Jennifer Lawrence has claimed she would be “scared” to work with method actors.
Method acting is a technique by which actors immerse themselves in roles in order to aid performances. Often, method actors are said to not “break character” even when not actively performing.
Lawrence discussed the subject during an appearance on the YouTube chat show Hot Ones, to promote her new movie, the sex comedy No Hard Feelings.
“I would be scared to work with somebody who’s method because I would have no idea how to talk to them. Like, do I have to be in character?” she told host Sean Evans. “That would just make me nervous.
“But I haven’t seen another process that I’ve been curious about, because you don’t really know about them all the time.”
The Hunger Games star has previously appeared alongside Christian Bale in the 2013 crime drama American Hustle. Bale has been characterised as a method actor at various times in his career.
According to Lawrence, seeing Bale’s techniques of getting into character inspired her to attempt them herself.
“I had always been very on/off, on/off, until I did American Hustle when I worked with Chrisitan Bale and I noticed when the camera started rolling and the crew kind of started preparing like it was going to be 10 seconds or whatever until action, he would start getting ready,” Lawrence said.
“And then I saw that and I was like, ‘That seems like a really good idea.’ And then I started to do that.”
Other note-worthy method actors include Dustin Hoffman, Daniel Day-Lewis and Succession star Jeremy Strong.
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Earlier this year, Strong’s co-star on Succession, Brian Cox, criticised the actor’s method process.
Lawrence in ‘No Hard Feelings’— (Sony Pictures Releasing)
“It’s really a cultural clash,” Cox said. “I don’t put up with all that American s***. I’m sorry. All that sort of ‘I think, therefore I feel.’”
“Just do the job,” he added. “Don’t identify.”
Mads Mikkelsen, meanwhile, has described method acting as “bulls***” and “pretentious”.
Last year, Baby Driver star Jon Bernthal suggested that the term “method acting” had been abused by certain figures in the industry.
“Every actor has a process,” he said. “Having studied in Moscow at the Moscow Art Theater, I guarantee you that making everybody call you by your character name and not showering for eight months was not what Stanislavski had in mind with the Method.”
Method acting was originally developed from techniques masterminded by Russian actor and director Konstantin Stanislavski.
