Phantom Thread

Method in the madness...

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Yves: Daniel Day-Lewis certainly knew the art of tailoring.

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Leonardo: Yes, oh yes. Not just in the appraising eyes, the pins in the mouth, hands fluttering at the fabric. What a performance.

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32 and a half.
You can drop your arm now.

Yves: He studied a couturier, Cristóbal Balenciaga. He inhabited a role, he lived it. I heard he read a hundred books about Lincoln. That he caught pneumonia wearing an unlined coat for the Gangs of New York.

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Leonardo: Sounds a commitment.

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Yves: It’s a sacrifice, being a method actor. Giving your mind and body over to becoming another person. It’s a promise to be as persuasive as you can.

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Voice-over

Ordinary acting is akin to slipping on a costume, imitating a voice and copying gestures. When the act is finished you return to your usual self. Stanislavski’s method acting is studying a person, their past, their thoughts, their experiences, obsessively all day, every day. Then you channel elements of yourself and your emotions to carry off a performance that convinces. You become that person in body and mind.

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There is another distinction. Shakespearean acting vs. method acting. The classical Shakespearean approach is for an actor to rehearse rigorously and deliver the lines accurately and with subtlety. The words play a primary role in the actions and emotions. By contrast, in method acting the emphasis is on the experiences and emotions within the actor who may then ad lib more than a classical actor.

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