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