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Anyone involved in the entertainment industry in some form — be it an actual entertainer or a consumer — should be intimately familiar with the term “method acting.” Actors pursue authenticity in their roles by training their physical, mental, and emotional self to reflect a character’s ideals. This technique allows actors to draw on personal experience as a ‘method’ of ‘becoming’ the character rather than simply pretending.
When actors train under the Method, it often happens that they lose themselves in the role. The phrase “losing oneself” is a loose term, particularly because there are varying levels of immersion. Some actors are unrecognizable due to sheer talent alone, whereas others go above and beyond the requirements of the part to essentially embody whomever they perform as. This has happened to several actors in the past, but none so prominent as these.
Danny DeVito (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)
For One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, director Miloš Forman committed to method acting. In the story, Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) gets transferred from a prison farm to a mental institution. There, Nurse Ratched runs a tight ship, ruling over the patients with an iron fist, much to McMurphy’s dismay. The rebellious Randle decides to fight back against Ratchet’s abuse and bands together with the other patients to oppose her.
In order to emulate how it feels to be admitted, Forman required the cast and crew to reside at Oregon State Mental Hospital between takes. Danny DeVito was so invested in the role of Martini that he began talking to an imaginary friend and even consulted a psychiatrist to cope with the stress.
Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
The late Heath Ledger, star of The Dark Knight, will forever go down in history as one of the best renditions of DC Comics’ Joker there ever was. Six months before the theatrical release of The Dark Knight, Ledger was found unresponsive by his housekeeper and massage therapist. He was pronounced dead shortly after by means of overdose. Ledger is known to be one of the most significant method actors to ever exist. This is because he kept himself locked away for months prior to filming and even journaled to explore the inner-workings and motives of his character.
As The Hollywood Reporter stated, Ledger also experimented with different vocal tones for the character and began to adopt his mannerism towards the end. Christian Bale has said that Ledger asked him to hit him for real to make the interrogation scene in the film more authentic.
Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic Thunder)
Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. has made a name for himself in the last few decades. Tropic Thunder sees Downey embody Kirk Lazarus, an unconventional and egotistical Australian method actor. Lazarus signs on to star as Sgt. Lincoln Osiris in a satirical war-time spoof called Tropic Thunder. Before filming, Lazarus underwent a controversial surgery to change the color of his skin and committed to speaking in a Black-American accent. He would use slang words and foul language to embody the character, as did Downey Jr.
RDJ’s blackface has been the topic of controversy in the past, but the intention was to satirize the practice of extreme method acting in Hollywood. What Downey Jr. could have never predicted was that his attempts to poke fun at method acting only made an example out of himself. For the most part, as Lazarus, he was utterly unrecognizable.
Joe Pesci (Goodfellas)
Goodfellas remains one of the greatest movies of all time, no contest, but that impressive feat is due — in part — to Joe Pesci’s captivating performance. Pesci is known to be a method actor by trade. Therefore, he has taken on numerous roles that he subsequently “lost” himself in. If it isn’t Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas, it’s Harry Lime in Home Alone. In the festive flick, Pesci even frightened Culkin on several occasions by effortlessly phasing in and out of character.
He also made a point to avoid his young co-star to preserve the dynamic between Culkin’s character, Kevin, and his character, Harry. He claimed that if he and Culkin were to develop a friendship, it might translate on-screen. Pesci stated that he didn’t “want to come across on the screen that we were in any way friendly.”
Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat!)
Although Sacha Baron Cohen has never explicitly described himself as a “method actor” per se, he does exhibit traits of those who do. For his role in Borat!, the Englishman stayed in character for extended periods of time, even when the cameras weren’t rolling. This allowed him to develop a deeper understanding of the character and deliver a more believable performance. In an interview with Backstage magazine, Baron Cohen said that he “went to sleep wearing the mustache and wearing Borat’s pajamas” in order to prepare for his role in Borat.
Baron Cohen also said that he “tries to use the moments that are in front of [him]” when he is acting, rather than relying on emotional recall. This is similar to another acting technique called “living the part,” in which actors make an attempt to experience the thoughts and feelings of their character as if they were real.
