In “Marathon Man” for a scene in which his character had been awake for three days in a row, Dustin Hoffman allegedly attempted the same thing to fully understand his state.
As written in The Guardian, this sparked a heated discussion between the co-stars. This is when Sir Lawrence Olivier delivered one of the greatest comebacks of all time.
When Hoffman started defending his actions, the Englishman simply replied, “My dear boy, why don’t you just try acting?”
We were just talking about him yesterday
room With a View. He was in last of mohegans as well
Such a great actor. Gangs of ny just silly movie I don’t hold that against him
Glad he’s back
He’s good but highly over rated. There Will Be Blood was just awful.
I hope he’s never cast as Superman.
I liked him in Last of the Mohicans.
No need to make this political.
I still think Ralph Fiennes is the better actor. DDL is just sort of bland.
Method acting doesn’t require total immersion and not breaking character the entire time including when you are not on stage/camera. It is reasonable to say some/many people say thats a bit excessive and doesn’t really help things much in the end. How does it help in off-screen real world dealings? It doesn’t.
I think you can learn using immersion techniques, for sure. Like wearing a fat suit, or being in a wheelchair, or doing a flight simulator, etc.
However I don’t think it requires days and weeks to get what you need out of it and not breaking character all that time. At least I don’t believe I would need days and weeks of it. Maybe the typical actor/actress may require days and weeks but I believe I wouldn’t need that much time.
In my one and only appearance in a play in college, I didn’t memorize my lines. So, I method acted my lines. Fortunately the one person with whom I acted wasn’t upset by me.
The director thought I was a talent. Maybe a Marlin Brando. That guy Brando was great. But, he became insufferable. You put up with him because of his greatness.
Brando’s performance in Apocalypse Now was amazing. But so were the performances of many others in that movie. The movie is one of the greatest movies ever made because of the collaboration of many as well as the story line and cinematography. The method actor risks upsetting the dynamic of a movie or other production.
Speaking only as a viewer, Daniel Day Lewis appeared to combine method acting well with interacting with others. Good for him. But, most directors would prefer that their performers know their lines.
He’s apparently a pretty good Cobbler during his off time... Making shoes by hand is an art that is seldom practiced in todays society, but it was a well respected trade back in the 19th century... Day-Lewis is a pretty strange dude.
Krik Lazrus (Robert Downey Jr.) in Tropic Thunder was totally immersed in character.