Andrew Garfield defends method acting: “It’s not about being an asshole to everyone on set”

"I don’t think you know what method acting is if you’re calling it bullshit"

Andrew Garfield has hit out at critics of method acting, saying he’s “bothered by the misconception”.

The actor recently discussed a debate surrounding the practices of method acting, with many calling the process “dangerous” or “pretentious”.

“There [have] been a lot of misconceptions about what method acting is, I think,” Garfield said in an interview with Marc Maron on his podcast WTF with Marc Maron.

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“People are still acting in that way, and it’s not about being an asshole to everyone on set. It’s actually just about living truthfully under imagined circumstances, and being really nice to the crew simultaneously, and being a normal human being, and being able to drop it when you need to and staying in it when you want to stay in it.”

Garfield added: “I’m kind of bothered by the misconception, I’m kind of bothered by this idea that ‘method acting is fucking bullshit.’

Andrew Garfield CREDIT: Rich Fury/WireImage,)

“No, I don’t think you know what method acting is if you’re calling it bullshit, or you just worked with someone who claims to be a method actor who isn’t actually acting the method at all. It’s also very private. I don’t want people to see the fucking pipes of my toilet. I don’t want them to see how I’m making the sausage.”

Earlier this year, Stranger Things star David Harbour called method acting “silly and dangerous”.

“When I was younger – it’s so embarrassing – but I remember playing that famous Scottish King, and being like, ‘I’m gonna kill a cat’, or something, ‘I’m gonna go murder something to know what it feels like to murder,’” Harbour said.

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“I didn’t actually do it, obviously. Not only is that [method acting] stuff silly, it’s dangerous, and it actually doesn’t produce good work.”

Andrew Garfield most recently starred in Under The Banner Of Heaven, which is now streaming on Disney+.

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