Stranger Things actor David Harbour has said method acting, through which actors fully embrace their characters by effectively playing them in real life too, is "dangerous" and "silly".
Speaking to GQ, Harbour explained that he was trained in classical American method acting but, as he's grown older, he's decided that it's not effective at all.
"When I was younger — it’s so embarrassing — but I remember playing that famous Scottish king and being like, ‘I’m gonna kill a cat’ or something. 'I’m gonna go murder something to know what it feels like to murder'," he said. "I didn’t actually do it, obviously. Not only is that stuff silly, it’s dangerous, and it actually doesn’t produce good work."
Harbour also spoke of Daniel Day-Lewis, who's perhaps the most famous example of an actor who uses method acting. "He’s an extraordinary actor who I’m captivated and fascinated by [but] when he explains his process it sounds like nonsense to me," Harbour said.
Harbour joins a number of other actors speaking out against method acting in recent months as back in April Mads Mikkelsen, Will Poulter, and Samuel L. Jackson all criticised it.
"It's bulls***," Mikkelsen said plainly. "But preparation, you can take into insanity. What if it's a s*** film, what do you think you achieved? Am I impressed that you didn't drop character? You should have dropped it from the beginning. How do you prepare for a serial killer? You gonna spend two years checking it out?"
Jared Leto is also well known for method acting, which caused extended downtime on the set of Morbius as he insisted on using his character's crutches at all times, which pushed bathroom breaks to 45 minutes. When the film was released, IGN said it was mediocre in our 5/10 review.
Thumbnail Image Credit: Netflix
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer whose coverage of day-to-day news means he writes about everything from Thanos's butt to political movements within the industry, but mostly about video games. Ryan has six years of journalism experience and before IGN wrote mostly for national newspapers in the UK including The Times, i, and The Scotsman. Find him on Twitter @thelastdinsdale.