Jennifer Lawrence is one of the most revered actresses of her generation, but even she has a reluctance to work with Method actors. Lawrence recently appeared on an episode of Hot Ones to promote her new comedy, No Hard Feelings, and she opened up about being intimidated by the concept of “going Method.”
“I would be nervous to work with somebody who’s Method because I would have no idea how to talk to them,” she explained while eating wings. “Like, do I have to be in character? That would just make me nervous.”
Method acting was pioneered by actors like Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando in the 1950s, but it really took hold in the 1970s, when Brando acolytes like Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman used it to deliver some of the most acclaimed performances of all time. It’s still being used by modern actors, but some, like Jared Leto, have pushed the Method approach to the point of parody. Leto famously mailed bullets to his cast members during the filming of Suicide Squad (2016).
Lawrence has never worked with Leto, but she has worked with another famous Method actor: Christian Bale. Lawrence and Bale played warring spouses in American Hustle (2013), and were nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actor, respectively. Lawrence references the film during the Hot Ones interview, saying that she had no issues with Bale’s intense preparation. In fact, she picked up a tip from the former Batman.
“I had always been very on, off, on, off until I did American Hustle when I worked with Christian Bale,” she recalled. “I noticed when the camera started rolling and the crew kind of started preparing, like it was going to be 10 seconds or whatever until action, he would start getting ready. And then I saw that and I was like, ‘That seems like a really good idea.’ And then I started to do that.”
Ironically, Lawrence has been accused of going Method in the past. The actress tore her diaphragm during the making of mother! (2017), and director Darren Aronofsky blamed the injury on her unrelenting approach. “I was pulling her back, [encouraging her] to remember that we were just making a movie,” the director told ET Canada. “I don’t work well with method actors, I work best with actors who basically when you say cut it’s over.”
Lawrence, who dated Aronofsky during filming, corroborated the story. “This is the only time I’ve lost myself,” she admitted to Deadline. “I couldn’t tell my body that none of it was real. I kept on hyperventilating.” The approach had polarizing results, as Lawrence was nominated for various critics awards and a Golden Raspberry for Worst Actress. She took a two-year break from Hollywood as a result, returning only for a cameo in X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019).
Lawrence, who gave birth to a son last year, has regained her stable approach and the results have spoken for themselves. She earned rave reviews for her performance in the recent drama Causeway (2022), and has already been singled-out for her comedic chops in No Hard Feelings.