Martin Freeman Says Method Acting Is A Pretentious Pain In The Ass

Martin Freeman recently went on a podcast and shit on Hollywood method acting, calling it “pretentious” and “highly amateurish.” He says British actors don’t pull that crap (all eyes on Daniel Day-Lewis and Christian Bale), they just “get on with it and get it done.” Martin singled out Jim Carrey’s performance in the Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon (1999), which was captured in Netflix’s 2017 documentary Jim and Andy: The Great Beyond. Now, I haven’t seen that movie cuz I love my TV and don’t wanna have to throw shit at it, but apparently Jim “became” Andy Kaufman, began to lose his sense of self, and pissed off the film’s cast and crew. Hey, at least he didn’t send anybody rats, bullets, or dead hogs!

On the Off Menu podcast, Martin says method acting is a “highly impractical way of working”, and he thinks it’s better suited to those studying acting than those actually getting paid to work on sets (via IndieWire):

“To be honest, it’s quite a pain in the [ass] when someone ‘loses themselves,’” Freeman added. “It is a massive pain in the [ass] because it’s no longer a craft and a job.”

That’s when Martin thought EFF IT and came for Jim Carrey:

“For me, and I’m genuinely sure Jim Carrey is a lovely and smart person, but it was the most self-aggrandizing, selfish, narcissistic fucking bollocks I have ever seen,” Freeman said of Carrey’s “Man on the Moon” method acting. “The idea that anything in our culture would celebrate or support it is deranged, literally deranged.”

Freeman added, “You need to keep grounded in reality, and that’s not to say you don’t lose yourself in the time between ‘action’ and ‘cut’, but I think the rest of it is absolute pretentious nonsense and highly amateurish. It is not professional. Get the job done, do your work.”

I know a guy who helped edit a movie starring Meryl Streep, so obviously I had to ask him what she was like in between takes. Now, I was actually fishing for tales of diva antics I could gossip about at a later date, but, alas, I got nada. My friend said Meryl was an uber-talented professional; she’d be totally in the zone during the scene, and the moment the director yelled “Cut!” she’d drop character and start shootin’ the shit with the cast and crew. He said she was lovely.

So if method actors like Shia LaBeouf, Christian Bale, and the sad boy from Succession can’t deliver both a great performance and professional on-set behavior, just point them in Meryl’s direction. Like, seriously, who would you rather emulate? Meryl fucking Streep or Jared fucking Leto?

Pic: Wenn.com