Cool Art #1: Method Acting

There are many devices actors use to cross-over into the world of make believe. Some obey a strict set of rules; others allow the role to dictate the process. There are even those who slip into their characters like a warm pair of slippers at the end of a long day. But however they get there, it’s an experience precious few others will share and the world they inhabit is often an alien one to the audience. Great actors can make it look as though they have arrived there with a click of their fingers or in the blink of an eye but this is all part of the play, part of the illusion. The journey to the land beyond the fourth wall isn’t one without sacrifice. Or laughter or tears. The art of becoming is not an easy one to master and the lengths to which actors and directors will go to are often endless.

Daniel Day-Lewis, My Left Foot

Choosing the role of painter-poet Christy Brown resulted in two broken rips for the devote Method actor. Brown suffered from cerebral palsy and spent the majority of his life in a wheelchair and in order to fully understand the character Day-Lewis insisted on spending his whole time on set in this state. The crew had to spoon feed him his food and even his agent couldn’t understand a word he said. The authenticity paid off however as the son of the former poet laureate took home the Best Actor Oscar in 1989.

Jared Leto, Requiem for a Dream

If your girlfriend is Cameron Diaz you’d think you wouldn’t miss a night of passion let alone two months; you can’t question Leto’s commitment. He also lost weight and spent several nights sleeping on the litter-stained streets of New York both which pale in comparison to the chastisement of the century.

Unknown, Sherlock Holmes

Method actors often create what Stanislavski would call an inner history for their characters. One actor took this to the extreme whilst playing Dr Watson, writing a twenty-five page back catalogue, researched Boer War combat moves and even procured 19th century medical procedures. The actor opposite him, playing safecracker Sidney Prince, bore the brunt of this over-the-top pursuit of perfection every night in the second act. Before their cues the unknown actor would down a cup of vinegar and when asked why would reply ‘Because, Mr. Prince, dealing with you leaves a bad taste in my mouth.’

Daniel Day-Lewis, The Crucible

Arthur Miller’s anti-McCarthy era play was adapted to the big screen in 1996 with Day-Lewis taking the role of John Proctor. To achieve the stoicism and rustic nature of such a man the recent BAFTA winner built Proctor’s house using 17th century tools and lived in the replicated Salem, devoid of running water and electricity.

Marlon Brando, The Men

Six years before Brando’s debut screen role his unsettling antics had resulted in his removal from the cast of his first summertime stage production on Long Island in New York. By the time Hollywood came calling however, his commitment to the Stanislavski system, the origins of method acting, was well documented. In preparation for his role as the war-returned paraplegic Ken Wilcheck he stayed in a bed at a veteran’s hospital for an entire month.

Dustin Hoffman, Marathon Man

Probably the most famous anecdote concerning Method Acting but one worth telling all the same. Hoffman arrived on set having not slept for two whole days because his character was perpetually on the run from a Nazi. At the time Laurence Olivier was quoted as saying ‘My dear boy, you look awful. Why don’t you try acting?’ Whether the comment was said in jest or maliciously we’ll never know. What we do know is that Hoffman, perhaps in revenge, had Olivier running around Central Park brandishing a gun ad-libbing his socks off. Who knows what would have happened if it had been loaded?

Nicolas Cage, World Trade Centre

To encapsulate his characters near-death experience Cage listened to the Buddhist scriptures of the Tibetan Book of the Dead whilst sitting in a dark box. The readings were performed by director Oliver Stone who believed the experience would help Cage deal with the emotional tolls of playing New York Port Authority Policeman John McLoughlin who was trapped under the ruins of the two towers after the terrorist attack on the much-loved city in 2001.

Robert De Niro, Raging Bull

De Niro went from one end of the spectrum to the other whilst filming the brutal boxing drama. At the start of the biopic he played a lean version of World Middleweight Champion Jake La Motta. His training was so extensive that even La Motta himself stated De Niro was one of the ten best middleweights in the world at that time. When it came to playing the older, retired La Motta De Niro gained 60lbs and polished off the film in a condition as far as could be from the youthful Raging Bull.

Aaron Eckhart, Bill

Whilst filming a scene for last year's fairly unknown comedy film Bill Eckhart had to clutch his testicles in pain. Rather than look disingenuous he actually pinched a clothes peg onto his scrotum.

Daniel Day-Lewis, Gangs of New York

Martin Scorsese’s epic film about the history of the world’s largest city might not have won the critics over but Day-Lewis’s turn as Bill the Butcher certainly sent the pen scribblers mad - as well as the actor himself. Strolling the streets of Rome completely absorbed by the belligerent butcher Day-Lewis would find himself squaring up to complete strangers. He also caught pneumonia after refusing to wear a warmer coat; one which wouldn’t have been made until after the 19th century. But most impressive of all, he learnt the skills of a butcher and would often fill the gaps between scenes by sharpening his character’s knives.

Forest Whittaker, The Last King of Scotland

Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator, was feared and revered for his great oratory skills and tyrannical ruling. Whittaker, rather than shun the shadier sides of his real-life character, studied Amin’s recorded speeches and leant Swahili until he was fluent in the African tongue; this is how he accomplished Amin’s accent and aggression in delivery so naturally. He also took it upon himself to understand the psyche of such a man. He spent time with Amin’s family and friends as well as victims under his rule and on a lighter note he learnt to play the accordion, an instrument the former solider of the British Colonial Army used to play in his spare time.

Adrien Brody, The Pianist

The tale of Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman, a man who lost everything after the invasion of Warsaw in World War Two, fully absorbed Brody to the extent that he too traded in his life to depict this tortured true life figure. Brody sold his car, mobile phone and even his apartment. He also undertook piano lessons so he would be able to play Chopin, a ballad of whose Szpilman played to the Captain of the German Army, Wilm Hosenfield, so that he would spare his life.

Marlon Brando, Superman

Brando was renowned, and renounced, for improvising his lines. His refusal to memorise the script, either due to laziness or intoxication, often resulted in someone having to prompt him or the exact words being written somewhere visible on set. For the Detective Comics lead hero’s first outing Brando, who played the man of steel’s father, had his one and only speech scrawled on the inside of Superman’s nappy.