Christopher Plummer on the hilarious relationship between Method Acting ( Stanislavski ) and Classical Acting as they came to coexist in the 1930-50s.
Interviewed by R.H. Thomson on October 6, 2007 in Toronto. Filming location courtesy of Four Seasons Hotel. Generously supported by The William and Nona Heaslip Foundation.
Close Captioned
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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 joined panache in French acting
some British acting
maybe no German acting but in North
American and Canadian acting there's a
bit a presbytery ness
I would not do that I
yes well of courses that's what broke
through in the thirties (Method Acting)
when the group here 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 want 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.
20 like that on the partner I collapse
you could do that and then transferred
into good speech
there was a if it was a classic ripped
deserve attention speech it's a
different kind a particular miss them
when you talk about the British
tradition coming through there's a power
in their articulate see a
image there in the street language which
is
also powerful colorful there is a Connor
articulate miss
their was not marked there's not much
image because they created with
physicality that Bay their physical
way back to it creates the image that
the words
in shakespeare for instance or I'm do it
for you don't have to
actor March better just say that because
their server
you can't do both on one on top of the
other
and that's what so many modern
productions church for today
a lot of the kids think that you have to
act our age thing if you just look for
you just let the speech do it for you
don't have to move a muscle
just bather remove the speech make it as
real as you can I'm
in contemporary terms obey the room
and it creates the whole world for you
Including mention of the "Italian Street actors:" De Niro, Brando, and Pacino.
26 авг 2024
