Jennifer Lawrence says she ‘would have no idea how to talk to’ a Method actor
No hard feelings, but if you’re a Method actor, Jennifer Lawrence wants nothing to do with you.
In a recent appearance on “Hot Ones,” host Sean Evans asked Lawrence what it was like to work with actors who prepare for roles differently than she does and whether there’s a process she’s most intrigued by.
“I would be nervous to work with someone who’s Method,” the “No Hard Feelings” star said. “Because I would have no idea how to talk to them, because do I have to be in character? That would just make me nervous. But I don’t know, I haven’t seen another process that I’ve been curious about because you don’t know about them all the time.”
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Lawrence joins the ranks of performers who have talked about the divisive and immersive process. Actors Brian Cox and Mads Mikkelsen are among the recent vocal detractors of Method acting. In a 2021 New Yorker profile on his “Succession” co-star Jeremy Strong, Cox lamented “the crises he puts himself through in order to prepare.” Cox then doubled down on his sentiments in a March interview with Town and Country, calling Strong’s approach “f— annoying.” And Mikkelsen was critical of the practice in an April 2022 GQ profile, saying, “It’s bull—.”
Other prominent actors have defended the practice. Of the acting process, Strong told GQ it all has to do with “autonomous concentration.” He added, “I think there’s very low impact on others except for what they might want to project onto it and how that might make them feel.”
In an 2022 interview with Marc Maron, Andrew Garfield also went to bat for Method acting by calling out the misconceptions about the practice.
‘There [have] been a lot of misconceptions about what Method acting is, I think,’ Garfield said in a recent interview on the ‘WTF With Marc Maron’ podcast.
“No, I don’t think you know what Method acting is if you’re calling it b—, or you just worked with someone who claims to be a Method actor who isn’t actually acting the Method at all,” the “Social Network” actor said.
But Lawrence wasn’t completely against the idea of employing new acting methods. She cited her previous work with Christian Bale as a turning point for how she viewed getting in and out of character.
“I had always been very on, off, on, off, until I did ‘American Hustle’ and I worked with Bale, who I noticed when the camera started rolling and crew started preparing like it was gonna be 10 seconds to action, he would start getting [into character],” the “Silver Linings Playbook” actor said. “And then I saw that and was like, ‘That seems like a really good idea.’ So then I started to [employ that acting device].”
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