Lady Gaga was asked possibly the most ridiculous (but maybe not ridiculous) question I’ve ever heard.
Here it is:
“When you are acting, do you take the role home with you, or do you leave it on set?”
She actually paused for a bit before answering this, not because she was concerned about the answer, but it looked like she felt the answer was obvious, and for any method actor like her.
OF COURSE, YOU TAKE THE BLOODY ROLE HOME WITH YOU!
Now, I said at the top of this email that perhaps it wasn’t a ridiculous question because, there are in fact, many actors who do not take the role home with them.
Yes, they turn up, they do their best to get into the role, and when it’s clocking off time, they are like a rat up a drainpipe off home, or more likely off down the pub.
Method actors, on the other hand, go home and do more work on the character. They understand that getting into character is challenging, especially in a film environment when you continuously stop and start throughout the day.
At home, the method actor can try out sense memories or experience what it’s like to make dinner at home as the character, or even, as Lady Gaga did, talk to her mum in character.
Yes, I know that many, especially the media, just love to ridicule this kind of behaviour, calling it unnecessary and even dangerous.
I call it diligent.
Yes, they push the envelope and take things as far as possible, and yes, they push their acting instrument (their mind and body) to its limit. So do Olympic athletes, but I don’t see anyone ridiculing them.
Brian Timoney
The Master Of The Method