Written By: Akshat Jha

One of my favourite teachers in acting school once mentioned – “If there is a way to go to that place, there also has to be a way to come back from it.”

Having trained in “The Method” at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, New York, I feel its my primary responsibility to clear some misconceptions about this approach. To put it briefly, “The Method” gives you means to use a combination of your imagination and lived experience to bring truth to the character you are playing. It is not about tearing yourself apart, it is not about starting to “live” as the character, it is not about being a mess on the streets. None of what I have learnt encourages us to compromise our mental healths to embody a role. Unfortunately, “method acting” has come to be understood like that by many. 

Yes, we use something real from our lives that is analogous to the character’s circumstances, and concentrate on that so we may relive on stage/screen. The most obvious thing remains that we never forget or become unaware of the fact that we are acting! We should never force ourselves or let anyone push us to reach that point, it’s simply not required. No acting technique expects you to “become” another person. If I lose touch with my own reality each time I act, I definitely have a problem. 

A character is just words on a paper, it’s not an idea of a person. He/she/they are only alive as the ACTOR plays them from moment to moment. If the actor seizes to exist, the character does too. Rather than using your imagination and lived experience harming you, it is the wrong idea of needing to go to extreme extents to be another person that harms you.. because you imagine yourself as completely separate from them. Whatever you need is within you, and its there to help you, not damage you. Acting is a tremendously difficult art form as it is, so we needn’t complicate it further for ourselves.

It definitely can get overwhelming at times – doing a scene that brings back tragic or traumatic  memories, or even doing a scene that is far removed from your personal experience but still difficult to shake off yourself. You have to find what it is for you, whether its speaking to a friend, dancing it out or literally physically shaking it off, hearing your favourite upbeat music, etc. Personally, I have often been immensely drained after playing a character, but only physically. I understand the entire process as work and that itself helps me from having a hard time bouncing back. After all, it’s our job, and we are signing up for a profession which requires us to be at our most sensitive and open! Taking care of ourselves is our responsibility.

I must talk about a wonderful instance from one of my classes where my teacher (“Brynn Walker”) helped me tackle a technique driven overwhelm with a technique driven approach. One of the first and main things we do in our method acting classes, is sense memory work. These exercises have the purpose of making us live through something real as we concentrate on our memories of sensations / people / objects. That day in class, I was told to work on a “person of specific meaning.” You are always meant to experience whatever you are working on, in the present, in the very room you are doing the exercise in. You use memory not to revisit the past, but to create an imaginative present. Through this exercise, before I knew it, I was able to have the company of my closest friend in that room. I cried a lot pouring my heart out to her, holding her in my embrace. This exercise had definitely ignited my imagination, and I was living through something with someone that means the most to me. 

Soon, Brynn announced softly that we have to let our respective persons go, and make sure they’re gone from the room. Doing that broke my heart, I let her go, but was doubly overwhelmed now that she was gone. Brynn said, “Oh.. so it’s really nice being around them.” I agreed and then she immediately got me started on what’s our first / foundational sense memory exercise – coffee cup. I had another thing to concentrate on and create! Creating that coffee cup, feeling its heat, taking sips, smelling it… comforted and got me back from that zone. I went somewhere working, and I came back down working. This will always be one of the most unforgettable classroom experiences of my life. 

Lastly, I want to speak about auditions / castings. It does get hard to put everything you have into auditions everyday and not get work in return for months (or even years). Always remember that if you have seen a path for yourself, you are already walking on it! Showing up in small ways consistently will reward you, and big. I have this unshakeable trust in myself despite getting rejected almost everyday. My love for acting is more than enough to keep me going, and this is a game of who keeps going, nothing else. While we’re at it and surrounded by competition all the time, we could always use some support. My biggest wins are not only in the form of my bookings, but in the friends I make, the community I form and trust enough to fall back on for advice. Make the most of the lines you stand in, learn from other artists’ experiences, and stay in touch! We all really need to grow closer instead of apart. Together, struggling won’t be so bad and succeeding…oh so good!