FYI: What is method acting, who invented it and who uses it?

The term 'method acting' encompasses a number of different acting techniques, most of which involve actors drawing on their own emotions and experiences.

The first person to develop the technique was Russian actor and director Konstantin Stanislavski (1863-1938). He created the 'Stanislavski system', which sought a more life-like form of acting than the highly stylised gestures customary in 19th-century theatre.

American actor and director Lee Strasberg popularised elements of Stanislavski's system at the Group Theatre in New York from 1931 to 1935. His approach came to be known as 'the method'. Stella Adler, a fellow actor at the Group Theatre, created an approach to method acting that was said to be more in tune with that of Stanislavski.

After the Group Theatre disbanded in 1935, Adler and Strasberg went their separate ways but both taught some of Hollywood's most respected actors. Adler's students included Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Roy Schneider and Benicio Del Toro. Strasberg's world famous Actors Studio produced a string of stars such as Al Pacino, James Dean, Paul Newman, Jane Fonda, Dustin Hoffman, Ellen Burstyn, Steve McQueen and Dennis Hopper.

Brando was widely regarded as the greatest method actor of his time, but he actually disliked the term 'the method' and used the mystique surrounding it to mask some dubious behaviour. In 1951, an intoxicated Brando was unable to continue filming Viva Zapata! after downing vodka for a scene in which his character, Zapata, was meant to be drunk. The crew tried shooting the scene several times over six weeks but Brando was always too inebriated. Eventually they left him in Mexico and abandoned the scene.

Nicolas Cage won an Academy Award for his portrayal of a suicidal alcoholic in 1995's Leaving Las Vegas, a role he researched by binge drinking for two weeks in Dublin and getting a friend to videotape him under the influence so he could study his speech patterns. He later said, 'It was one of the most enjoyable pieces of research I've ever had to do for a part.'