Has method acting finally been taken too far after decades of being the inner technique of our greatest actors, both living and dead? Shia LaBeouf’s recent admittance that his method acting on the set of Prohibition drama “Lawless” spooked his co-star, Mia Wasikowska, now has to garner some closer scrutiny in what makes a brilliant method actor. Even if Marlon Brando once was able to get away with bizarre method acting technique on film sets, it now comes down to what fellow actors can readily expect from you.
With Shia LaBeouf, it’s easy to think that his real (sometimes troubled) life can be taken as an exercise in training for a movie. The reality, though, is that his past drinking escapades unfortunately made him extra vulnerable to playing a similar moonshine drunk in this month’s “Lawless.” When you have a more instinctual actress such as Mia Wasikowska arriving on the set to see a method actor acting aggressively drunk, it’s easy to see the ultimate clashing of acting styles.
It may not help once LaBeouf reportedly partakes in having real sex in his next movie “Nymphomaniac” from Lars von Trier. Who’s to say whether his co-stars will understand that what he’s doing is real or a new, odd blend of being real and acting? That’s always been the problem of method actors and straddling the line of reality for the sake of a role.
Method acting long evolved into its own subsets of individualism from actors who came after Lee Strasberg helped bring the theatrical Constantin Stanislavski style of acting to the big screen decades ago. Even with various offshoot method schools (Meisner and Adler) breaking from Strasberg, the actors who arose from the millennial generation are now integrating all of those previous trains of thought. Wholly, it might have created something dangerous if you go by the fate of Heath Ledger during “The Dark Knight.”
You can say that despite many method acting schools teaching ways to avoid the role of a character spilling over into real life. But with LaBeouf taking things much differently lately, are we looking at the downfall of method actors? It’s not impossible to see such individualistic method actors like LaBeouf take things so close to the precipice with fellow actors that it has potential to ruin a career if not a life.
LaBeouf should heed that warning, especially when a method actor has to have supposed real sex in a movie. Such dangerous leaps of acting feats may clash with other actresses of Wasikowska’s club where natural instinct seems to be the growing, competitive method. In Wasikowska’s case, it’s about preparation of a character’s background for reference, yet no literal acting until in the moment of a scene.
A lot of other acting talent may be taking Wasikowska’s lead and using intuition rather than any true method. If that ends up usurping method acting, we may end up with the result of better performances based on acting in the moment over tapping memories that can spill over into reality.
Yes, let’s allow spontaneity to prosper in acting where more astute aspects about the human condition can be captured rather than festering a person’s deep-seated and protracted nightmares.
