Editing Method acting (section)

== History and development ==
{{Main|Stanislavski's system}}

"The Method" is an elaboration of the "system" of acting developed by the Russian [[theatre practitioner]] [[Konstantin Stanislavski]]. In the first three decades of the [[Twentieth-century theatre|20th century]], Stanislavski organized his training, preparation, and rehearsal techniques into a coherent, [[system]]atic methodology. The "method" brought together and built on: (1) the director-centred, [[Gesamtkunstwerk|unified aesthetic]] and disciplined, [[Ensemble cast|ensemble]] approach of the [[Meiningen Ensemble|Meiningen company]]; (2) the actor-centred [[Realism (theatre)|realism]] of the [[Maly Theatre (Moscow)|Maly Theatre]]; (3) and the [[Naturalism (theatre)|naturalistic]] staging of [[André Antoine]] and the independent theatre movement.<ref>Benedetti (1989, 5–11, 15, 18) and (1999b, 254), Braun (1982, 59), Carnicke (2000, 13, 16, 29), Counsell (1996, 24), Gordon (2006, 38, 40–41), and Innes (2000, 53–54).</ref>

[[File:Diagram of Stanislavski's 'system'.jpg|thumb|A diagram of [[Stanislavski's system|Stanislavski's "system"]], based on his "Plan of Experiencing" (1935)]]

The "system" cultivates what Stanislavski calls the "art of experiencing", to which he contrasts the "[[art of representation]]".<ref name=rep>Benedetti (1999a, 201), Carnicke (2000, 17), and Stanislavski (1938, 16–36). Stanislavski's "[[art of representation]]" corresponds to [[Mikhail Shchepkin]]'s "actor of reason" and his "art of experiencing" corresponds to Shchepkin's "actor of feeling"; see Benedetti (1999a, 202).</ref> It mobilizes the actor's [[Consciousness|conscious]] thought and [[Will (philosophy)|will]], in order to activate other, less-controllable psychological processes, like emotional experience and [[subconscious]] behavior, both sympathetically and indirectly.<ref>Benedetti (1999a, 170).</ref> In rehearsal, the actor searches for inner motives to justify action and the definition of what the character seeks to achieve at any given moment (a "task").<ref>Benedetti (1999a, 182–183).</ref> Later, Stanislavski further elaborated the "system" with a more physically grounded rehearsal process, which is known as the "[[Method of Physical Action]]".<ref name=MOPA>Benedetti (1999a, 325, 360) and (2005, 121) and Roach (1985, 197–198, 205, 211–215). The term "[[Method of Physical Action]]" was applied to this rehearsal process after Stanislavski's death. Benedetti indicates that though Stanislavski had developed it since 1916, he first explored it practically in the early 1930s; see (1998, 104) and (1999a, 356, 358). Gordon argues the shift in working-method happened during the 1920s (2006, 49–55). Vasili Toporkov, an actor who trained under Stanislavski in this approach, provides in his ''Stanislavski in Rehearsal'' (2004) a detailed account of the Method of Physical Action at work in Stanislavski's rehearsals.</ref> Minimizing at-the-table discussions, he now encouraged an "active analysis", in which the sequence of dramatic situations are [[Improvisation|improvised]].<ref>Benedetti (1999a, 355–256), Carnicke (2000, 32–33), Leach (2004, 29), Magarshack (1950, 373–375), and Whyman (2008, 242).</ref> "The best analysis of a play", Stanislavski argued, "is to take action in the given circumstances."<ref name=ANALYSIS>Quoted by Carnicke (1998, 156). Stanislavski continues: "For in the process of action the actor gradually obtains the mastery over the inner incentives of the actions of the character he is representing, evoking in himself the emotions and thoughts which resulted in those actions. In such a case, an actor not only understands his part, but also feels it, and that is the most important thing in creative work on the stage"; quoted by Magarshack (1950, 375).</ref>

As well as Stanislavski's early work, the ideas and techniques of [[Yevgeny Vakhtangov]] (a Russian-Armenian student who had died in 1922 at age 39) were also an important influence on the development of the Method. Vakhtangov's "object exercises" were developed further by [[Uta Hagen]] as a means for actor training and the maintenance of skills. Strasberg attributed to Vakhtangov the distinction between Stanislavski's process of "justifying" behavior with the inner motivational forces that prompt that behavior in the character and the "motivating" behavior with imagined or recalled experiences relating to the actor and substituted for those relating to the character. Following this distinction, actors ask themselves "What would motivate me, the actor, to behave in the way the character does?" The contrast is the Stanislavskian question, "Given the particular circumstances of the play, how would I behave, what would I do, how would I feel, how would I react?"<ref>Carnicke (2009, 221).</ref>

=== United States ===

In the United States, the transmission of the earliest phase of Stanislavski's work via the students of the First Studio of the [[Moscow Art Theatre]] (MAT) revolutionized acting in the [[Western culture|West]].<ref>Carnicke (1998, 1, 167) and (2000, 14), Counsell (1996, 24–25), Golub (1998, 1032), Gordon (2006, 71–72), Leach (2004, 29), and Milling and Ley (2001, 1–2).</ref> When the MAT toured the US in the early 1920s, [[Richard Boleslawski]], one of Stanislavski's students from the First Studio, presented a series of lectures on the "system" that were eventually published as ''Acting: The First Six Lessons'' (1933). The interest generated led to a decision by Boleslawski and [[Maria Ouspenskaya]] (another student at the First Studio who later became an acting teacher)<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-06-16|title=What are Animal Exercises?|url=https://actingmagazine.com/2019/06/what-are-animal-exercises/|access-date=2021-12-18|website=Acting Magazine|language=en}}</ref> to emigrate to the US and to establish the [[American Laboratory Theatre]].<ref>Benedetti (1999a, 283, 286) and Gordon (2006, 71–72).</ref>

However, the version of Stanislavski's practice these students took to the US with them was that developed in the 1910s, rather than the more fully elaborated version of the "system" detailed in Stanislavski's acting manuals from the 1930s, ''An Actor's Work'' and ''An Actor's Work on a Role''. The first half of ''An Actor's Work'', which treated the psychological elements of training, was published in a heavily abridged and misleadingly translated version in the US as ''[[An Actor Prepares]]'' in 1936. English-language readers often confused the first volume on psychological processes with the "system" as a whole.<ref name=b332>Benedetti (1999a, 332).</ref> Many of the American practitioners who came to be identified with the Method were taught by Boleslawski and Ouspenskaya at the American Laboratory Theatre.<ref>Krasner (2000b, 129–130).</ref> The approaches to acting subsequently developed by their students—including Lee Strasberg, [[Stella Adler]], and [[Sanford Meisner]]—are often confused with Stanislavski's "system".

[[Stella Adler]], an actress and acting teacher whose students included [[Marlon Brando]], [[Warren Beatty]], and [[Robert De Niro]], also broke with Strasberg after she studied with Stanislavski. Her version of the method is based on the idea that actors should stimulate emotional experience by imagining the scene's "given circumstances", rather than recalling experiences from their own lives. Adler's approach also seeks to stimulate the actor's imagination through the use of "as ifs", which substitute more personally affecting imagined situations for the circumstances experienced by the character.

[[Alfred Hitchcock]] described his work with [[Montgomery Clift]] in ''[[I Confess (film)|I Confess]]'' as difficult "because you know, he was a method actor". He recalled similar problems with Paul Newman in ''[[Torn Curtain]]''.<ref>Abramson (2015, 135).</ref> [[Lillian Gish]] quipped: "It's ridiculous. How would you portray death if you had to experience it first?"<ref>Flom (2009, 241).</ref> [[Charles Laughton]], who worked closely for a time with [[Bertolt Brecht]], argued that "Method actors give you a photograph", while "real actors give you an oil painting."<ref>French (2008).</ref>

During the filming of ''[[Marathon Man (film)|Marathon Man]]'' (1976), [[Laurence Olivier]], who had lost patience with Method acting two decades earlier while filming ''[[The Prince and the Showgirl]]'' (1957), was said to have quipped to Dustin Hoffman, after Hoffman stayed up all night to match his character's situation, that Hoffman should "try acting&nbsp;... It's so much easier."<ref>{{cite news|quote=The American actor Dustin Hoffman, playing a victim of imprisonment and torture in the film The Marathon Man, prepared himself for his role by keeping himself awake for two days and nights. He arrived at the studio disheveled and drawn to be met by his co-star, Laurence Olivier. 'Dear boy, you look absolutely awful,' exclaimed the First Lord of the Theatre. 'Why don't you try acting? It's so much easier.' Never was a grosser untruth spoken in jest. Laurence Kerr Olivier ... would be the last man on earth to regard his chosen profession as easy.|date=17 May 1982|page=8|newspaper=[[The Times]]|title=The Times Profile: Laurence Olivier at Seventy-Five|first=Alan|last=Hamilton}}</ref> In an interview on ''[[Inside the Actors Studio]]'', Hoffman said that this story had been distorted: he had been up all night at a nightclub for personal rather than professional reasons and Olivier, who understood this, was joking.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dillon |first1=George |title=Dustin Hoffman discusses the Laurence Olivier story |url=https://georgedillon.com/workshops/video-links/dustin-hoffman-discusses-the-laurence-olivier-story/ |access-date=24 July 2022}}</ref>

Strasberg's students included many prominent American actors of the latter half of the 20th century, including [[Paul Newman]], [[Al Pacino]], [[George Peppard]], [[Dustin Hoffman]], [[James Dean]], [[Marilyn Monroe]], [[Jane Fonda]], [[Jack Nicholson]], and [[Mickey Rourke]].<ref>Gussow (1982).</ref>

=== India ===
In [[Cinema of India|Indian cinema]], a form of Method acting was developed independently from American cinema. [[Dilip Kumar]], a [[Bollywood|Hindi cinema]] actor who debuted in the 1940s and eventually became one of the biggest Indian [[movie star]]s of the 1950s and 1960s, was a pioneer of this technique, predating Hollywood Method actors such as [[Marlon Brando]]. Kumar inspired many future Indian actors, including [[Amitabh Bachchan]], [[Naseeruddin Shah]], [[Nawazuddin Siddiqui]], [[Irrfan Khan]] and many more.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thequint.com/entertainment/2015/12/11/before-brando-there-was-dilip-kumar |title=Before Brando, There Was Dilip Kumar |website=The Quint |date=December 11, 2015 |first=Ranjib |last=Mazumder |access-date=May 8, 2022}}</ref><ref name="Hegde">{{cite web |last1=Hegde |first1=Rajul |title=Even actors of today have influences of Dilip Kumar |url=https://www.rediff.com/movies/report/javed-akhtar-even-actors-of-today-have-influences--of-dilip-kumar/20121111.htm |website=Rediff |access-date=13 January 2019 |date=November 11, 2012}}</ref> Kumar, who pioneered his own form of method acting without any acting school experience,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kumar|first1=Dilip|title=Dilip Kumar: The Substance and the Shadow |date=2014 |publisher=[[Hay House]] |isbn=9789381398968 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J2UZBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT12|language=en}}</ref> was described as "the ultimate method actor" by filmmaker [[Satyajit Ray]].<ref>{{cite news|author=RANJAN DAS GUPTA |date=28 August 2010 |title=Unmatched innings |url=http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/article597902.ece |newspaper=[[The Hindu]] |access-date=9 January 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208164035/http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/article597902.ece |archive-date=8 February 2012}}</ref>

In the south, method acting was extensively practiced at first by Malayalam actor [[Sathyan (Malayalam actor)|Sathyan]] and later by Tamil actor [[Sivaji Ganeshan]] and later by prominent actors like [[Mammootty]], [[Mohanlal]] and [[Kamal Haasan]].

Method acting is being discussed more in India with the rise of [[List of streaming media services|OTT streaming platforms]] that feature several popular web series exploring genres seldom featured in Indian cinema. The increasing viewership of these platforms has given space to the next generation of method actors in India,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://amitsadhfanclub.com/bollywood-method-actors/|title=Best Method Actors in India – Bollywood Method Actors|date=June 26, 2021|access-date=March 6, 2022|archive-date=October 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211009172303/https://amitsadhfanclub.com/bollywood-method-actors/|url-status=dead}}</ref> including [[Rajkummar Rao|Rajkumar Rao]], [[Amit Sadh]], [[Pawan Kalyan]], [[Ali Fazal]] and [[Vicky Kaushal]].

=== Henry Irving's 'Dual Consciousness' System ===
The techniques used by the English actor [[Henry Irving]], who died in 1905, are a precursor to the established ideas about method acting.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Shepherd |first=Michael |title=Dracula & Cruden Bay |year=2023 |isbn=9798864198599 |publication-date=2023 |pages=65}}</ref> These were described by [[Bram Stoker]], author of [[Dracula]], in two chapters of his book [[Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving]], published in 1907. Stoker had worked in close cooperation with Irving as the business manager of  the [[Lyceum Theatre, London|Lyceum Theatre]] in London, which Irving owned.

Some quotes from Stoker’s book:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stoker |first=Bram |title=Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving |publisher=William Heinemann |year=1907}}</ref><blockquote>Irving and I were alone together one hot afternoon in August 1889, crossing in the steamer from Southsea to the Isle of Wight, and were talking of that phase of Stage Art which deals with the conception and development of character. In the course of our conversation, whilst he was explaining to me the absolute necessity of an actor's understanding the prime qualities of a character in order that he may make it throughout consistent, he said these words: “If you do not pass a character through your own mind it can never be sincere”. I was much struck with the phrase... Lest I should forget the exact words I wrote them then and there in my pocket-book. I entered them later in my diary. p. 244

Quoting Irving: ‘It is most important that an actor should learn that he is a figure in a picture, and that the least exaggeration destroys the harmony of the composition. All the members of the company should work toward a common end, with the nicest subordination of their individuality to the general purpose.’ p.252

And quoting Irving again: ‘Has not the actor who can... make his feelings a part of his art an advantage over the actor who never feels, but makes his observations solely from the feelings of others? It is necessary to this art that the mind should have, as it were, a double consciousness, in which all the emotions proper to the occasion may have full swing, while the actor is all the time on the alert for every detail of his method... The actor who combines the electric force of a strong personality with a mastery of the resources of his art, must have a greater power over his audiences than the passionless actor who gives a most artistic simulation of the emotions he never experiences.’ p.256

‘For the purely monkey arts of life there is no future they stand only in the crude glare of the present, and there is no softness for them, in the twilight of either hope or memory. With the true artist the internal force is the first requisite the external appearance being merely the medium through which this is made known to others.’ p.257. 

‘If an actor has to learn of others often primarily through his own emotions, it is surely necessary that he learn first to know himself. He need not take himself as a standard of perfection though poor human nature is apt to lean that way; but he can accept himself as something that he knows. If he cannot get that far he will never know anything. With himself then, and his self-knowledge as a foothold, he may begin to understand others.’ p.258</blockquote>It has been suggested that Bram Stoker used Irving's techniques to help him capture authenticity of tone while writing [[Dracula]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Moorhead |first=Joanna |date=9 Oct 2022 |title=Cutting his teeth: how Bram Stoker found his inner Dracula in Scotland. |work=The Observer |pages=3}}</ref><ref name=":0" />