Natalie Portman is right – ‘method acting’ has always been different for women

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Picture the scene. It’s a brilliant Friday morning, and Natalie Portman has a small hole in her hectic schedule so she will do the college run. When you’re a Hollywood star, it’s so essential that the on a regular basis routines that punctuate your youngsters’ lives don’t simply cross you by. So: uniforms on, lunchboxes in hand, everybody, go go go! Except… when Portman arrives on the college gates, all the opposite mother and father flip to stare. The youngsters begin to cry – a few of them are screaming in horror. Why is Portman standing there in a pastel pink go well with lined in blood spatter and brains, pretending to speak to Lyndon B Johnson? Her youngsters sigh – Mum’s gone technique once more.

OK, wonderful, this didn’t actually occur. Although Portman’s efficiency as Jackie Kennedy in Pablo Larraín’s 2016 movie Jackie was intense, bizarre and mildly distressing (and received her an Oscar nod), her preparation didn’t go to fairly this excessive. In reality, in a current interview, Portman was dismissive of those sorts of shenanigans from actors, characterising technique performing as an indulgence that solely sure individuals can get pleasure from.

“I’ve gotten very into roles, but I think it’s honestly a luxury that women can’t afford,” Portman advised The Wall Street Journal in a current interview. “I don’t think that children or partners would be very understanding of, you know, me making everyone call me ‘Jackie Kennedy’ all the time.” She’s right – it’s simply not potential to take a look at of actuality when you will have dependents. In 2021, Benedict Cumberbatch (father to 3 younger youngsters) was scorching on the Oscars path for The Power of the Dog, telling everybody he spent months not washing or answering to his personal identify, and all I might take into consideration was his poor spouse.

But hasn’t “method acting” always been the area of the dudes? Although the idea originated with performing academics Stanislavski and, later, Lee Strasberg as a strategy of inner transformation – creating and inhabiting a brand new emotional panorama – as we speak we largely consider it as one thing flashier, extra exterior: a refusal to interrupt character even off-set, or a dedication to do punishing issues to get within the zone. Like catching and killing your individual meals or dwelling in solitary confinement (Daniel Day-Lewis for Last of the Mohicans and In the Name of the Father respectively), sending your co-stars creepy items (Jared Leto for Suicide Squad –though he later mentioned he’d been joking about sending used condoms), or begging to be pepper sprayed (Jeremy Strong in The Trial of Chicago 7).

Unless they need to get a popularity for being tough or deluded (or – as Portman advised – horrible moms), women don’t get to behave like this. It’s no coincidence that the so-called “method” tales which have gone down in tinsel city legend are primarily from male stars. Instead, the main focus always falls on the events when feminine stars nobly sacrifice their magnificence to “ugly up”. Like sporting a prosthetic nostril (Nicole Kidman in The Hours), gaining 30 kilos (Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones’s Diary), or shedding 25 kilos – and shaving your head (Anne Hathaway in Les Misérables).

It’s miserable that this is what is seen as “transgressive” for feminine stars, however it is additionally the way in which that they get rewarded. Charlize Theron received an Oscar after shaving her eyebrows, placing on weight and having dodgy hair in Monster. Jessica Chastain received the gold having worn false enamel, dodgy eyeshadow and prosthetics in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Meryl Streep bought her third Oscar for The Iron Lady, during which she donned a foolish wig and enamel to play Margaret Thatcher. And Natalie Portman, notably, existed on a weight-reduction plan of simply almonds and carrots for Black Swan, a task that bought her an Academy Award in 2010.

But what’s additionally irritating concerning the blokey, bolshy world of “going method” is the way in which that it appears to disregard the intensive, immersive analysis and preparation that feminine stars additionally do. Yes, Portman misplaced weight to star in Black Swan – she additionally labored with a ballerina from the New York City ballet for hours day-after-day. She realized ballet! Zellweger spent weeks doing photocopying and making cups of espresso at a London writer forward of Bridget Jones’s Diary. Frances McDormand – and her director Chloe Zhao – actually lived out of vans whereas making Nomadland. Hathaway researched prostitution for her position in Les Mis and even despatched her husband away throughout filming to extend her isolation. They are not any much less dedicated to their artistry – it simply doesn’t match the loud, outlandish, notorious parameters which can be so typically used to classify nice performances.

“Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at,” John Berger as soon as famously wrote in 1972. The manner we speak about technique performing exhibits us how little has modified. Men kill wild animals; women put on bizarre wigs.