It comes as no surprise that some actors get extremely, extremely into their roles, bringing the character off the set and into their everyday lives. This is called method acting and is a tactic that’s still hotly debated.
David Harbour almost had a bout with method acting when he was younger and considered doing some pretty scary stuff to bring about a better performance.
RELATED STORIES
David Harbour shared a pretty scary thought recently.
The Stranger Things star said in an interview with GQ that he took some rather strange approaches to roles in his youth, and considered doing some dark stuff to better embody them.
Like, really dark stuff.
“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.'”
No need to worry, though, he didn’t go through with it.
“I didn’t actually do it, obviously,” he continued, providing sighs of relief to readers everywhere, “Not only is that stuff silly, it’s dangerous, and it actually doesn’t produce good work.”
This approach could have been considered ‘method’ acting.
Method acting is when someone plays their role both on and off set, letting it become their whole life and evolving into their character full-time as they believe it will deliver better performances on camera.
Hollywood seems pretty divided about it.
Known actors like Jeremy Strong and Jared Leto have famously partaken in method acting for their roles in Succession and The Suicide Squad respectively. Other actors don’t think so highly of it, even finding it kind of ridiculous.
Some even have some choice words about it.
Strong’s co-star on Succession , Brian Cox, called it a “particularly American disease,” while Mads Mikkelsen said it’s “just pretentious”.
Seems celebs either love or hate method acting.
Another famous method actor is Daniel Day-Lewis.
Harbour actually mentioned him in this interview, saying, “He’s an extraordinary actor who I’m captivated and fascinated by. [But] when he explains his process it sounds like nonsense to me.”
Thankfully he thinks this way, otherwise, he might have been more inclined to give that extreme method acting thought a shot.
h/t: Insider
