Method play – or method – is one of the world’s most iconic and mysterious playing techniques. It’s also one of the most controversial and recently Ethan Hawke had something to say about the misconceptions behind the method game.
“A lot of extremely gifted and inspired people are extremely selfish,” Hawke said. “And it works for them
The ‘Last Movie Stars’ director discussed the method, as it was once taught at the Actors’ Studio by Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg using Stanislavski’s technique, during a PGA panel hosted by the TCM host Ben Mankiewicz at the offices of Warner Bros. Discovery in New York. Tuesday.
In the CNN Films and HBO Max docuseries about the marriage, respective careers and acting practices of famous Method actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, star Vincent D’Onofrio illustrates a Method moment by reading a scenario with emotion and crying at the right time. D’Onofrio teaches at the Studio and even helped Hawke with his “Training Day” audition, with the role that earned Hawke his first Oscar nomination.
“If you’re going to do a Miles Davis documentary, I really want to learn something about music, not just Miles Davis,” director Hawke said of the scene. “You hear all this talk about the method game. It’s thrown away all the time. People say, ‘Oh, I guess he’s taking Method.’ My father could say that. He doesn’t know who Stanislavski is. He doesn’t know what that means. But you hear the expression.
Hawke continued, “How could I teach the audience what we mean when we say Method acting? ‘Cause I feel like if you don’t understand what Paul [Newman] and Joan [Woodward] continue, this idea of not pretending to be a person, but of being the person in imaginary circumstances. This is the essence of the Method game. It is interpreted in many different ways. Yeah, Dustin Hoffman wants to stay up all night, or Daniel Day-Lewis is building an addiction or whatever. It is their interpretation of what the Method works for them, and it is the genius of what Kazan, Strasberg, Stanislavski taught. I felt like I needed something to show why some people spend their lives chasing that dream. It’s hard to do. It’s about cultivating your imagination in a very powerful way.
Moderator Mankiewicz asked Hawke to weigh in on Emmy “Succession” winner Brian Cox’s highly controversial comments about Method acting as a whole. While Cox has called out co-star Jeremy Strong’s approach to the HBO series in the past, Cox’s recent controversial memoir detailed working on “The Boxer” with Daniel Day-Lewis and how the winner of a Oscar met co-star Emily Watson while in character. Mankiewicz paraphrased Cox’s take on the situation as having “robbed her of a genuine encounter with her collaborator,” Day-Lewis.
Hawke replied, “I think a lot of extremely gifted and inspired people are extremely selfish. And it works for them. If you’re going to be an adult and play an adult, professionally, in sports, arts, whatever, I wish he behaved differently, and part of Emily’s job is to meet him [where he is]. She’s an adult too, and that’s what he needs. I understand both points of view.
Add comment