Know your lines and don’t bump into the furniture. – Spencer Tracy, actor.

 

Knowing your lines and remaining steady on your feet is easy for an acting veteran. If you’re starting out your acting career, however, you could have a case of blanking appear at any time. When it does, don’t worry – and don’t flee the country mid-run like Stephen Fry did in 1995. Odds are you’re not yet famous enough to pull that off.

 

Forgetting Your Lines

 

I was halfway through a three-page monologue and I just blanked. I could not have told you my name. John Mahoney, actor.

 

It’s an actor’s worst fear; it’s also inevitable. Blanking on stage happens often enough that there’s an industry slang term for it: drying. It can be caused by both under-preparing and over-preparing; learning lines is something of an art more than an exact science. Analysing why you’ve blanked in the moment isn’t possible; instead fight-or-flight takes over.

 

“You know the word you’re searching for, it’s just that you can’t remember what it is. It begins with an L. Is it an L? Or is it a P? Too late; the line is upon you, your mouth is already framing the word, and you have no option but to allow instinct to kick in.” – Michael Simkins, actor and writer.

What to Do

In nearly every performance someone will forget a line or a cue – and every actor will be that someone, at some point. One day it will be you. If you follow these steps and set the play back on course, it’s no problem at all.

• Don’t panic. You have “dried up” momentarily, but panicking will make this last much longer.
• Look up. Looking down signals to everyone that you’ve blanked; looking up, on the other hand, helps your brain to visualise.
• Let your partner know you’ve blanked. You can do this by improvising a line suitable to the situation. They can then help by picking up the scene and throwing you new lines. The whole play will come flooding back to you with the right trigger line, and the audience will never know anything was wrong.

Don’t worry about taking a moment or two to go through these motions. A good dramatic pause never hurt anyone – so rehearse your pensive stares!

 

Stage Fright

Stage fright is similar to drying, but often worse due to the build up. Clammy skin, upset stomach, shaky knees, dry mouth – symptoms like this can start affecting you long before you get on stage. Suffering from stage fright doesn’t mean you’re a poor actor: Laurence Olivier, Amanda Seyfried, and Stephen Fry have all experienced it. Olivier called it “the actor’s nightmare,” but he worked through it; and so can you.

 

“You can be afflicted at any point. That’s the scary thing. It can be really intense. You’re heart’s going 10 to the dozen. It’s a real shocker. It intensifies as you walk towards the stage – and it never actually leaves.” – John Simm, actor.

 

Don’t think you’re particularly sensitive, or singularly unfit. One medical study revealed that amount of stress actors felt on their first couple of opening nights is equal to experiencing a car crash.

What to Do

The best cure for any kind of blanking is pre-emptive. Remembering your lines and staying calm is sometimes as simple as preparing properly. If you’re new to the industry, you might be blanking frequently because you haven’t quite honed your line-learning skills.

If you’re playing a lead role in a line-heavy play such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, you might quite rightfully be worried; but we have some tips to make the line-learning process much easier.

• Read them out loud. On your first few read-throughs you should experiment with tone and delivery, and get a feel for the rhythm of the sentences.
• Early on, go for a walk while you practice. Keeping your body busy will stop it from distracting your mind, so you can focus.
• Later, work your physical acting into the lines. That way they can inform each other: if you forget what your next action is, the line that goes with it might remind you; and vice versa.
• Finally, don’t forget to memorise your cues, too!

Remembering your lines in different situations – while walking, while sitting, while in rehearsals – is vital. If you only ever run your lines one way, you’ll find it difficult to incorporate anything new. This means that any acting notes you get in the lead-up to a show could result in blanking.

 

Relaxation

Instead of fighting the adrenaline that comes with blanking, you can harness it. In method acting there’s a technique called relaxation. Performers do it before every other exercise, and throughout their careers often continue to do it before a performance. Method actors swear that relaxation puts them in a trance-like state, through which acting becomes instinctive and natural; it’s almost a form of hypnosis.

In relaxation, you sit limply in an armless chair. The aim is to release tension from the body; this is done by lifting limbs and wiggling joints until there is no stiffness remaining anywhere in the body. If you still feel some tension, try vocalisations: groaning, shouting, screaming. Something guttural or without words.

Relaxation is difficult at first, in no small way because you’re probably still overcoming any shame or embarrassment you have (experienced actors learn to relinquish such things). However, like any exercise it becomes easier with repetition. If you practice them soon after your blank moments, you’ll be able to enter the trance-like state you were in throughout rehearsals; this could jolt you back into the play.

At the end of the day there’s no secret or shortcut to preventing blanking; you just have to put in the time. Even then, you’ll probably blank at least once in your career – you’re only human, after all.

 

 

If you want to experience a relaxation class or develop a trusting, or learn more about how to build a helpful bond with your scene partners, perhaps you should consider our Ultimate Acting Programme. The next intake is October 2016 and the next set of auditions are on 31st August, so if you’re a budding star – apply now.

 

If you’ve enjoyed performances in a critically acclaimed piece of film or theatre recently, then it’s more than likely that you’ve seen method acting in action. The vast majority of successful actors are very good at applying the method to their performances, in fact, since the year the year 2000, more than 80% of winners of the ‘Best Actor’ Academy Award have won for roles in which they utilised method techniques.

The actors who have taken home the Oscar, as well as the films they starred in, are all incredibly diverse and varied. However, one thing they all have in common is they are some of the highest regarded actors of this, and any other, generation. Anyone who takes their long term goal to be a successful actor seriously will, of course, aim to become a part of the acting elite. So, if you’re aspiring to be the best actor that you can possibly be, you need to look at and emulate what the top 5% of actors are doing. This is exactly why you should be studying and applying the method if you want to become a better actor than you ever have been or even imagined you could be.

 

What is Method Acting?

If you’re not 100% sure what method acting entails or how to get started, then don’t worry, you’re not alone. Many people look at the top 5% of actors with every intention of following their lead, but don’t know how to get started. Fortunately, though, the answer is much simpler than you might have thought.

The most basic explanation of the method is that it is the “ability to find inspiration on cue.” This means that you immerse yourself in preparation for your role, so that each and every time you arrive on set you are confident and fully knowledgeable about your character. After all, there are very few professions which would allow you to show up on the job with no training or preparation, right?

By creating an in-depth life and fully rounded personality for their character, actors who apply the Method are able to develop a believable, multi-dimensional persona on screen or on stage and portray stunningly realistic performances time and time again.

 

Applying The Method

Applying the method is nowhere near as scary as some stories would have you believe. One valuable secret that could save you years of painstaking, uphill work is this; the Method has already been cultivated and created for you, it is there for the taking. You don’t need to ‘reinvent the wheel’ by coming up with a brand new concept for acting techniques. You can become a truly groundbreaking performer by using a tried and tested formula.

 

Get Inspired by the Greats

Three of the most famous examples of Oscar winning actors who have proven just how effective the method can be are Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson and Daniel Day Lewis.

Of course we’re not suggesting that anyone who sticks steadfastly to method acting is in with a shot of becoming the next Nicholson! But no matter what field you’re in, it makes sense to look at the most successful and highly regarded players in that industry and do exactly what they do.

The 1977 musical drama, New York, New York is a perfect display of method acting by Robert De Niro. Despite never having played or even so much as picked up a saxophone in his life, De Niro was dedicated enough to hire a teacher and learn to play the instrument for his role as musician, Jimmy Doyle. The saxophone teacher was, admittedly, put through his paces by De Niro’s commitment, but this ultimately paid off and he was met with critical acclaim.

Perhaps more famously, Robert De Niro studied every single piece of film footage there was of Marlon Brando, from the 1950s onwards, for hours every day. This allowed him to take on even the most subtle of Brando’s mannerisms for his role as the young Don Corleone in The Godfather II. He portrayed his predecessor realistically without it ever coming across as an impersonation.

Similarly, Jack Nicholson has described his take on method acting:

 

“You gotta make it come from the inside. It’s all about who you are. That’s all you can really contribute. I feel autobiographical about whatever I do.”

 

He even famously spent three months living inside a mental institution to prepare for his iconic role as Randle McMurphy in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Then there is Daniel Day Lewis. Often held up as an example of method acting at its finest; There Will Be Blood is a wonderful starting point for actors to watch and learn exactly what lengths the great British actor goes to in order to delve deeply into a role.

 

The Method Can Improve Any Performance

These examples are, of course, serious actors in extremely serious pieces of film, but that doesn’t mean that The Method should be reserved for heavyweight roles. The idea that method actors are constantly delving into deep, dark emotional territory is a popular misconception. If you have a light hearted or even comedic part to play, using the method will still allow you to get into character to the best of your ability. Applying The Method can improve comic timing and make your performance as natural as possible.

Critically acclaimed comic actors such as Sacha Baron Cohen, Rowan Atkinson and Robin Williams show just how much of a difference the Method can make when applied to the funniest roles around.

 

Focus on Character

To become a member of the exclusive group of excellent actors there are a few things you will need to focus on when applying the Method. The first, and perhaps most important element for you to consider is character development. What does it mean and what is it all about?

Two of the actors mentioned earlier are perfect examples of just how important commitment to character development is to creating a sense of realism. You might think that De Niro and Nicholson took things to the extreme, but in fact, evidence has consistently shown that the more ‘obsessive compulsive’ you are in researching and rehearsing your role, the better the results will be.

This doesn’t have to be anything huge and grandiose, such as learning a whole new instrument or moving into a mental health institution. You could do small tasks which help you to feel as though you’re living a day in the life of your character; speak in their accent, make your morning cup of coffee the way they would or spend some time in the places they would go.

 

It’s All in the Details

As you learn more about the Method, you discover how to do detailed research into your character so you too can achieve this level of authenticity. A whole lot of research and practice will eventually lead to the next level of method acting, which is getting under your character’s skin. Soon you’ll find that you are so immersed in the role you are playing, that you will no longer have to think long and hard about character nuances such as facial expressions, tone of voice or hand gestures – all of these things will become second nature to you and make your performance completely real.

It is essential to keep in mind how important character detail is before taking on any role. After all, you wouldn’t expect a chef to turn up for their first day on the job without any culinary training, or a bus driver to get behind the wheel without a full knowledge of the roads. The exact same thing can be said of acting. If you want to achieve acting excellence, do the detailed research and apply the Method.

 

Keeping it Real

Although the Method is a technical skill, don’t make the mistake of thinking that only the most highly trained are capable of getting themselves under the skin of their character. One of the most important things to remember when studying and utilising method techniques is to understand how emotions work and learn how to access them at any time by identifying with experiences and memories from your own life. This is something to keep in mind and consistently refer back to while you are learning how to master the method.

One true test of your method acting ability is to try your character out on the general public. Again, this could be speaking in a certain voice or accent, or it could even be behaving in an outlandish way if you are inhibiting a particularly ‘out there’ personality.

Running your method by the public works on a few different levels. Firstly, it is yet another way to delve into the mind of your character. Getting out there into situations which are totally unscripted will test your ability to react naturally as your character would to different situations. Thinking on your feet like this is the ultimate test of your ability. This sort of improvisation is also a good way to judge your believability and see whether a completely unprepared and unbiased audience of people buy into whoever you are portraying.

 

Become a Method Actor

With all of this in mind, it’s clear that learning to apply The Method is an absolutely essential skill for anyone who is serious about achieving acting excellence.

Our Method Acting Boot Camp Weekend and the Ultimate Acting Programme can start you on your path. Get in touch today to find out more.

 

Robert De Niro is one of the best-known actors working today with a career spanning more than 50 years. He has won 2 Academy Awards, taking home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Godfather Part II and Best Actor for Raging Bull. De Niro has also picked up a further 5 Oscar nominations, including most recently for 2012’s Silver Linings Playbook.

The secret to De Niro’s success is his reliance on the Method. As a younger man he studied acting with the highly respected acting coach Stella Adler and with legendary method acting teacher Lee Strasberg. This early grounding in method acting has helped to shape De Niro’s career allowing him to become one of the most successful and respected actors of his generation.

 

Acting instinctively

De Niro is a big believer in acting instinctively. Speaking to Esquire, he said:

 

“I always tell actors when they go in for an audition: Don’t be afraid to do what your instincts tell you.”

 

When auditioning, you’re not just selling your vision of that character, you’re selling what you can do uniquely as an actor. By following your instincts, you are showing a casting director what you have to offer them. Even if your audition doesn’t match the casting person’s and the director’s vision for that part, if your performance is good, they will remember. The examples of actors going for one part and ending up being offered another are too many to recount.

Acting instinctively might sound like the opposite of method acting or like something you could do without training. Nothing could be further from the truth. Learning method acting techniques is about training your acting instincts so that when you come to perform, you are capable of allowing those instincts to take over. This leads to totally authentic, unmannered performances. Method actors do their thinking and planning beforehand so that they don’t have to work out what to do next in the middle of a performance; they just know. This is what De Niro means about following your instincts.

 

Master of subtlety

Although De Niro has given some big, bold performances in his career, one of the reasons he is so respected is for his range. An important thing to understand about method acting is, it doesn’t always mean giving big, demonstrative displays of emotion. De Niro is capable of exhibiting great subtlety in his acting and method acting is often at its most powerful when used in a more restrained fashion. As De Niro once said:

 

“It’s important not to indicate. People don’t try to show their feelings, they try to hide them.”

 

This is a key lesson to learn: just because you are using affective memory and other techniques to generate real emotions on stage or in front of a camera, that does not mean you have to let all of those feelings out. With camera work in particular, feeling an emotion and then working to repress it can create a layered and deeply real performance unachievable by other means.

 

Committed to preparation

Method acting is all about grounding your performance in the real. This is something Robert De Niro understands deeply, which is why he has gone to exceptional lengths over the years to prepare for his roles by finding real experiences to anchor them in.

For his starring role in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 classic Taxi Driver, De Niro wanted to really understand what it was like to live the lifestyle of a New York cabbie. To achieve this, he went out and worked 12-hours shifts driving a real cab in New York. To play real-life boxer Jake LaMotta, De Niro spent hundreds of hours sparring with La Motta and even fought in 3 real boxing matches.

This kind of preparation is not strictly necessary for method acting as the Method teaches actors to use memories of experiences they already have. This means that you can produce an authentic performance based on a scenario you have never encountered by working out its emotional core and relating this to experiences that brought out similar emotions in yourself.

However, if you can more directly experience situations similar to the ones you are being asked to simulate, this can add an extra layer of verisimilitude. It’s also worth bearing in mind that, even if you can’t match the exact circumstances your character will be going through, you can still work out what emotions they are likely to be feeling and then look at what experiences you can seek out to stimulate the same ones.

 

No room for ego

People often remark that Robert De Niro is surprisingly humble for such a successful actor and many consider him to be quite shy. He once said:

 

“I’ve never been one of those actors who has touted myself as a fascinating human being. I had to decide early on whether I was to be an actor or a personality.”

 

This lack of ego is crucial to the method actor. Great acting involves truly becoming someone else and to do that you have to be willing to sacrifice your own ego. You can’t be thinking about whether you will look foolish or cast yourself in an unflattering light. You have to totally commit to the character and do what is right for them, not been constrained by your own self-image.

Putting your ego aside is also crucial for working effectively with the rest of the cast and crew on a production. De Niro is clear that acting is about being open to what others have to say:

 

“As an actor, it is important to be a good listener. You need to listen to what others have to say, the director, the producer, your co-actor… everyone. I try to listen to everyone and take their inputs on what I have to do.”

 

De Niro also offers really good advice about getting into acting for the right reasons:

 

“Don’t expect to be famous – do it because you really love doing it and have fun doing it.”

Learn method acting like Robert De Niro

If you aspire to be a truly great actor like Robert De Niro, you have to study method acting. The Method has been used by 80% of Oscar-winning actors this century and offers an unrivalled ability to bring emotional truth and an enviable level of professionalism to every role you play.

We offer both 3-Day Method Acting Boot Camps for those wanting to explore the world of method acting and a comprehensive 1-Year Ultimate Acting Programme. This year-long course of study covers everything needed to become a professional actor, including a full understanding of the Method and a practical insight into the business of acting, giving you the skills to start getting paid acting work right away.

To find out more, please take a look around the rest of the website and, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

 

There are hundreds of self-help books that promise to transform your life. The 80/20 rule, though, is too powerful for any book. It’s free to use and nearly universally applicable. Here, we’ve applied it to the art of acting.

The rule sounds straightforward: 80% of results come from 20% of actions. While this is simple, it’s also broad. Since its inception in the 19th Century it has transformed over and over, from an economic concept to a self-help lifestyle guide.

 

Origins

When Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto noticed that 80% of the wealth in Italy went to only 20% of its population, he didn’t just write a change.org petition and forget about it. Instead, he saw the bigger picture: every result, no matter how huge, can be linked to only a few actions. The 80/20 rule (or Pareto Principle) is such a powerful concept that it can be applied to nearly every field – and has been!

Many people swear by the 80/20 diet, and in 1997 self-help author Richard Koch turned the notion into a lifestyle. Living the 80/20 way means finding out which 20% of your actions fulfil your passions, and then slowly cutting away the other 80% from your lifestyle.

 

The 80/20 Rule in Acting

If you’re here, your passion is probably acting – how do you apply the 80/20 rule to a career in theatre or film? Thankfully, we’ve already thought this through.

In acting, we can see the 80/20 rule as a breakdown of actions that lead to successes (e.g. booking a job or a good agent). The way we see it, you would use 20% of your training in 80% of your performances, and 80% of the work you get will come from 20% of the casting directors and agents you contact.

OK – this seems negative. Right now you might be thinking: I’m wasting 80% of my time! How is this good news?

The good news is that wasting 80% of your time is exactly how you learn not to do so later. Early on in your career, wasting 80% of your time is inevitable – how else would you learn which of your actions is in that vital 20%? To become a better actor you need to first recognise which 20% of your training you are regularly using, and which 20% of your contacts are useful. Focus on these, and file away that unused 80% of your repertoire. By narrowing down and growing your 20% of productive activities, you can eventually become 100% productive.

 

How to Recognise Your 20%

As usual, we like to focus on the positive instead of the negative. An actions diary is a good place to start: log all your actions over the course of three days: all your training, socialising, performing, working, and any other menial tasks. Look back on it afterward and check off which actions really improved your career as an actor.

Was there a social event that you made a good connection at? Was one class you took consistently more useful that the others? These actions are your 20%.

 

How to Grow Your 20%

It can be hard to immediately cease 80% of your actions – that’s most of your life! Instead, focus on growing the 20% until it encompasses your lifestyle. Job by job, audition by audition, you can slowly add an hour or so of 20% actions to your day until you are 100% productive.

One way to grow your 20% without changing your lifestyle drastically is to make a productivity checklist. This is a list of ten things that help you achieve your goals – ten actions that are in your 20%. You should aim to tick off at least three of these things every day.

Your list might look something like this:

• Go to an audition
• Rehearse or practice a scene
• Attend a class
• Go to bed early
• Wake up early
• Attend a social event
• Update social media
• Read a play
• Watch a play or film
• Update headshots/reels

You might be surprised to see social media and social events on that list, as you probably consider these “actions” to be off-duty, but the truth is quite the opposite. In a highly competitive field like acting, it’s often who you know as much as what you know that lands an actor their breakthrough role.

To an extrovert, this might sound too good to be true. We mean it, though: forging relationships with friends of friends and people who know people is one of the best ways to get your name out there.

 

The Next Level

If you know that being an actor is the most joy you could get from life, there’s a next level you can take. Make like an entrepreneur and commit to your goals by dropping everything else.

 

Getting busy is not what makes you rich.

 

Entrepreneurs say this, and its a sentiment many actors could learn from. Waitressing every night or working in an office only to act after-hours is keeping yourself too busy to succeed. To completely commit to your 20%, you might consider cutting your work hours partially or even completely.

Why spend 80% of your time colour-coding or fetching coffee? You have goals to achieve! Instead, spend your 9-5 practicing, auditioning, and networking until it pays off – and it could do very quickly.

Finally, you can use the 80/20 rule to console yourself. If you didn’t book a particular job, or an agent fell through – they were part of that 80% of life that is pointless clutter. They don’t matter anymore – you have a 20% to focus on.

If you’re committed to acting, you might be the right fit for our Ultimate Acting Programme – all guaranteed to be part of that 20% of training that pays off. If you’re unsure if acting is your all-encompassing passion, why not try a three-day introductory course instead?

Auditions for this year’s intake of the Ultimate Acting Programme are on 27th July, so if you’ve got what it takes – apply now!

 

Born in 1901 to Jewish parents in what is now the Ukraine, Lee Strasberg’s family could not have guessed he would one day become the father of method acting in America.

He and the still-renowned schools he taught at are famous for coaching the “rebel heroes” of cinema to their greatest heights: James Dean, Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert De Niro, Marilyn Monroe – the list goes on. These actors seethe with life – each character they inhabit is vulnerable, raw, and also powerful.

Tennessee Williams, who wrote A Streetcar Named Desire, said of the actors who came out of Strasberg’s intense tutelage:

 

“They act from the inside out… They give you a sense of life.”

 

One of Strasberg’s favourite students, director Elia Kazan, described the classes as similarly emotive:

 

“Actors often appeared to be in a state of self-hypnosis”.

 

 

Born to Teach

Strasberg discovered early on that training actors was his calling. He knew that he wasn’t cut out to be an actor himself: he was small, and not traditionally handsome by any measure (acting has been a vain profession for a long, long time!).

It was in 1929, while involved with community theatre, that he first saw the power an actor could wield. Our favourite, Konstantin Stanislavski, had brought his Moscow Art Theatre to the United States. The young Strasberg was blown away by their performance:

 

“…an ensemble like this with actors completely surrendering their ego to the work…. Some sort of unspoken, yet palpable, inner life”.

 

It was seeing Stanislavski’s System in action that inspired him to refine it and eventually develop the American Method; or, one of the best ways to win an Academy Award.

 

The American Method

Strasberg’s famous students demonstrated for the first time in film the psychology of their characters. Usually, this was the place of academics of theatre performers; Strasberg believed there was no reason theatre and film should be any different, at least not when it came to acting.

Acting, he said, “is the art that is closest to reality”. By this, he meant that the best way to create the art was to emulate reality; to be realistic. That’s why his Method’s techniques focus so heavily on genuine emotional and physical recreation of characters’ lives.

 

“If you don’t know what it is you’re trying to create, you will never in your life create it.”

 

Although the Method can come across as scientific and specific, it is actually more like a set of processes that an actor can apply creatively and dynamically to enhance their portrayal of a character.

 

Techniques

At its core, the Method is meant to produce “psychological truthfulness”. To truly become a great actor, one must be simultaneously immersed in one’s own prehistory as well as that of one’s character. Simply knowing lines, Strasberg insists, is not acting.

 

“The only thing you will know is to remember your lines. That is not acting… Acting has nothing to do with memory. It has to do with how we do, how we behave.”

 

How you do and behave are, however, guided by memory; although not the same one that remembers lines.

Affective and Sense Memories are two key Method techniques. An actor uses them to better empathise with their character, by using memories of their own past. Although Stanislavski proposed these as part of the actor’s toolbox, it was Strasberg who developed them: he believed an actor must unlock their own emotion in order to understand their characters’.

Strasberg’s classes, Kazan has said, were based initially on arousing anger in the actor. The student, he explained, had to be aware of their own emotional resources before they could draw from them.

This resource awareness became a catchphrase in the classes: “take a minute!” Strasberg would yell this at the beginning of each scene, reminding his students to take time to concentrate inwardly, on the details of their characters’ and their own emotional experiences.

These techniques are often referred to as ways to “relive,” rather than “recall” – it’s more important to be in the moment and vulnerable than dwelling on your own issues. Your memory is a tool to be used as needed, not a one-way ticket to acting greatness.

 

Are You Ready?

Brian Timoney Acting can set you on the path to acting greatness. As the only drama school in the UK that’s built on the Lee Strasberg Method, we’re breaking new ground and hoping you will, too.

If you’re ready to be the next Brando or Fonda, consider our Ultimate Acting Programme.

 

From time to time I’m approached by old students or colleagues who gave up acting for a “normal” life. They will say to me:

 

I shouldn’t have given up. I often think about what would have happened if I had stuck with acting. I miss it.

 

That’s exactly it. To succeed an actor must love acting, and not celebrity; most people in the profession will never make Hollywood’s A-List. That’s probably one of the most important pieces of acting career advice anyone can give an aspiring actor. At the beginning of your career – or even in the middle of it – moments of self-doubt or months without work can drive even the most passionate actor to the brink of giving up.

You are not alone in feeling this way. Even those that made it all the way to the top of the industry have been there.

 

The Undiscovered

The two leads in Twilight, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, both nearly gave up a career in acting soon before landing a role in the box office-smashing franchise.

Stewart, having been “discovered” by an agent during a school play, spent years going to audition after audition without any panels seeing her potential. Of that low point, she says:

 

I decided a year after not getting any commercials, ‘F*ck it. I won’t make my mom drive around Los Angeles anymore

 

The lack of jobs wasn’t just making her feel bad for her mother. Huge seeds of self-doubt were ruining the acting process for her:

 

I also got so nervous for every single audition. I was just dying. I had one appointment left and my mom said, ‘Have a little integrity and go to your last one.’ And it was The Safety of Objects. If I hadn’t gotten that, I would have been done.

 

Her co-star, Brit Robert Pattinson, felt similar doubts about his status as an actor before Twilight:

 

If you say you’re an actor and you’re going to auditions and not getting parts, then you’re not an actor. I guess that’s what my predicament was

The Perfectionists

Some actors want to give up not because they can’t get a job, but because they won’t settle for anything other than the best. You might feel this way; that if you’re not perfect to you, or to others, then there is no point in being an actor.

Scottish superstar Ewan McGregor has admitted to feeling this way. In 1993 he nearly gave up his career after seeing Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance in Jim Sheridan’s In the Name of the Father.

Day-Lewis was so good in the film that McGregor felt there was nothing else he could contribute to the industry, and set fire to his Equity card. In fact, he still struggles with this feeling when he sees a Day-Lewis film.

 

Whenever I watch him, I think, ‘what’s the point? There’s no point in carrying on. That’s it.

 

Gemma Arterton, scene-stealing star of Byzantium and St Trinian’s, was unfortunate enough to nearly be bullied out of acting. At the beginning of her film career she struggled with her “commoner” accent, despite having the looks and skills of a star.

Directors and agents wore her down to the point where she had to choose between walking away from a career as an actor or taking voice lessons to master her natural working class accent. It was close, but she’s still acting today.

 

Imposter Syndrome

Imposter syndrome is a type of self-doubt that is found in nearly every walk of life, but especially so in acting. Widely celebrated actors from Don Cheadle through to Michelle Pfeiffer have admitted to feelings of being a “fraud,” or a “sham”. They feel like at any moment a director might realise they have no talent, and fire them.

If such obviously talented people feel that way, there is no shame in feeling imposter syndrome yourself.

When you feel like you don’t belong, ask yourself just one question:

– Do you trust the judgment of your director or your peers?

If the answer is yes, then you must believe them when they choose to work with you. They had options, and they chose you.

If the answer is no, then your doubt should really be pointed at their skills, not yours!

 

Nervousness:

Like Kristen Stewart, you might have problems with nervousness that are affecting your auditions. Although there are many guides to calming exercises out there, one of the most simple ways to conquer nerves is to use method acting.

Alison Pill describes how she instinctively taps into the method to cope with her nervousness:

 

I know that I am not a part of the scene since the character isn’t nervous. It’s a matter of aligning your own feelings with what the scene is about… if the character isn’t uncomfortable then I can’t be.

Lack of Motivation

At some point, you may want to give up acting because you feel you lack the motivation. It can be hard to tell whether this is a phase – maybe you’re bored with the same old audition circuit – or if you’ve really reached the end of your acting career.

One way to find out is to shake up your lifestyle without giving up acting. Maybe try auditioning in a new city, or take a class in an acting style that’s new to you. Many people find being surrounded by new styles and new people to be exactly what they need to feel motivated to act again.

As Mark Twain once said:

 

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

 

Throw caution to the winds before you give up – and if your passion bounces back then keep on trying.

If you’re ready to revitalise your acting career, why not look at the Ultimate Acting Programme? 

Born in Moscow in 1863, Constantin Stanislavski was to become perhaps the most famous figure in theatre. He not only devised the still-used ‘System’ of acting; he also sparked inspiration in every other teacher he met, launching a wave of System-inspired techniques across Europe and the U.S.; including the Method we use here at Brian Timoney Actors’ Studio.

 

Early Life

Stanislavski’s surname at birth was Alekseyev, and he was a member of one of the wealthiest families in Russia.

His maternal grandmother had been an acclaimed French actress, so his family didn’t frown on young Constantin’s passion for acting as other bourgeois families might have. In fact, they built a theatre of one of the Alexseyev estates especially for him. However, it was still considered a taboo career choice for someone of his standing, and so he went into the family business officially whilst pursuing a vibrant thespian lifestyle in his spare time.

Thankfully, the winds of revolutionary change would blow all those taboos away, and he would go on to win three major honours under USSR leadership as well as international acclaim.

In 1888, at the tender age of 25, he co-founded the Society of Art and Literature. The Society’s aim was to unite amateur and professional actors and artists to the benefit of all involved. Stanislavski – having permanently adopted his chosen stage name – funded the Society fully with his massive inheritance.

The 1917 revolution meant that bourgeois families like the Alekseyevs faced severe criticism and restrictions. Stanislavski, however, had been developing and encouraging Realism in his work for years prior, and his company was jointly owned. He continued in the theatre unhindered by Soviet leadership.

 

The Moscow Art Theatre

 

We are striving to create the first rational, moral, and public-accessible theatre.

 

In 1897 Stanislavski opened the Moscow Art Theatre. It all began with an 18-hour meeting with Vladimir Nemirovich-Dancheko, which has since been compared to theatre history‘s equivalent of the Treaty of Versailles! The Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) was to take actors from Nemirovich’s Philharmonic and Stanislavski’s Society as well as the public.

The MAT was revolutionary in many ways, and contributed more than just the System to the masses; it also reignited the career of the brilliant writer Anton Chekhov.

His early years at the MAT were spent working on a structure for actors; something that would produce meaningful performances that were also disciplined and consistent. Hence, the System was born.

The System was a series of exercises designed to encourage emotional intelligence. Actors, Stanislavski reasoned, must understand the motivations and reactions of their characters; they must be able to truly understand their innermost selves if they’re to act with depth and naturalism.

1922-24 were the years of the MAT’s world tour, which saw Stanislavski and his company travel to Europe and the United States. In the U.S. some members of the party stayed behind to instruct students such as Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, and Sanford Meisner, who would go on to co-found the Actor’s Studio and develop the American Method. This Method is still in widespread use today, including in our acting programmes.

 

Emotional and Sense Memory

Acting at its best is a form of emotional intelligence. All the best actors and the legendary acting teachers are highly emotionally aware – of both themselves and their characters. Emotional intelligence is refined and enchanced by the use of Stanislavski’s famous System, which uses techniques like emotional and sense memory.

Eleonora Duse – an incredible actor, perhaps one of the best of all time, describes using emotional memory in an interview. She suggests that the reason her art continues to improve with age is that with each passing year she gains life experience, and has therefore amassed a fortune of experiences to draw on when she inhabits a new character. Personal issues, she says, are not distractions; they’re inspiration.

Many acting classes avoid this psychological aspect of acting, but not ours – and certainly not Stanislavskis. An actor’s job is to accurately portray a character, and a large part of that must be to understand its psyche.

Early in his career, Stanislavski could be found wandering the streets of Russia in character – as a tramp, a fortune-teller, a drunk – as an acting “experiment”. He would truly walk in the shoes of characters he wished to play, gaining relevant life experience. He would make elaborate notes on these exercises, and later refine them into the System.

 

Naturalism and Realism

As we’ve previously covered, Realism is the way things are and Naturalism is the why; they are, respectively, an artistic movement and a technique.

Naturalism emerged in the 19th Century, and was popularised by the French literati – Emile Zola’s three principles were considered the best techniques for a long time. Then Naturalism came to the stage.

In the 20th Century, Soviet Russia adopted Realism as its artistic movement of choice. The purpose was to portray things as they really were – realistically – without pomp or fantastic qualities. Naturalism as a technique was, therefore, ideal; and Stanislavski had been adapting it for the theatre for a long time.

 

Given Circumstances

In the second half of his career, he expanded his System in a different direction; he developed Given Circumstances. This technique was a natural progression from understanding the importance of emotional awareness, but a step away from the aggressive psychological nature of the early System.

“Given Circumstances” refers to the environmental conditions and personal situations of a character. For example, a given circumstance might be that the play is set in Elizabethan England, or that Hamlet’s father died prior to the play’s actions.

Stanislavski argued that although characters make choices unconsciously, actors do not. Given circumstances influence a character’s actions, and no level of emotional memory will give you all the same circumstances as the character. Therefore, an awareness of the circumstances given to the character will enhance the actor’s understanding of their motivations and make the portrayal of action more natural.

 

The Given Circumstances, just like ‘if,’ are suppositions, products of the imagination.

 

This was a big turnaround for the System and its offspring, the Method: Stanislavski was beginning to believe that the imagination could be just as powerful as real-life experiences. One of his most famous students, Sanford Meisner, couldn’t have agreed more.

Meisner used Stanislavski’s new Given Circumstances to encourage the adoption of his Meisner Technique, which advocates for the power of imagination over emotional memory. Meisner believed that an actor can understand circumstances without having lived them by producing a rich imaginary world.

Another founder of the Actor’s Studio, Stella Adler, agreed with Meisner and Stanislavski whole-heartedly:

 

Drawing on the emotions I experienced – for example, when my mother died – to create a role is sick and schizophrenic. If that is acting, I don’t want to do it.

Brian’s Take

Those with a less intense imagination are better off with Strasberg’s interpretation of the System, and of course the techniques Stanislavski devised early in his career still work. However, he noticed that those of his students who abused emotional memory often became hysterical.

This is why, when we teach the Method, we teach safe use of it; although a psychological connection to the role will always improve its portrayal, abuse of emotional memory for art isn’t worth the resulting trauma.

In every era of his jam-packed life, Stanislavski uncovered something else for us to learn from and expand on. He not only was inspired; he inspired others, and continues to do so decades after his death. To find out what we can offer, consider our unique acting programmes – for inspired actors only!

 

What is Method Acting, and Why is it Important?

When the media talk about method acting, they often like to focus on wild stories about actors pulling out their own teeth or losing large amounts of weight for a role, but this is not what method acting is. So, what is method acting? Well, fundamentally, method acting is a series of mental techniques the very best actors use to enhance their performances by allowing them to call up real emotions on cue.

Method acting is not, as some in the media would have us believe, an extreme technique used by only a tiny minority of actors. It is, in fact, a system for better understanding and utilising the practices great actors have always used in their performances. As the founder of modern method acting, Lee Strasberg once said:

 

“Method acting is what all actors have always done whenever they acted well.”

The history of method acting

The term ‘method acting’ was coined by the great actor, director and acting coach Lee Strasberg to describe his approach to producing a more realistic style of acting. The basic principle of Strasberg’s method was that actors should draw on their own experiences to inform the way they embody their characters, thus adding an increased sense of realism to their performances.

Strasberg’s students include many of the acting greats of the 20th century, including Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Jane Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Mickey Rourke and more. It’s also worth noting that Strasberg didn’t just talk the talk – he was also a highly accomplished and respected actor, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his part in the Godfather Part II.

The legacy of Lee Strasberg’s method acting techniques is still being felt today, with over 80% of Oscar-winning actors in the 21st century being method actors.

 

How method acting works

There are a number of techniques involved in method acting, but at the most basic level it is about being able to find inspiration as an actor on cue. It’s no good turning up to the theatre, or on set and not knowing whether you will be able to deliver the goods or not. Leaving things up to chance like that would certainly not be tolerated in any other profession! Method acting allows you to generate real, honest and engaging performances every time by using reliable, repeatable processes to get into character and produce the emotional truth needed for a great performance.

Method acting requires us to create a realistic, believable inner life for our characters so that they will feel real to the audience. We do this by understanding our own psychology and how this relates to the characters we are being asked to inhabit. By tapping into our own emotional experiences, we can imbue our characters with those same emotions as required, producing performances that are far more authentic than if we were simply “pretending”.

According to psychologist Thalia Goldstein:

“I think that at their cores, psychology, cognitive science, and theater are all trying to do the same thing, which is understand why people do the things they do, our range of behavior, and where it comes from”.

Method acting allows us to understand the emotions underlying a character’s words and actions, then find those same emotions inside ourselves and bring them out on demand.

 

Method acting techniques

Creating a great performance is not as a simple as remembering how you felt in the past and then “pretending” to feel the same thing in front of an audience. There are a number of processes method actors go through in order to find the emotional truth required for a role.

Relaxation

Being able to relax as an actor means breaking down any barriers between you and your performance. Any tension you feel can block the true expression of your thoughts and emotions. This can easily cause you to overthink things and result in a performance that feels stiff and unreal. Method actors learn relaxation techniques that allow them to remove any blockages between them and their performance so they can offer something that feels truly spontaneous and real.

Three-time Oscar-winner Daniel Day-Lewis once said of method acting:

“All you’re trying to do is lay the groundwork, which might allow the imagination to free itself.”

This is why relaxation is so key – it allows you to take all the preparation you have done for a role and use it instinctively and imaginatively to create a raw and fluid performance, rather than something that feels too calculated or mechanical.

Affective memory

Tapping into strong, emotionally charged memories from our own lives is vital for creating strong emotions when acting. Affective memory lets us safely and reliably bring up powerful memories and use them to inform our performances. This is the key to finding inspiration on cue and is what separates professional actors from amateurs who may offer a brilliant performance one day, then be unable to recreate it the next.

Sense memory

Our memories are intimately connected with our senses. Think of the way hearing a favourite song from your youth instantly brings back the feelings you experienced when you first heard the song. Or the way the smell of food makes your mouth water with the memory of a wonderful meal you once had. Method acting teaches us to understand how our senses trigger our memory. This allows us to use our senses to recreate past emotions by recalling the senses associated with certain feelings and essentially hot-wiring our brains into pulling up the required emotion.

Making the private public

One of the hardest things about acting, whether on set or on stage, is forgetting that people are watching you and really losing yourself in your performance. It is a fundamental part of our human nature that we act differently in private to how we do in public. Overcoming that is an absolutely vital part of method acting as it means you can stop “performing” and start delivering something much more honest. Method acting training gets you used to making the private public and gives you techniques to help you feel totally natural doing so.

Physical acting

Acting is about using your whole body and method acting does not overlook this. Learning how to really engage with your body and use movement to create characters is absolutely fundamental. Understanding how different kinds of people move and how this reflects their personality unlocks your ability to truly inhabit a character, both physically and mentally. Method acting training also looks at how our physical movements and the way we hold ourselves both reflect and influence our emotions, leading to performances that feel truly alive and three-dimensional.

Animal exercises

Creating a unique physical presence for your characters is one of the most challenging aspects of acting. Animal exercises encourage actors to look to the way animals move to inform their performances. This is a trick often used by many of the most elite actors. Famous examples include Robert De Niro basing his performance in Taxi Driver on a crab. He felt his character was indirect and so tended to shift from side to side, while Marlon Brando used the physicality of a gorilla for his role as the brutish Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire.

 

Method acting research

One of the aspects of method acting the media often love to focus on is the amount of research or preparation various actors do for their roles. For example, Robert De Niro spent months training as a boxer for Raging Bull including taking part in three real boxing matches (of which he won two). However, it’s important to understand that this sort of preparation is not actually method acting.

What this kind of research does do, however, is give the actors involved real experiences to draw on for their method acting. Ultimately, it is understanding how to use the emotions experienced during that preparation to inform your performance – that is what we mean by method acting. Without this understanding, all the research in the world won’t help you because you won’t be able to apply it to your acting.

This is especially important for up-and-coming actors. Chances are you won’t have the time or financial resources to spend months doing the kind of in depth preparation an actor like Robert De Niro or Daniel Day-Lewis is able to do. This does not mean, however, that you can’t be an effective method actor. Learning the process of method acting means you can take your existing experiences and use them to inform your performance, even if you don’t have experiences that directly relate to what you are being asked to portray. This point is so important, because it reinforces the point that method acting is for everyone, not just a tiny minority of actors with the resources to spend months immersing themselves in a sport like boxing, or whatever else it might be.

 

How to become a method actor

If you are serious about becoming a method actor then you need to find a great mentor to help you do it. Sadly, Lee Strasberg is no longer with us, but our method acting classes continue his legacy of excellence by opening up the world of method acting to a new generation. We offer both a short one-weekend Method Acting Boot Camp and our year-long Ultimate Acting Programme which covers everything you need to become a successful, professional method actor, including a full understanding of the business of acting.

To find out more, please take a look around the rest of the website and, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

 

 

Jack Nicholson has been acting professionally for nearly 60 years, having made his professional debut in 1958’s The Cry Baby Killer. He is one of the industry’s most decorated actors, having won three Oscars, two for Best Actor and one for Best Supporting Actor. With 12 Academy Award nominations to his name, Nicholson is second only to Meryl Streep for total number of nominations.

How has he achieved all this? Simple: method acting.

Jack Nicholson is a master of the Method who once claimed:

“There’s probably no one who understands method acting better academically than I do, or actually uses it more in this work.”

For aspiring actors there is much to learn from Nicholson’s career about how to use method acting to take your craft to the level of a truly elite actor.

 

Getting serious about research

One of the pillars of method acting is affective memory which is the art of using your own past experiences to add a foundation of truth to your current performance.

Speaking to Esquire Nicholson once said:

“You gotta make it come from the inside. It’s all about who you are. That’s all you can really contribute. I feel autobiographical about whatever I do.”

However, for top actors like Nicholson, it’s not enough just to use their existing experiences, they go the extra mile to gain an insight into the minds of their characters. This often involves doing extensive research, meeting people and undergoing experiences that can help inform their acting.

Nicholson won his first Oscar for his role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, where he played Randle McMurphy, a convicted criminal sent to a mental institution for evaluation. To get into character, Nicholson (and the rest of the cast) spent several months living in an asylum, including going to group therapy and spending time with real patients there.

This level of dedication paid off with one of the best known and most memorable performances of Nicholson’s career.

 

Knowing your instrument

One of the most important things for any actor is to know your instrument i.e. yourself. Understanding the theory of acting isn’t enough – you need to be able to apply that theory effectively. Many actors know all the right things but allow themselves to overthink, allowing their conscious brain to get in the way of their performance.

Nicholson uses classic method acting relaxation techniques devised by Lee Strasberg to remove any tension from himself that could “get in the way of getting into a role”.

He explains:

“The idea is to get the physical body, the emotional body and the mental body into neutral. Then you should be able to hear through the voice what’s actually happening inside.”

By getting yourself into “neutral” like this, Nicholson can then allow his instincts, honed by his method acting training, to take over. This produces performances that do not feel calculated but are utterly convincing, engaging and fundamentally truthful.

 

Always being able to deliver the goods

One of the things method actors are often complimented on is their sheer professionalism. Understanding the Method means an actor can produce reliable results again and again because they have a clear, repeatable process – they are not leaving anything to chance.

Tony Richardson, who directed Nicholson in The Border, said of the actor:

“He can come on the set and deliver, without any fuss, without taking a long time walking around getting into it.”

This is the epitome of the kind of actor you can become through method acting. Having the full range of method acting tools at your disposal means always being able to find your character and produce the necessary emotions on demand. This is what it means to be a professional actor, rather than an amateur with some degree of natural talent. Industry professionals do not want to take risks on an actor who may or may not be able to do the job on the day – they want actors like Jack Nicholson who can “come on the set and deliver, without any fuss”.

 

Learn to act like Jack Nicholson

To become a great actor like Jack Nicholson you need to learn the same acting technique used by Jack and the majority of elite actors – method acting! Method acting is used by 80% of Oscar-winning actors of this century and gives you the tools to create scene-stealing, instantly iconic performances just like those of Jack Nicholson and other greats in the field, such as Robert De Niro and Daniel Day-Lewis.

At the Brian Timoney Actors’ Studio we offer the UK’s leading method acting tuition, including our one-weekend Method Acting Boot Camp and our year-long Ultimate Acting Programme. Our courses cover everything you need to truly master the Method as well as helping you to understand the business of acting so you have all the skills you need to become a full-time professional actor.

To find out more, please take a look around the rest of the website and, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

 

Understanding ‘The Method’ – The History of Method Acting

Many modern-day movies that we watch boast outstanding performances by method actors. In fact, the technique of method acting has been utilised by 80% of Oscar-winners in the ‘Best Actor’ category since the turn of the century. However, it is far from a new trend; method acting has been around in one form or another for a very long time. We thought it would be good to take a look at the history of method acting so that we can better understand its origins.

 

Ancient Greece

The idea of acting and theatre began in Ancient Greece. It was customary at that time for generations to pass on mythical stories by word of mouth to their children. This tradition gradually became a communal sharing and retelling of those stories. Eventually during the 6th century BC, festivals which celebrated the god Dionysus began to include performances which resembled acting. Towards the end of this century, plays adopted more of a formal style and were written down but at the time only male actors were allowed to take part in them.

As the years went by, Greek productions began to fall into one of three categories – those that were satyr, comedies or tragedies. Due to the vast size and nature of the open-air theatres, actors were forced to use a largely exaggerated style of acting which held its emphasis in vocal projection and the overstated movements of the body.

 

Rome

When the Roman Empire took over from the Greeks, they also enjoyed the grand spectacle of the theatre. The Romans also added musical scores to plays but phased out the traditional Greek chorus. However, once Rome fell, acting ground to a halt for centuries during the Dark Ages. Performances were very much limited to religious morality plays.

 

Italian Renaissance

A revival in the interest of acting took place during the Italian Renaissance of the 16th Century when a form of theatre known as ‘Commedia dell’arte’ was born. This style of acting focussed on the wearing of theatrical masks and presented the art of improvisation. Typically, these improvised characters would fall into various groups: Zanni were the servants, Vecchi were the masters or elders and Innamorati were the lovers. Actresses were also welcomed to the profession.

Commedia dell’arte was hugely popular and had an enormous influence on European theatre. Each country would take different aspects of the art form and adapt it into a method of acting that pleased their own native audiences. For instance, France held passion for the improvised ‘harlequin’ character whilst the works of England’s most famous playwright, William Shakespeare, were hugely inspired by the Italian movement.

 

The Emergence Of Stanislavski

By the late 19th century, a noble gentlemen called Konstantin Sergeyevich Alexeyev was growing up in one of the richest families in Russia. He was drawn towards the profession of acting, as his family had built a large theatre on their home estate. Whilst it was absolutely acceptable to enjoy watching theatre performances, it was completely taboo for a man of his birth to be involved in acting itself. Actors across Europe, but particularly in Russia hailed from an incredibly low social class which was the equivalent to a serf. However, Konstantin Alexeyev displayed sheer determination towards wanting to become a part of the theatre. He adopted a stage name of Konstantin Stanislavski which kept his performances and activities secret from his family.

Throughout his childhood, Stanislavski had kept a series of notebooks within which he would make detailed notes about performance styles, critique and self-analysis. It was popular at the time for actors to adopt a certain predetermined set of poses in order to suggest certain emotions or events that were taking place on stage. Stanislavski was opposed to this rigid style of acting and preferred to ‘live the part’. He set himself experiments where he would be disguised as a gypsy or a tramp and walk around in character. This was the starting point of his interest in method acting. The emergence of Stanislavski was an important landmark in the history of method acting.

 

The Birth Of The System

In 1909 Stanislavski produced the first draft of his ‘System’ of method acting. It was based upon years of research of performances by actors who he had great admiration for, playwrights such as Anton Chekhov and his teachings at the Moscow Arts Theatre.

Stanislavski was particularly interested in the psychology behind acting and its influence on creating realistic characters on stage. He studied the work of a French psychologist named Theodule Ribot who had come up with a concept named ‘Affective Memory’. The notion behind this concept is that an actor should recall a relevant emotional experience from their own life and then use it to summon up feelings which are associated with the event. These intense emotions can then be brought into the character that the actor is portraying. The result is a realistic performance that allows the audience to connect with the character on a deep level.

Stanislavski was also interested in the behaviour of actors before they took to the stage. He discovered that those who had prepared emotionally by relaxing into the part were more likely to deliver an outstanding performance in comparison to those who frantically buried their heads in their scripts to learn lines at the last minute.

The works of Stanislavski inspired a countless number of students. Many used the ‘System’ as a foundation from which to develop their own acting techniques. Notable examples include the Stella Adler and Meisner philosophies as well as Lee Strasberg’s Method Acting approach.

 

Strasberg’s Method Acting

Lee Strasberg was an American actor who grew up in the Ukraine before moving to the US. He set up the Group Theatre before becoming the director of the Actor’s Studio in New York. Whilst many acting approaches touch upon the idea of method acting, it is Strasberg who is considered to be the godfather of this effective technique and he is critical to any discussion on the history of method acting. He taught some of the most famous actors of our time including the likes of Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Robert de Niro, Marilyn Monroe and Dustin Hoffman. As the interest in film and TV productions has increased over the past few decades, method acting has allowed actors to command the screen under intense scrutiny from the cameras. As Al Pacino famously put it –

“The camera can film my face but until it captures my soul you don’t have a movie.”

Sadly Strasberg passed away in 1982 but his work and influence lives on and many actors have turned towards using method acting in their own careers. The technique allows them to use a proven process in order to create intricate characters and summon up emotion on demand.

 

If you’d like to join thousands of other successful actors in learning this technique, then why not consider applying to join our Ultimate Acting Programme. It is a one year, part-time course that will teach you challenging method acting, vocal and physical training. You will learn techniques for auditions and rehearsals as well as delivering excellent performances on stage or set. Students will be given access to top Hollywood and UK casting directors and will be coached on surviving the business of acting. If you’re serious about entering the top 5% of the acting profession, then apply for this exclusive course today.