’s first woman serial killer Aileen Wuornos. She says she did a lot of research for the role and tried to understand the serial killer’s troubled psyche. Gone were the pretty looks, in its place was a bloated disfigured woman whose anguished life was portrayed skillfully onscreen.
For actors like James Dean, Dustin Hoffman, Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro, Daniel Day-Lewis, Meryl Streep, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts and so many others, method acting is their life-breath. But it is a lot of hard work. Perhaps Laurence Olivier who was Dustin Hoffman’s co-star in Marathon Man summed it up best when he saw Hoffman stay awake several nights to prepare for his role as a runner, ‘Try acting my boy, it’s much easier.’
