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Method Acting vs Classical Acting I may be speaking from my own experience as a little bit of Presbyterian ness
that somehow entered
I think North American actor
I see joy and panache in French acting some British acting
maybe not German acting but in North American and Canadian acting there's a
bit a presbytery ness in it How do we not do that
yes well of courses that's what broke through in the thirties (Method Acting)
when the group theatre in New York, Hit the scene
Jason Robards my old friend
used to call them that whole group
you know Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro and
Al Pacino. He called it "Italian Street acting"
he says Well lets do a little bit of "Italian street acting" now
It was a real divide and I remember
in the early days on Broadway when you went to rehearsal
in the early fifties people like Catherine Cornell
Who I was in two plays with
I mean, you went to rehearsal in a shirt and tie.
and a coat. It was the polite thing to do
everybody was mister. The stage manager called you mister plumber
no matter how larger or smaller part you played
there was courtesy about the theatre in those days
you'd go for go for a drink down at the bar
you mix with the Italian Street actors as we called them
all the Method actor boys, who came to rehearsals in t-shirts &
torn jeans. It was a wonderful mix in those days because it's just happened
it just started to happen we all hated each other. We'd say lets beat them
They'd say lets beat those Limey Poofs
Wearing their shirt and ties
And they are speaking properly Who wants to speak properly?
They love language too. Hey what are you doing, Come talk to me. What are you doing now?
They have a love of the language. Of course, their language.
in a different way but it is still a love of the language
Oh yeah. I suddenly thought
How great it would be to do both
and if you could mix the two together
Use what the Method Acting boys are using
and the technique of the British what a wonderful
mix that would be Did you? Have you?
Yes. I tried very hard to do that. And talk like that on the part, and this kind of stuff. Hey, how ya doing
you could do that and then translate it into good speech
if it was a classic that
deserve the attention of good speech. It's a different kind a articulateness though
when you talk about the British tradition coming through
there's a power in their articulacy of Image
there in the street language which is
also powerful and colourful there is a kind of articulateness, but they are different in a way.
there's not much image because they created with
physicality that their physical
way of acting creates the image that the words
in shakespeare for instance, do it for you don't have to
actor them out you better just say them because they are so vivid.
you can't do both on one on top of the other
and that's what so many modern productions of Shakespeare today
a lot of the kids think that you have to act out each thing if you just let the
If you just let the speech do it for you don't have to move a muscle
just obey the rhythm of the speech make it as real as you can
in contemporary terms. Obey the rhythm
and it creates the whole world for you