7 Men Who Terrorized Their Costars While Method Acting Vs. 7 Women Who Think It's BS

Leyla MohammedSat, August 22, 2026 at 11:31 AM UTC

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I’m sure you’ve heard of method acting — aka the practice of remaining in character even when the cameras aren’t rolling. Ever since it was developed by Russian theatre director and actor Konstantin Stanislavski in the early 1900s, it has been adopted by several actors, both on stage and in Hollywood, as a means of understanding their characters’ motivations.In recent years, more and more male actors have told stories about the unpleasant or outright disgusting things they’ve done on and off-set in the name of method acting, while many women have made it clear that adopting the practice at such extreme levels simply isn’t an option for them. Of course, this isn’t to say that only men method act; there are several women who do use the practice to enhance their performances, but they typically don’t go overboard with physical or psychological immersion in the way that many men do, especially when it comes to how they interact with their costars.That said, here’s a roundup of famous men who have talked openly about the extreme lengths they went to while ”method acting,” compared with what some famous women have said about the practice:FOR: Jared Leto

Gerald Matzka / Getty ImagesWhile shooting Suicide Squad, Jared famously sent his costars a whole host of gross things — including dead animals, anal beads, and used condoms — because he felt his onscreen character, the Joker, was someone “who doesn't really respect things like personal space or boundaries.”

©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection / ©Warner Bros/courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection

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Jared's performance in Suicide Squad was met with pretty scathingreviews, so going full method didn't seem to work out too well for him.

AGAINST: Anya Taylor-Joy

XNY/Star Max / Getty ImagesAnya recently suggested to Complex News that she believes many women “don’t method act” because “we have things to take care of.” “We can't completely lose our minds…I see acting as a controlled psychosis in a way. You're pretending to be somebody else and having their thoughts 16 hours a day, and moving like them, in their house, in their clothes. It's like having a sister or a roommate check in up here [in my mind] for a little bit...I can't imagine keeping it up all the time because again, you're going to work with hundreds of people, and it is your responsibility to be good to them and to help them do their best job. If you're too invested in being an asshole, then that's not gonna be very fun.”

© Searchlight Pictures / Courtesy Everett CollectionFOR: Robert Pattinson

Gareth Cattermole / Getty ImagesRobert once revealed that he felt it was OK to “be mad the whole time” he was shooting The Lighthouse because he was playing a “psychotic” character. “You can literally just be sitting on the floor, growling and licking up puddles of mud...[I was] basically unconscious the whole time. It was crazy. I spent so much time making myself throw up. Pissing my pants. It's the most revolting thing. I don't know, maybe it's really annoying,” he said, admitting that he (understandably!) got on his costar Willem Dafoe’s nerves.

Chris Reardon /© A24 / courtesy Everett CollectionAGAINST: Natalie Portman

Dominique Charriau / Getty ImagesIn 2024, Natalie described method acting as a “luxury that women can’t afford,” telling WSJ. magazine, “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.” (This was a reference to her Oscar-nominated role in Jackie in 2016.)

©Fox Searchlight/Courtesy Everett Collection

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FOR: The Weeknd

Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty ImagesWhile shooting his divisive HBO series The Idol, The Weeknd (real name Abel Tesfaye) remained in character as Tedros, an abusive and sleazy night-club owner, even when the cameras weren’t rolling. His costar, Lily-Rose Depp, told Entertainment Weekly: “Sometimes when Abel would get — I don’t want to reveal too much about where Abel’s character goes, but when he would be in full Tedros mode sometimes — I would steer clear of him.”

Much like Jared Leto, Abel's method acting didn't seem to work in his favor. His performance as Tedros was met with heavy criticism, with Variety even publishing a piece titled: "On ‘The Idol,’ Why Are the Weeknd’s Acting Skills Nonexistent?"

AGAINST: Kirsten Dunst

Jeff Kravitz / Getty ImagesSimilarly to Natalie, Kirsten has questioned whether intense method acting is compatible with having a family, telling GQ magazine: “What, am I gonna be like that with my kids when I come home? Speaking in an accent? Like, honestly, I can't do that. It seems like something only men can afford to do.”

© 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved. / courtesy Everett CollectionFOR: Jamie Dornan

Jeff Spicer / Getty Images

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Jamie once stalked a woman on the London Underground while attempting to get into the mind of a serial killer in preparation for his role on The Fall. He told the LA Times, “I, like, followed a woman off the train one day to see what it felt like to pursue someone like that. I really kept my distance…she got off a few stops earlier than I was planning so I said right, I have to commit to this. I followed her around a couple of street corners and then was like, ‘What are you doing?’” Jamie added that the whole thing felt “exciting” in a “dirty way,” saying: “I’m sort of not proud of myself. But I do honestly think I learned something from it, because I’ve obviously never done any of that.”

©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection / ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection / Everett CollectionAGAINST: Kristen Stewart

XNY/Star Max / Getty ImagesKristen won praise last December when she suggested that many male actors embrace method acting at extreme levels because “performance is inherently vulnerable and therefore quite embarrassing and unmasculine.” She said, “There’s no bravado in suggesting that you’re a mouthpiece for someone else’s ideas,” she said when asked if she related to Marlon Brando's approach to method acting. “It’s inherently submissive. Have you ever heard of a female actor that was method?”

© Vertical Entertainment / Courtesy Everett CollectionFOR: Daniel Day-Lewis

Kristy Sparow / Getty ImagesWhile Daniel is very much known for being a huge method acting fan, he took things to a whole new level when shooting My Left Foot, in which he played an artist who could only use — you guessed it — his left foot. He insisted on being pushed around in a wheelchair everywhere and was even carried and fed by crew members when the cameras weren’t rolling.

©Miramax/Courtesy Everett CollectionAGAINST: Toni Collette

Arturo Holmes / Getty ImagesDuring a 2018 interview, Toni said, “I’m in no way method, whatever that means. I think that is actually total bullshit. I mean, it's utter wankery. I don't understand why people either try to sell the idea that they do that, or convince themselves that they do that — I mean, everyone has their own process, but I'm much more instinctive.”

© A24 /Courtesy Everett CollectionFOR: Dustin Hoffman

Tommaso Boddi / Getty ImagesDustin literally struck his Kramer vs. Kramer costar Meryl Streep in the face — unscripted — while “in character” shooting a scene. Meryl told the New York Times in 2018: “This is tricky because when you’re an actor, you’re in a scene, you have to feel free. I’m sure that I have inadvertently hurt people in physical scenes, but there’s a certain amount of forgiveness in that. But this was my first movie, and it was my first take in my first movie, and he just slapped me. And you see it in the movie. It was overstepping.”

©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

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Dustin doesn't appear to have publicly addressed Meryl's comments.

AGAINST: Claire Danes

Amanda Edwards / Getty ImagesClaire once told the Television Critics Association, “If I took my characters home with me, half my life would be misery, I think. I tend to compartmentalize work from my life. I'm not terribly 'Method.' The acting isn't easy, but I have figured out how to let it go, and that was hard-earned, actually. That took some time to work out. As a kid, I was much more superstitious and earnest and fearful and thought I had to sacrifice my happiness in the most extreme way. I realize now it's a discipline; it's a job.”

© IFC Films /Courtesy Everett CollectionFOR: Shia LaBeouf

Ernesto Ruscio / Getty ImagesShia got so drunk off of moonshine while filming Lawless that his onscreen love interest, Mia Wasikowska, was purportedly ready to bail on the movie. “She was calling her attorney, like, ‘Get me the fuck out of here,’” Shia told the NY Daily News in 2012, adding, “Moonshine is different than liquor. Moonshine is closer to heroin…Mia was ready to walk away from the movie. I was really pretty aggressive about it, and not in any kind of weird, strange way, but I don’t think she had ever experienced anything like that.”

©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett CollectionAGAINST: Charlize Theron

Han Myung-Gu / Getty ImagesAnd finally, in a 2020 interview with the Mirror, Charlize said, “I go to my trailer, I take my makeup off, and I go home. I don’t know how people stay in ­character. I’m too lazy. I’ve got two kids to raise, and I have dog shit to pick up in the backyard. I don’t know how you do that in ­character. It’s exhausting. It’s so fucking exhausting. I learned pretty early on, the more I let go, the better — which, in the beginning, was harder for me — but now I’m very disciplined about it.”

© Universal Pictures / Courtesy Everett CollectionI conclude with a simple question for the men: When will we start method acting as overly nice (or just normal!) people? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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