A little known fact is that many top Hollywood actors still take acting classes and acting courses. It may seem hard to believe that someone like Al Pacino is still taking acting lessons, but it’s true. Many of these actors work with personal acting coaches to perfect their technique, in the same way that athletes work with coaches to perfect their technique.

The majority of top creative Hollywood actors work with acting teachers who are Actors Studio members. The Actors Studio, New York, is the home of Method Acting. The current co-presidents are Al Pacino, Harvey Keitel and Ellen Burstyn. This gives you an idea of the standard of acting striven for at the studio.

Method Acting produces an extremely high level of acting. Over 75% of Best Actor Oscars since the year 2000 have gone to Method Actors. More recently, Forest Whitaker in 2007, Daniel Day-Lewis in 2008 and this year, Sean Penn. Their acting training is Method Acting.

Method Acting was born in the US, and many British actors have been rumoured to have taken up the technique, including Anthony Hopkins and Peter O’Toole.

Brian Timoney is the UK’s Leading Method Acting Coach and Method Acting Expert. He has appeared in the UK media, including the BBC; teaching TV soap stars Method Acting techniques. Brian has also been featured in The Metro, The Sunday Express and The Stage.

Brian believes that taking up Method Acting can benefit the UK acting scene enormously.

He says “Many Drama Schools, particularly London Drama Schools, have an aversion to the technique because it has an emotional focus. In Drama Schools, they basically teach you how to fake emotions rather than recreate them for real. This effectively short-changes the actor and the audience, which is why my actors’ studio specialises in Method Acting. It’s a proven technique used by the best actors in the world, and it’s all about NOT faking your performance.’’

Whether UK Drama Schools will follow Timoney’s lead is yet to be seen. Brian holds drama classes and drama courses in Central London, which are open to beginners who are serious about training at a professional level.

There is certainly much credence to the Method Acting approach. It’s hard to argue with the results it produces – just look at the performances of the many, many leading actors that use it.

Acting training, in general, is a complex area, with many requirements placed upon the actor. Actors have to deal with emotional content and external characterisation to produce high calibre work. In short, there is no easy answer, but hard work, lots of acting classes and courses (many of them Method Acting classes and courses) and a healthy diligent approach to acting is needed to achieve the desired results.

Best wishes

Brian Timoney

Knowing where to start with your acting training can be difficult. There are so many Drama Schools and Acting Schools in London, with a multitude of acting courses to choose from.

An actors’ studio specialises in actor training for beginners who are serious about entering the profession.

One of the main barriers to taking the leap into professional acting is a lack of confidence and not knowing whether you are any good or not.

This is a hard question to answer at the beginning. You have to view actor training in the same way as you would any other job. How would you know if you are any good at being an accountant until you have studied the subject?

Most beginners have a desire and aptitude for acting, and that’s enough to start with. If you take the correct drama course, you can begin to develop your raw ability to a professional standard.

Right from the start it’s important to consider your acting training and what kind of acting approach you would like to study. A typical Drama School or Acting School tends to give you a pick’n’mix approach. They teach you a little bit of different techniques, and then you have to cobble together a mixture of everything.

The problem with this approach is that it leads you to being a ‘jack of all trades and master of none’. In my experience, it’s sensible to look at what the most successful actors do to achieve a high standard of acting.

With a little research on the subject, you will discover that many leading actors, particularly in the US, use Method Acting classes. One of the reasons they use it is because it achieves an exceptionally high standard of acting consistently.

It is important to teach this approach – Method Acting – to people who have little or no acting experience. There are acting classes and acting courses that focus in depth on Method Acting, to allow you to improve your acting ability to an exceptional standard, from day one.

Some acting lessons are split between acting technique and practical application within scenes. It is important to find a Method Acting class that is fundamental in training your talent, and are not about merely saying lines effectively and repeating them the same way each time.

Best wishes

Brian Timoney