.jpg)
Deputy Editor John O'Connor discusses method acting in Hollywood today and how a once admiral technique has become an extension of male ego.
In a New York Times interview in December, 2025, Kristen Stewart claimed that acting was “unmasculine” and “inherently submissive”, and that male actors developed “the method” to compensate for these supposed factors.
Male actors want to feel like a “gorilla pounding their chest before they cry on camera,” the actress said. “Performance is inherently vulnerable and therefore quite embarrassing and unmasculine. There’s no bravado in suggesting that you’re a mouthpiece for someone else’s ideas. It’s inherently submissive. Have you ever heard of a female actor that was method?” Stewart said, before adding that the female actor in question would be seen as “crazy”.
Stewart's words echoed fellow actress Natalie Portman's who said method acting is a “luxury women can’t afford” and a currency that male actors can spend in excess with a reward system in place that results in unanimous praise and a showering of acolades for the actor who resists the 'unmasculine'.
Hollywood as an industry is forever under the spotlight and has subsequently become a cinematic and industry footnote to sexism in the workplace. In Hollywood we see a unique example where unequal fair treatment is paid towards the male sex not only for the labour in question but in how they cultivate and project their artistic expression. The arts, like most industries, do not allow women the same breathing space to think, fail, or pound their chest. Tears should fall on the sound of ‘action’, no questions asked, no method involved.
Method acting, the technique where performers use their own personal memories, and life experiences to genuinely feel and experience a character's emotions rather than just ‘pretend’, is almost exclusively deployed by male actors. Once an acting technique associated with high prestige and admiration is now viewed exclusively as an extension of male ego.
Speaking on ‘the method’, actor Robert Pattinson stated during Variety's Actors on Actors series that “you only ever see people doing method acting when they’re playing an asshole. You never see someone just being lovely to everyone going like ‘I’m really deep in character’.“
Method performances that were once admired are beginning to be viewed in a less forgiving light.
While filming My Left Foot (1989), Daniel Day-Lewis played Christy Brown, a man born with cerbebral palsy, and asked the crew to spoon-feed him 'in character' during the entirety of the shoot.
Awards consideration immediately surrounded the Irish-British actor as word spread about the extraordinary lengths of his commitment to the role. The acclaim grew so strong that Day-Lewis became the undisputed focus of the awards campaign, with his screen partner, the late Brenda Fricker, increasingly pushed into the background.
Despite both actors delivering Oscar-winning performances and both ultimately leaving the ceremony with their names engraved on the statuettes it was Day-Lewis who was widely viewed as the film’s safest bet for awards glory. Awarding bodies craved to award the method and the subversion of the "inherently submissive".
In 2026, the method mask which male actors hide behind is slipping and awarding bodies are beginning to notice. During the 2024 awards campaign for Succession, actor Brian Cox criticized his co-star Jeremy Strong who is infamously associated with the method practice, saying Strong would "be an even better actor if he just got rid of 'method acting' ." Cox said he found it "annoying", "overrated" and "ludicrous" and said "it's not good good for the ensemble. It creates hostility".
Following these comments, award focus was placed on Strong's co-stars Sarah Snook, who took home the Emmy, alongside Kieran Culkin who is known and praised for his relaxed approach to acting. Culkin has said that his approach to acting often involves not knowing his lines for a scene until moments before action.
If a female actor deploys a similar approach to her craft she is viewed as unprofessional and wasting valuable time. If she dares to enter a role under the guise of 'the method', she is seen as difficult or, as Stewart claimed: crazy.
Jared Leto has made waves in recent years in the already tumultous waters of the method acting debate. The Oscar winner’s process has seen him send mice to castmates and voluntarily blind himself for roles.
On the set of Suicide Squad (2016) Leto isolated himself from the rest of the cast and claimed that he sent used contraceptive items to co-stars Will Smith and Margot Robbie to understand the character of The Joker.
In 2021, Leto told EW that “any of the very few gifts that were ever given were given with a spirit of fun and adventure and were received with laughter, fun, and adventure” before adding ”I’m an artist at the end of the day. If I do something risky and you don’t like it, basically, you can kiss my ass".
In no other industry would behaviour like this be tolerated and Hollywood would not tolerate this behaviour from a woman. Alas, it is all done in the name and the sake of 'the method'.
I implore you to think of performances by women who have used 'the method'. Online there are endless lists of male actors, each paragraph ending with with the line: "a role that led to him accepting the Best Actor award".
When will women be allowed to express themselves in any aritsitc manner they wish? To change the rules, to go deeper into a character, to pound their chest? Even if the practice is an outdated and excessive one, the choice should be theirs.