Andrew Garfield Defends Method Acting, Details ‘Starving’ Himself of Sex and Food for ‘Silence’
variety.comWilson Chapman editorMethod acting has taken something of a beating from celebrities in recent years, with stars like Brian Cox, David Harbour and Mads Mikkelsen calling the process “dangerous,” “pretentious” and even a “disease.” But the art form has a defender in Andrew Garfield, who spoke about the method in an interview on popular podcast “WTF with Marc Maron.”“There [have] been a lot of misconceptions about what method acting is, I think,” Garfield said. “People are still acting in that way, and it’s not about being an asshole to everyone on set.
It’s actually just about living truthfully under imagined circumstances, and being really nice to the crew simultaneously, and being a normal human being, and being able to drop it when you need to and staying in it when you want to stay in it.” Garfield appeared on “WTF” to promote the FX limited series “Under the Banner of Heaven,” which landed him an Emmy nomination for his lead performance.
Speaking further about method acting, Garfield said that it is far more internal than people realize, and that the perception that the method is dangerous or pretentious comes from people who act out on set under the guise of doing the method.“I’m kind of bothered by the misconception, I’m kind of bothered by this idea that ‘method acting is fucking bullshit.’ No, I don’t think you know what method acting is if you’re calling it bullshit, or you just worked with someone who claims to be a method actor who isn’t actually acting the method at all,” Garfield says. “It’s also very private.
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