known as the Method) encourages actors to speak,
move, and gesture not in a traditional stage manner
but just as they would in their own lives. Thus it is
an ideal technique for representing convincing
human behavior on the stage and on the screen.
The Method has led to a new level of realism and
subtlety, influencing such actors as Marlon Brando,
Montgomery Clift, James Dean, Robert De Niro,
Faye Dunaway, Robert Duvall, Morgan Freeman,
Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Hopper,
Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Walter Matthau, Paul
Newman, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Sidney Poitier,
Jon Voight, and Shelley Winters.^21
To understand Method acting, you have to see it.
Fortunately, there are some wonderful examples,
including James Dean’s three movie roles—Cal
Trask in Elia Kazan’s East of Eden(1955), Jim Stark
in Nicholas Ray’s Rebel without a Cause(1955), and
Jett Rink in George Stevens’s Giant(1956)—and
Marlon Brando’s equally legendary performances
as Stanley Kowalski in Elia Kazan’s A Streetcar
Named Desire(1951)—reprising the stage role that
made him famous—and as Terry Malloy in Kazan’s
On the Waterfront(1954). Other notable perform-
ances, out of many, include those given by Paul
Newman as Eddie Felson in Robert Rossen’s The
Hustler(1961), Shelley Winters as Charlotte Haze
Humbert in Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita(1962), and
Faye Dunaway as Evelyn Cross Mulwray in Roman
Polanski’s Chinatown(1974). Each of these perform-
ances exhibits the major characteristics of Method
acting: intense concentration and internalization
on the actor’s part (sometimes mistaken for dis-
comfort); low-key, almost laid-back delivery of lines
(sometimes described as mumbling); and an edgi-
ness (sometimes highly neurotic) that suggests
dissatisfaction, unhappiness, and alienation. In
directing The Misfits(1961), with a script by play-
wright Arthur Miller, John Huston (not a Method
director) must have been bewildered by the range
of acting talent in front of his camera: Clark Gable,
a traditional Hollywood star in any sense of the
word, one who could be counted on to always
deliver a reliable performance; Thelma Ritter, an
equally seasoned supporting player who invariably
played the role of a wisecracking sidekick; and sev-
eral Method actors (Eli Wallach, Montgomery Clift,
and Marilyn Monroe), whose performances, by
contrast with the rest of the cast, seem out of touch
and clumsy. Absent here is the ensemble Method
acting obvious in Elia Kazan’s movies.
No matter what school or style of acting is
involved, it is clear that memorable acting results
from hard work, skill, imagination, and discipline.Screen Acting Today
From the earliest years, the development of
movie acting has relied on synthesizing various
approaches, including those already discussed.
Contemporary actors employ a range of physically
or psychologically based approaches, with some
action stars, like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jamie
Foxx, relying entirely on physical effect, while others
like Bruce Willis, relying both on physical prowess
and a very defined persona that has evolved from
his early wise-guy days to a more world-weary per-
sona. Directors also take different approaches
toward actors. Robert Altman, for example, who is
particularly good at capturing the mood of an
ensemble of actors within a narrative, encourages
improvisation and the exploration of individual
styles. Joel Coen, in contrast, tends to regard act-
ing as a critical component of the highly stylized
mise-en-scène within the often cartoonlike movies
that he creates with his brother, Ethan.
In Altman’s The Player(1992), Tim Robbins plays
Griffin Mill, a Hollywood producer, at once emo-
tively and satirically. He uses his big, open face and
charming manner to draw us into Mill’s profes-
sional and existential crises, then turns edgy
enough to distance us as Mill becomes a murderer
and ruthless careerist. In Altman’s Kansas City
(1996), Jennifer Jason Leigh delivers an emotional
hurricane of a performance as the cheap, brassy,
tough Blondie O’Hara, a Jean Harlow wannabe.
Her scowl, furrowed brow, rotten teeth under big
red lips, and screeching-cat voice leave no room for304 CHAPTER 7ACTING
(^21) See Carole Zucker, “An Interview with Lindsay Crouse,” Post
Script: Essays in Film and the Humanities12, no. 2 (Winter
1993): 5–28. See also Foster Hirsch, A Method to Their
Madness: The History of the Actors Studio(New York: Norton,
1984), and Steven Vineberg, Method Actors: Three Generations
of an American Acting Style(New York: Schirmer, 1991).