Few acting terms are used as loosely as this one. In entertainment news, "method actor" usually means someone who stayed in character between takes, gained or lost weight, or made life difficult for the rest of the cast. In acting training, the Method means something narrower and more ordinary: a specific set of exercises, developed and taught by Lee Strasberg, for making an actor's inner life real and repeatable.
The two meanings overlap a little. Mostly they do not, and knowing the difference will save you from a lot of bad advice.
Where did method acting come from?
The Method begins with Konstantin Stanislavski, whose Moscow Art Theatre toured the United States in the early 1920s. A few of its members stayed to teach in New York, and among their students was a young Lee Strasberg (1901 to 1982). In 1931 Strasberg co-founded the Group Theatre with Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, and he became its main acting teacher.
Strasberg focused on what he saw as the heart of Stanislavski's early system: the actor's ability to relax, concentrate and summon real emotion through memory. Not everyone in the Group agreed. Stella Adler, after working with Stanislavski in Paris in 1934, argued that he had moved away from emotional memory, and the Group's teachers eventually went separate ways.
The Actors Studio was founded in New York in 1947 by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford and Robert Lewis. Strasberg joined soon after and became its artistic director in 1951, a position he held until his death. The Studio, a workshop for professional actors, became the public home of the Method, and in 1969 Strasberg also opened the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, which still teaches his approach in New York and Los Angeles.
The Studio's reputation grew alongside a wave of naturalistic American film and stage acting in the 1950s, which is how "the Method" became a household phrase. Not every celebrated actor of that era trained mainly with Strasberg, though, and the press label has always been broader than the training.
What does method acting training actually involve?
In a Method class you spend much of your time on exercises, not scenes. The work builds in layers.
Relaxation. Strasberg believed tension was the actor's main enemy, because it blocks feeling and expression. Classes often begin with the actor seated, checking the body for held tension, particularly in the face, neck and hands, and letting it go, sometimes with sound.
Concentration. The actor learns to put their full attention on an imaginary object or task, so the audience and their own self-judgment fall away.
Sense memory. The foundation exercise. You recreate a sensory experience without the real object: the weight and heat of a morning coffee cup, the feel of water from a shower, the cold of a winter wind. You rebuild it detail by detail, one sense at a time. Done well, the body starts to respond as if the thing were there.
Affective, or emotional, memory. Using sense memory to return to a specific, emotionally significant moment from your own life. You leave the emotion alone and rebuild the sensory details of the place instead: the color of the walls, the sound in the room, what you were wearing. The feeling comes back through them, and the actor learns to use that feeling in a scene.
The private moment. An exercise in which the actor does in front of the class something they would normally only do alone, to practice being fully private in public.
Alongside this, Method actors do scene work like any other students. The exercises are there to give them access to real experience that they can bring to the circumstances of a script.
Do method actors really stay in character?
Some do, and those stories get repeated because they make good copy. But living as the character for months, refusing to answer to your own name or pushing other actors around to "stay in it" are personal choices some actors make. They are not part of Strasberg's teaching, and many trained Method actors never do any of it.
The same goes for extreme physical transformation. Gaining weight, learning a trade or living in a character's conditions is research, and actors from every school do some of it. The press tends to credit all of it to the Method.
How is method acting different from Stanislavski, Meisner and Adler?
All four grew from the same root, and they disagree mainly about where the actor's attention and emotion should come from.
| Approach | Main source of the performance | Signature work |
|---|---|---|
| Stanislavski (full system) | Given circumstances, objectives and, later, physical action | Script analysis, the magic if, method of physical actions |
| Strasberg (the Method) | The actor's own sensory and emotional memories | Relaxation, sense memory, affective memory |
| Meisner | The scene partner, moment to moment | The repetition exercise |
| Adler | Imagination and the play's circumstances | Script analysis, imagined detail, action |
Sanford Meisner, also a Group Theatre member, moved the focus outward to the other actor; you can read about that in the Meisner technique. Adler taught that the actor's imagination, fed by the world of the play, was a richer source than the actor's own past. Michael Chekhov, another Stanislavski student, built a physical and imaginative approach covered on the Chekhov technique page.
What are the criticisms of method acting?
The most serious criticism is about health. Asking actors to relive painful memories, sometimes over and over across a long run, can reopen real wounds, and critics have argued that an acting class is not set up to handle what that can bring up. Many teachers who still use emotional memory now advise working only with experiences you have already come to terms with, and stepping out when a memory is too raw.
A second criticism is about boundaries. When an actor stays in a hostile character off camera, other people absorb the cost: castmates, crew, the people who have to work around them. Plenty of actors from all schools now say plainly that being difficult on set is not a technique.
The third is artistic. Adler and Meisner both argued that focusing on your own memories can pull your attention inward, away from the partner and the play, and that the result can feel self-absorbed. Others point out that the character's circumstances are not your circumstances, so substituting your own life can bend the scene toward you.
Defenders answer that sense memory is a powerful concentration tool, that the approach has trained many fine actors, and that most of the problems come from misuse and myth, not from the exercises themselves. Both things can be true.
How can you try the Method safely?
Start with sense memory, which is the least risky and arguably the most useful part. Sit comfortably, close your eyes and spend ten minutes rebuilding your morning drink. Its weight in your hand. The temperature against your palm. The smell before the first sip. The taste. Go one sense at a time and resist the urge to rush. Then do it with your eyes open, and then while saying a few lines from a scene.
If you move on to emotional memory, choose a memory from years ago that no longer hurts to think about, work with a qualified teacher, and have a clear routine for leaving it behind, such as a walk, a change of clothes or a conversation about something ordinary. For emotional scenes specifically, see how actors cry on cue, which covers several ways in, including ones that rely on imagination and circumstance.
More questions
Do method actors stay in character all the time?
Some actors choose to, and those stories get a lot of press, but it is a personal habit and not a requirement of Strasberg's training. The Method as taught is mostly classroom exercises in relaxation, concentration and sense memory, used to prepare for and play a role.
Who invented method acting?
Lee Strasberg is the teacher most associated with it. He developed it in the 1930s with the Group Theatre, building on what he learned of Stanislavski's early system, and taught it for decades at the Actors Studio and later at his own institute.
Is method acting dangerous?
It can be if it is done carelessly. Repeatedly reliving painful memories, or staying in a dark character for long periods, can take a real emotional toll. Many teachers now encourage actors to use memories they have processed, to rely on imagination where possible, and to have a clear way out of the role.
What is the difference between method acting and Stanislavski?
The Method is an American development of one part of Stanislavski's early system, emphasizing emotional memory and sense memory. Stanislavski's full system is broader, and later in life he moved toward physical action as the main route into feeling.
What is sense memory in acting?
Sense memory is recreating a sensory experience from memory, in detail, without the real object. An actor might hold an imaginary cup of hot coffee and rebuild its weight, heat and smell. It trains concentration and is the basis of the Method's emotional work.
Is method acting still taught?
Yes. The Actors Studio still runs as a workshop for professional actors, admitted by audition, and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute teaches the approach in New York and Los Angeles. Many other teachers include sense memory exercises within broader programs.