Acting : Is method acting bad for your health? by Debbie Elicksen

James Franco is so insightful. I'm pretty sure I'm getting a man crush on the guy. He makes some interesting points here.

If an actor dives into the depths of depression to play a role of someone who is depressed, he/she is bound to have physiological impacts on their body and health. A healthy actor must find ways to counterbalance this impact on their body, emotional well-being, health...

Thank you so much for posting this. I studied for two years at a Strasberg based studio. But there was a twist. We learned how to level off our emotions after each class by tuning into the moment and bringing ourselves back to the present. I'm still not 100% invested in the Method style. But it's worth exploring. In the end, I think each actor develops his or her own style. Some are healthier than others. But then again, some people are healthier than others. Artists of all ilk have a propensity for being tortured souls. We've spent our lifetimes not quite fitting in and being driven to pick apart the human soul. It takes great skill and practice to keep your mind and emotions steady. Meditation has been my greatest tool in this regard. Overall, an artist needs to take great care in nurturing themselves while pushing emotional and rational boundaries.

Wow, Katrina. That was so well put. Thank you for that.

I agree. Fantastic post, Katrina. Thanks for sharing.

Great post Ross. I feel that a key element that compounds the issue is the characters high profile actors feel the need to be to satisfy their public image. Pushing hard into method acting seems to be becoming a badge of honour that their fans and critics expect to see or even serving escapism from the reality of maintaining a strong performance in terms of both their jobs as actors and celebrities.

I imagine the strength of a person's individual psyche has to play into it from the start. Of the people who unfortunately die of drugs, isn't more going on there than Method acting? I just saw a piece this morning discussing a CNN interview with Lupita Nyong'o who talked about reprogramming after getting into character for her role in 12 Years A Slave. She chose a healthy route, at least from public admission. Considering this discussion feed, I thought that was a very timely clip. :)

Great discussion Debbie very thought provoking.

Thanks, Reece. It just seemed like the headline was too black and white to ignore without hearing from the people who are actually "in" it.

I agree with you Debbie great conversation starter.

Every actor has a 'Method' to this acting madness, lol. I shun the concept that Strasberg's approach defines 'Method' and yes, I agree with Adler and Meisner, who were both VASTLY superior actors and teachers that Strasberg's approaches were unhealthy. I come from the approach that emotion is NOT the most important layer of an actors make-up, it is by doing fully in every moment and being present in the moment with other actors and investing in your relationships with them that draws out the colors that impact those who watch you. Never been into affectations and hysterics, that's for bad actors. Great actors make good choices, and the journey they travel in their scenes are what affects people on a subconscious level not that over the top nonsense or playing introverted. That's all ego. In the beginning stages of learning this craft I did experiments where I approached my art coming from a 'past experience' place and a place of imagination fleshed out by raising the stakes high and without fail, the latter approach which is Meisner's M.O. is the 'method' that takes me to the places I need to go to be living truthfully in the moment. The past never changes, but a person does and what affected you than will not affect you the way it needs to every time, especially if you're doing 8 shows on the stage weekly for months on end over the years. Not only that, it's rooted in YOUR experience, not the characters and your job is to bring that writers creation which you have been given the responsibility to 'live' and to bring your human palette and imagination to give THEM life. Imagination, what if's, they change with you as you evolve both as a person and an artist and when it begins to lose it's hold on you can reconfigure it. Phillip Seymour Hoffman was brilliant because he was disciplined and present. He 'listened like his his life depended on it' whether threatening Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love, consoling his buddy in Almost Famous, eeking out his opportunity to get closer to Dirk, or waiting for the perfect moment to request to play first violin in Performance A Late Quartet. He listened to his patient and than got on that phone and listened to his egotistical son in Magnolia and he affected us EVERY time because of that. He saw people clearly, so he could bring so many human colors to life. If he just sat there and got hysterical or emotional he would have never had the impact he had on US. Marlon took risks in the early stages of the craft so his impact is from a different era and no-one can compare anyone to him so any comparison is mute to me personally. To live truthfully under imaginary circumstances, be present with your fellow actors. In the moment with them and yourself. Mine the words and subtext of your script. See people clearly, you will understand their blood memory. Do that diligently and you are an actor who lives on stage and screen. But that's just my own personal opinion on the matter. As far as the toll it takes on your health, your choices do effect you. Some people can let go easier, some cannot. Sometimes when certain 'what ifs' affect me deeply I have to keep my mind on other things because if I think on it I'll break down catching the train. It's a skill to learn how to bring out these layers, live them when needed and put them back when you're done. It's easier for me to let go AFTER the fact but sometimes leading up it gets to me. But the great thing about this craft we're always learning and some things comes easier and other's harder. We take these roles because they resonate, but we def need to know the clear distinctions or we'll end up in the psych ward after every play and movie. Hence why I think imagination is key, not your past or present issues. Reliving your demons as a lifestyle will kill anyone, on or off-stage

Theater, and this is one of the things I love about being an actor, is to discover and observe the enormous power of the words. Persuasion that words have. The virtue of word to creating images, feelings. Then you just have those clear images for the emotion to occur. A partial emotion because I'm not suffering at all, or it would be a clinical problem otherwise. I'm enjoying it when suddenly a tear flows, I'm not really suffering, I'm playing something that words causes. By that I mean its power of convening, images, feelings, memories, experiences. Just as there are words that are tremendous, and powerful as for example the word "freedom", "mother", the word "love", "life." These words have a great content. As Borges said, across the word "rose" the whole rose is contained. The word "Nile" is the Nile River which flows into the delta in Egypt. So, we don't suffer at all, on the contrary, if I get the emotion I'm enjoying it because it is reliably transmitting what the word says. I have tried to avoid for many years now (since I realized it is masochistic) the issue of "emotional memory" and all that kind of resources (Norma Aleandro thinks the same) It seems almost unfair to yourself, to use a psychodramatic mechanism I think is emotionally masturbatory and also runs out because of both imagining or remembering heinous atrocious things suddenly become trivial because they belong to your personal background, and here you are playing, theater is playing. I like a certain kind of histrionics, all these are resources to point out that one is really acting. This is a game! (by Patricio Contreras, Argentinian actor)

Michelle, what a beautiful share. I love how you put it: bring so many human colors to life. You, too, Diego. I feel much richer in spirit after reading your responses.

I recently made a concerted effort to play positive characters and playing so many bad guys. Part of this was to gain greater range, but part of it was that it started to get harder to get out of bad guy character the more I would identify with his character. Once you reach the point where Mr. Hyde is overtaking Dr. Jekyll it is time to ease up and find a healthy balance.

Myself, I find real life affects me more than playing a character, I can turn the character on and off at will, but in life it's much harder to do as it's the real world. When I first started it was difficult yes, but I think that was my ego and imaturity.

My aversion to Method style acting was really the live, breath, eat ..and sleep, wait.. two weeks as a different person, no, on set --- sounds larpy. I've improved ( a priest paladin ) for hours.. ;) and with much nerf slaying.

I guess its different for everybody but great discussion. I have been through so many ups and downs, jail time and drugs to leaving those lives behind and became great at fabricating stories(also back then) and never was called a liar on them that even though im sober and no longer living those ways i can turn it on or off like a switch. I've changed and found peace without drugs and without being on the other side of the law for a while now. I dont believe in relapse anymore since i have no problem with staying sober and away from crime and i can go on and on about the things ive done that are polar opposites from the ways i am now. I always say I wouldn't change a thing and this discussion and the posts in it give me even more hope on how far I will go. Great read but I got so many emotions and bad habits in check after beating them I just want to let it be known there is another side to this discussion that its too much to just explain on here. Damn I'm. Thankful for the crazy life i have lived. Good luck to all and if anybody ever needs help on how to act on a part that has to do with things they don't or never have wanted to do, add me and id be happy to help out anytime. i dont have the experience of the business yet but when it comes to these subjects I could be a big help to coaching somebody in many things they wouldnt want to do cause i've been there in so many ways... sorry for the run ons and vocab i wrote it all in a hurry

It does suck when somebody tries to be something they are not or would never have been and it ends up effecting their life. I'm grateful for something new I hear about everyday that has to do with acting or writing and even more greatful those thing wont be a problem for me but I wish the best of luck to anybody who tries a radical approach just to do what they love to the fullest. Wasn't trying to toot my own horn just giving insight from another approach...

I am a firm believer that we all have our own ways of getting to the goal, in building a character. I always say. As long as we all get to the same place together at the end. That is what counts. What I can never seem to grasp is why you would make acting harder than it needs to be? From my personal experience. The Method actors I have worked with seem to go through a lot more work than I do to get to that common goal.

I agree Dan. We are individuals with very specific talents and skills in finding truth in our characters.

That does sound right, we are all different in our own ways but as long as you reach the same goal in the end, no problem. As a former person that needed a crutch in life I can honestly say nobody changes till they are ready to do it on their own so who's to say a method actor won't tell you to fuck off for trying to change them? It's what I used to do right before main eventing my music shows inebriated when I was into that.

I have no idea about Shia LaBeef, but I find almost all forms of formal acting training to be so overcomplicated that it takes all the fun out of acting and turns it into a complex science problem. I mean method acting is about using your past experiences to fuel your acting emotions but the experiences we are using are in our imaginations. They are no longer real. So if you are using your imagination of something that actually happened, why not simply use your imagination on the piece you are working on. Simply imagine it is happening and trust your human instincts on how to react. I don't see how it is possible to both work from your memory and be present at the same time. No two situations are alike anyway, so how could using one past situation ever work in the current situation and why would you want to? That basically resigns you to never growing as a person. If my mother died five years ago, I'm not going to have the exact same reaction today because I am different. Frankly I think all the former Neighborhood Playhouse teachers would be rolling in their graves if they knew that today's teachers were simply regurgitating their old material without any attempt to refine and improve it. That was the whole point of going over and speaking to Stanislavski and then coming back to NYC. They sought to improve their teaching technique. So much has changed since then. What James Dean was doing looks foolish today. It is overdramatized so why are they teaching the same techniques today given that so much of acting has changed. I mean in many cases, actors are working off a green screen so they have to imagine what they are seeing. Are they now supposed to imagine what they are imagining? Acting is really simple if you just let it be. The biggest obstacle is trusting yourself. We all know how to react to any set of circumstances. It's called playing. The best actors are the best players and aren't all in their head thinking about results. I would also like to know what business it is of James Franco why Shia is behaving in any particular fashion in the first place and how can he possibly know the cause of that behavior? It's stupid speculation. I'm sure a psychiatrist couldn't even tell what's causing anyone's particular behavior because they can never know what all the inputs are that resulted in that behavior because they are never their to observe the inputs. They have to get the information from the patient themselves! How can you trust someone who is acting crazy to tell you the truth or how can you trust that their interpretation of what happened is actually what happened? Psychology and psychiatry are a joke! You might as well let the criminal tell his version of events and decide trials based only on that.

I agree David. Yes, human nature is complicated. Our approach to understanding a character's psychological makeup and behavior is simple...for me

I totally agree with David Patrick. Acting is about believing you are another person. This simply means feeling what that person would feel. Children do this instinctively. it's called make believe. So many teachers teach because they can't make enough money acting because they're not good enough. They create these ridiculous techniques in order to justify their six week course. I actually feel myself get pulled out of my feelings when I read some of the shit on the internet. As human understanding of feeling has evolved, so has acting. When you watch some of the best TV now (Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, The Walking Dead, Mad Men, etc.), these people are simply feeling different human beings enough to make them believable. They are not Acting, they are Being. This is now being called organic acting. Give me a break. It's simply being real. Training is about removing fear so the person who wants to act can feel whoever the character is and not judge it. That's what children do. There is also something called cinematography technique in which only the best actors achieve: not blinking during closeups, running a counter internal dialogue so the camera picks up the conflict in the eyes, starting internal dialogue before the scene starts, etc. But none of that matters if the fundamental behavior of make believe isn't there. By the way, I was just on a set with James Franco. This man would not connect with anyone. Between takes he would pull out his cellphone and at times, hold up the entire crew. How's that for modern day narcissism?

How did this conversation get started again? Its like two years old? Well, my email is four months old, I guess thats how.

I love method acting, I will never change. I get to live in other worlds and experience other characters perspectives from their shoes. It makes me a better person with every role!