One of the most celebrated schools of acting is Lee Strausberg’s Method acting. Many of the great actors were her students, and their legacy proves that the technique is truly one of the best for creating great performances. The great Method actors don’t just stick to one genre. The make us cry, make us hate them, make us angry, sing to us and make us laugh. Even though their faces are famous, we willingly follow them into a new reality, and believe them to be someone else. That’s the point of Method acting. It’s about going deep within one’s self to call up memories and emotions to portray a character. For this reason, Method acting works for all acting roles.
Dustin Hoffman
There’s no denying that Dustin Hoffman is one of the greatest American actors to ever live. He is a student of Lee Strausberg and he is a Method actor. Hoffman is a great example of how the Method works in all acting roles. He has played deeply serious roles in films like “Kramer v. Kramer,” totally transforming roles like “Rainman,” and hilarious roles like “Tootsie.” In every instance he is completely believable and great at what he does.
Humor
Many people mistake humor as high jinx and pratfalls that really require no inner work from the actor. He just has to sell the joke. However, with the Method, the joke can become transforming. It is the subtle, tragically funny characters that stay with the movie audience. It is the actors who make us scream with laughter, but also know when to make us simply smile, that really know how to sell comedy. Think of Jane Fonda in “9 to 5.” It was almost as if she wasn’t trying to be funny, and that made her subtle performance very hilarious at times.
Any serious actor should study the Method acting style. Even if he or she doesn’t employ it as their acting standard, it will definitely open up new possibilities and realizations in theater arts.