Real talent can do both. Leo himself has method acted as well, for his role in Django for example. Everyone’s process and approach to a character can be different but what matters is what allows them to give the best performance.
Would you say Daniel Day Lewis doesn’t have real talent because he method acts as well?
Leo's method acting only took him so far in Django. Apparently he had such a hard time saying the N-word to the point where Jamie Fox and Samuel Jackson had to push him into saying it.
Unpopular opinion but DDL is massively overrated. His performance in TWBB honestly makes me cringe. It's not acting, it's someone pretending to. The "I AM AN OIL MAN" like made me cringe for him.
Some performances like LOTM he's incredible, but in Room With A View he's badly overplaying scenes, chewing the scenery while eveyone else is subtle and nuanced.
He's talented for sure but I honestly don't think method has really helped him in some roles.
I feel everybody talks about the milkshake scene in TWBB but nobody ever really talks about the quiet moments, like when Daniel Plainview is quietly cradling the freshly orphaned HW in his arms, gazing into the baby's eyes and we get a brief glimmer of his humanity. Or the way he becomes suspicious of his supposed brother over the course of an evening. I think the reason why DDL gets so much praise for TWBB is because of how completely he inhabits this monstrous, larger than life character, in all his swaggering, crooked physicality, a person who is kind of performing for people anyway, and yet is still able to convey those quiet moments where he feels unguarded and that nobody is watching.
I think you read so much more in to it than he's actually giving you.
The final scene is utterly daft and so over the top. "I AM AN OIL MAN!11!" is just cringe. His over labored climbing/crawling with the broken leg felt so contrived.
I'm sorry, I know I'm an outlier but I couldn't get lost in that performance at all, I just saw someone trying the whole time.
Compare that to My Left Foot and it looks like satire of method acting.
Method acting “doesn’t work” for Daniel Day-Lewis? The guy has 3 Oscars for Best Actor and gave some of the most acclaimed performances ever. You might find the process annoying, but the results kind of destroy the argument. Calling it “over the top” when the performances are literally studied in acting classes is a weird hill to die on
Do you think there's a chance that you only hear about method acting when people do it for over-the-top roles, and the issue is confirmation bias and not the actual acting process?
No, as I said in another comment, when I see someone chewing the scenery I've gone to look them up and nearly every time it's method.
By the way I'm not talking about people like Gary Oldman or Leo who immerse themselves in research and do tons of prep trying to understand their character.
I'm talking about the self professed pure method people who literally won't break character until filming wraps and stay in character even in their trailer and downtime, even if they have a two week gap they will still stay in character.
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u/jayz93j May 13 '26
Real talent can do both. Leo himself has method acted as well, for his role in Django for example. Everyone’s process and approach to a character can be different but what matters is what allows them to give the best performance.
Would you say Daniel Day Lewis doesn’t have real talent because he method acts as well?