Yahoo Lifestyle 11 Times Performers Took Method Acting A Step Too Far And Got Called Out
On the surface level, method acting seems pretty cool — an actor being so committed to their craft that they stay in character even when the cameras stop rolling. However, in practice, method acting comes at a cost — which is often paid by the actor's costars.
Here are 11 times actors called out the worst method actors they've worked with:
1.In 2023, Brian Cox told Town & Country that his Succession costar Jeremy Strong is "a very good actor," but being around someone who's always in character is "fucking annoying."
He added, "Don't get me going on it."
Previously, in a 2021 New Yorker profile on Jeremy, Brian said, "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...Actors are funny creatures. I've worked with intense actors before. It's a particularly American disease, I think, this inability to separate yourself off while you're doing the job."
In 2023, Jeremy told GQ, "Everyone's entitled to have their feelings. I also think Brian Cox, for example, he's earned the right to say whatever the fuck he wants. There was no need to address that or do damage control…. I feel a lot of love for my siblings and my father on the show. And it is like a family in the sense that, and I'm sure they would say this, too, you don't always like the people that you love. I do always respect them."
2.In 2022, Vicky Krieps told the Telegraph that she went into Phantom Thread without knowing anything about Daniel Day-Lewis's Method acting, but she tried to keep an open mind. She said, "But after half the movie, I was just really tired of it. Like: 'OK, I get it. It's a game. I've played it. But can we just talk normally now, please?'"
She also said, "I am a person who thinks we are all equal. We all sit on the toilet. I could see it all like a circus. I just didn't get afraid."
3.In 2007, Tyrese Gibson told Elle, "[My Annapolis costar] James Franco is a Method actor. I respect Method actors, but he never snapped out of character. Whenever we'd have to get in the ring for boxing scenes, and even during practice, the dude was full-on hitting me."
He continued, "I was always like, 'James, lighten up, man. We're just practicing.' He never lightened up."
In 2008, James told GQ, "I take full blame for any problems on that film. If he had a bad experience working with me, I was probably a jerk. I was not purposely cruel to him, but I was probably so wrapped up in my performance that I was not as friendly as I could have been. This is such a stupid issue I can't believe I'm still talking about it. But when I'm asked about it in the press it makes it seem as if it's still an issue. I think Tyrese is a sweet guy with a good heart. I wish him all the best."
4.In 2013, Paul Giamatti told BuzzFeed that filming Man on the Moon with Jim Carrey method acting was "a very strange experience." He said, "It was one of the weirdest experiences I've had making a movie, to be honest with you. It was just wacky. Jim was wacky during it. He did this whole thing where he was Andy Kaufman all the time when he was on set and when he was in the costume, and was Tony Clifton all the time when he was Tony Clifton."
He continued, "When he was Tony Clifton, he had cheese — Limburger cheese — in his pockets so he smelled horrible. And he'd constantly be hugging people, and he had it all over his hands and stuff. It was disgusting. He was touching people and making them shake his hands all the time. He smelled horrible. Like, really bad. It was just weird. And that's the least of it."
5.In 2022, Jesse Plemons told Variety that a comment his The Power of the Dog costar Benedict Cumberbatch made in character "pissed [him] off." He said, "There was one time he got under my skin. He was like, 'Hey, big boy.' It wasn't 'fatso.' I feel like a few people in life have been like, 'Hey, big boy,' and I was like, 'Goddamn it. What the fuck.'"
During dinner, Jesse told Benedict that the comment upset him.
He said, "He was like, 'I'm so sorry.' I was like, 'No, don't worry. It was great.'"
6.In 2009, Bronson Pinchot told the AV Club that he thought his Risky Business costar Tom Cruise was "the biggest bore on the face of the Earth." He said, "He had spent some formative time with Sean Penn—we were all very young at the time, Tom was 20, I was 23. Tom had picked up this knack of calling everyone by their character names, because that would probably make your performance better, and I don’t agree with that. I think that acting is acting, and the rest of the time, you should be you, but he called us all by our character names."
He also said, "I thought the movie would disappear. It just goes to show you, I obviously don’t have the antennae for that. I didn't see it at all, but neither did any of the actors. All of the actors who talked about him were like, 'What is this guy all about?' And you know, honestly, I never got it, and I don’t get it to this day. But it was his breakout film. He always talked about himself like he was a mega-superstar; that was weird, too."
7.After filming the Marathon Man scene where Dustin Hoffman's character had stayed awake for three days, his costar Laurence Olivier asked how it went. Dustin reportedly said he also hadn't slept for three days, to which Laurence famously replied, "My dear boy, why don't you just try acting?"
Since then, Dustin has reportedly said he stayed awake for so long because of partying, not Method acting.
8.Speaking of Dustin Hoffman, in 2018, Meryl Streep told the New York Times that her Kramer vs. Kramer costar slapped her off-script without consent. She said, "This is tricky because when you're an actor, you're in a scene, you have to feel free. I'm sure that I have inadvertently hurt people in physical scenes. But there's a certain amount of forgiveness in that. But this was my first movie, and it was my first take in my first movie, and he just slapped me. And you see it in the movie. It was overstepping."
She continued, "But I think those things are being corrected in this moment. And they’re not politically corrected; they’re fixed. They will be fixed, because people won’t accept it anymore. So that’s a good thing."
9.In 2016, Viola Davis told E! News that her Suicide Squad character Jared Leto sent her a box of bullets. She said, "It was a little worrisome. It made you a little bit nervous, and I'm pretty tough. You know, I got into a few fights when I was growing up...but it scared me a little bit."
Clay Enos / © Warner Bros. / courtesy Everett Collection, Warner Bros. / courtesy Everett Collection
She said she didn't meet the "real" Jared until after filming ended. They crossed paths at a Glamour event.
"Before that I was only introduced to The Joker...and I almost had my pepper spray out. You know, 'You remember that bullet you sent me?'" she said.
Jared told E! News, "I did a lot of things to create a dynamic, to create an element of surprise, a spontaneity, and to really break down any kind of walls that may be there. The Joker is somebody who doesn't really respect things like personal space or boundaries."
10.Similarly, in 2016, Suicide Squad costar Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje told E! News that Jared Leto sent him "sticky Playboy magazines."
Clay Enos / © Warner Bros. /Courtesy Everett Collection, ©Warner Bros / courtesy Everett Collection
Jared also sent the entire cast a dead pig.
Adewale said, "That was a good gift because it had the effect of unifying us as a group because then it became us against him. We sent the messenger back with the dead pig and our own personalized message. It got the ball rolling."
11.And finally, in 2015, Will Smith told the Beats 1 Radio Show that he "never actually met Jared Leto." He said, "We worked together for six months and we've never exchanged a word outside of 'action!' and 'cut!' We've never said 'hello,' we've never said 'good day.' I've only ever spoken to him as Deadshot and him as the Joker."
Clay Enos / © Warner Bros. / courtesy Everett Collection
He continued, "I literally have not met him yet... Not a single word exchanged off-camera. He was all in on the Joker."
