Method acting has given us some of the most iconic performances of all time.
Whether or not Leonardo DiCaprio sleeping in an animal carcass for his role in The Revenant actually played a part in his Oscar – he did it in the name of artistic authenticity.
Rooted in the Stanislavski practice, method acting techniques were developed in Russia in the early 20th century.
Method actors attempt to put themselves through the life experiences of their character, and regularly go to enormous lengths in order to fully immerse themselves in the role.
In most cases, a method actor will keep an accent going when the cameras aren’t rolling, read the novel the film is based on and maybe meet their character’s real-life counterparts.
Daniel Day-Lewis took this to new heights while filming The Crucible: he didn’t bathe throughout the filming period.
While playing Natty Bumppo in Last of the Mohicans, Day-Lewis only ate food he could catch or kill himself.
But when your castmates are affected, and your lifestyle is drastically altered for a singular role –how far is too far?
Here are eight times actors took the method technique to new extremes:
Lady Gaga’s portrayal of Patrizia Reggiani – socialite and ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci – in the fashion-drama biopic House of Gucci was a process of “becoming” rather than “imitation”, she said. The actor and pop star claimed to have lived as Reggiani for nine months, on and off camera.
“I never broke. I stayed with her,” she said in interviews.
Gaga depicted Reggiani – who was convicted of hiring the hitman who shot and killed her ex-husband in 1995 – as innocent but cunning. She dyed her hair brown and started to live her life differently: “I started to live in a way whereby anything that I looked at, anything that I touched, I started to take notice of where and when I could see money,” she told Vogue.
Unfortunately for Gaga, the Gucci family issued a statement condemning the depictions in the movie, in particular her portrayal of Reggiani. The family said Reggiani “is portrayed not just in the film, but also in statements from cast members, as a victim trying to survive in a male and male chauvinist corporate culture”.
“This couldn’t be further from the truth,” the statement said.
Playing the painfully flawed and troubled son of the media-mogul bully Logan Roy, Jeremy Strong’s performance of Kendall Roy in HBO’s Succession involved emotional fatigue, painstaking intensity, and suffering.
Jared Leto in ‘Suicide Squad’ (2016)
In the process of becoming the disturbed character, Strong’s castmates reportedly became concerned for his wellbeing.
Brian Cox, who plays Roy, told The New Yorkerin a viral profile of Strong: “The result that Jeremy gets is always pretty tremendous. I just worry about what he does to himself. I worry about the crises he puts himself through in order to prepare.”
But for Strong, having embodying the character is part of the job. “I think it’s very important with acting work, that you have a personal experience,” he toldGQ. “That it is not just an imaginary experience, that you go through something and that it costs you”.
He added: “Maybe I hug the cactus a little.”
Jeremy Strong in ‘Succession’
Leonardo DiCaprio as 19th century fur trapper Hugh Glass
