Heath Ledger and Method Acting

So I was working this morning on gathering song material for the show I am directing in July/August. Since our theme for this year's show is "identity" we have to do a little more research than last year when our theme was "love" (which practically every musical has a song with this topic). This primarily meant looking up the lyrics to songs from every musical known to man and them some...and there are some interesting ones out there. While looking I happened upon PARADE (a Jason Robert Brown piece that several area theatres have recently discovered), and then I discovered on the site that Christy Carlson Romano was the original Mary in the piece. Now I am sure most of you don't know who she is; I wouldn't expect you to as my knowledge of her only comes from my tendency to watch the Disney channel at 2am in college when I was supposed to be writing papers. Anyway, seeing as I am in the process of becoming a "Carlson" with a double name as well, I felt intrigued and decided to check out her IMDB, which had an interesting comment about her thoughts on method acting and Heath Ledger.

Just last week, Kevin and I had seen the previews for THE DARK KNIGHT again during GET SMART. We are both really looking forward to it (as I know many people are) and we made the same remarks as usual about how brilliant Heath Ledger looks as the Joker in the previews. And how it was a shame that he was at the peak of his career when he died accidentally. But this time we got into a conversation about acting methods. I do think it was an accident and I do attribute it partially to method acting, which is why Ms. Carlson Romano's blog interested me. I hadn't heard anyone else at this point really attribute it point blank to the acting. I had just been having the conversation with Kevin about the differences in acting techniques.

Method acting in some cases means that instead of studying the actions and behaviors of a drug addict, for example, an actor decides to take drugs to have the "real" experience. I had been saying to Kevin that I thought the acting methods Heath Ledger was using to get into character were probably ultimately to blame for his death. This is why we don't teach method acting to high school students (which is a whole other tirade I will spare you), because it can be dangerous. I am not against method acting as a whole - because heck, if someone wants to go wait tables to get inspiration to play a waitress, I'm not gonna stop them, that's good character work. However, it just shows that there are dangers to delving into certain places in yourself to play characters or to taking certain actions to play a character.

So here is her thoughts on the situation:
"Heath Ledger died today. That's real. That is not a movie. Though it may feel like a movie to many of us who never knew this person. I saw him in a bar once - sitting quietly next to Michelle Williams. When I heard that this talent fell victim to his own madness, I was deeply saddened. This world can be so cruel. Especially when everywhere you look there is the promotion of negativity and violence as a recreation.

I'll do you one more (for those who think celebrity blogging is pointless). Heath Ledger - a representative of the motion picture industry - recently did a movie where he played a man responsible for unloading terrorism on Chicago/Gotham/New York (The Black Knight). Now, I believe Ledger was a "method actor" - someone who put his entire self into his work for art's sake. In order to play this character, he was put in a place so dark, that he began the downward spiral to his demise. In short, I feel this current obsession with negativity is infectious and mid-evil. And it is claiming lives.

I feel that people need to be loved while they are on this earth and celebrate life! Not celebrate different ways to kill each other. I do not condone this trend of violence in movies. And I hope it stops soon."

Now, I do agree that Heath Ledger was probably a "method actor" which led him to a troubled time; however, I am not quite agreeing with her random attack on society's current obsession with violence and killing each other. There has always been entertainment, even back in Greek times, that was about violence and people killing. Really - I don't think making all fuzzy bunny movies is going to save lives. In fact, I think an actor could go equally mad trying to play a fuzzy, fluffy purple dinosaur or such.

Anyway, I know this blog was completely random, but thought I would share my opinions on acting...Heath Ledger your brilliance will be missed and you are ranking right up there with Johnny Depp in my books. Can't wait to see DARK KNIGHT!