Best Method Actor
by BonaFideBOSS | created - 29 Nov 2019 | updated - 22 Sep 2020 | PublicMethod Acting is a term you've probably heard more and more frequently in recent years. There is a certain mysticism to it that conjures up images of actors going to bizarre lengths in pursuit of realistic performances. We're going to vote for actors who gave us a truly believable performance.
Best Method Actors of All Time
Wikipedia defines Method acting as a range of training and rehearsal techniques that seek to encourage sincere and emotionally expressive performances, as formulated by many different theatre practitioners.
Here are some well-known Method Actors who went to such extraordinary lengths to get in a character that their performance has pushed the boundaries of the bizarre. Which actor's performance do you think has touched the bottom of your heart?
Vote here | Discuss here
1. Daniel Day-Lewis
Actor | There Will Be Blood
Born in London, England, Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is the second child of Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of the U.K., and his second wife, actress Jill Balcon. His maternal grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon, an important figure in the history of British cinema and head of the famous Ealing ...
2. Jack Nicholson
Actor | Chinatown
Jack Nicholson, an American actor, producer, director and screenwriter, is a three-time Academy Award winner and twelve-time nominee. Nicholson is also notable for being one of two actors - the other being Michael Caine - who have received an Oscar nomination in every decade from the '60s through ...
3. Marlon Brando
Actor | Apocalypse Now
Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, rivaled only by the more theatrically oriented Laurence Olivier in terms of esteem. Unlike Olivier, who preferred the stage to the screen, Brando concentrated his talents on movies after bidding the Broadway stage adieu in ...
4. Robert De Niro
Actor | Cape Fear
One of the greatest actors of all time, Robert De Niro was born on August 17, 1943 in Manhattan, New York City, to artists Virginia (Admiral) and Robert De Niro Sr. His paternal grandfather was of Italian descent, and his other ancestry is Irish, English, Dutch, German, and French. He was trained ...
Best known for Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Cape Fear, The Deer Hunter, The Untouchables, Mean Streets, Casino, Once Upon a Time in America, Heat, Goodfellas, The Irishman, and The Godfather: Part II.
5. Leonardo DiCaprio
Actor | Inception
Few actors in the world have had a career quite as diverse as Leonardo DiCaprio's. DiCaprio has gone from relatively humble beginnings, as a supporting cast member of the sitcom Growing Pains (1985) and low budget horror movies, such as Critters 3 (1991), to a major teenage heartthrob in the 1990s,...
6. Al Pacino
Actor | Serpico
Alfredo James "Al" 'Pacino established himself as a film actor during one of cinema's most vibrant decades, the 1970s, and has become an enduring and iconic figure in the world of American movies.
He was born April 25, 1940 in Manhattan, New York City, to Italian-American parents, Rose (nee Gerardi)...
Best known for Scarface, Dog Day Afternoon, The Devil's Advocate, Serpico, Dick Tracy, And Justice for All, Carlito's Way, Donnie Brasco, Any Given Sunday, The Insider, Scarecrow, Scent of a Woman, Heat, The Irishman, and The Godfather Trilogy.
7. Christian Bale
Actor | The Dark Knight
Christian Charles Philip Bale was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK on January 30, 1974, to English parents Jennifer "Jenny" (James) and David Bale. His mother was a circus performer and his father, who was born in South Africa, was a commercial pilot. The family lived in different countries ...
Best known for American Psycho, The Machinist, American Hustle, The Fighter, Empire of the Sun, Hostiles, Harsh Times, Vice, The Big Short, Ford v Ferrari, The Prestige, Equilibrium, and The Dark Knight Trilogy.
8. Joaquin Phoenix
Actor | Walk the Line
Joaquin Phoenix was born Joaquin Rafael Bottom in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Arlyn (Dunetz) and John Bottom, and is the middle child in a brood of five. His parents, from the continental United States, were then serving as Children of God missionaries. His mother is from a Jewish family from New ...
Best known for Joker, The Master, Her, You Were Never Really Here, Walk the Line, The Sisters Brothers, I'm Still Here, and Gladiator.
9. Heath Ledger
Actor | Brokeback Mountain
When hunky, twenty-year-old heart-throb Heath Ledger first came to the attention of the public in 1999, it was all too easy to tag him as a "pretty boy" and an actor of little depth. He spent several years trying desperately to sway this image, but this was a double-edged sword. His work comprised ...
10. Charlize Theron
Producer | Monster
Charlize Theron was born in Benoni, a city in the greater Johannesburg area, in South Africa, the only child of Gerda Theron (née Maritz) and Charles Theron. She was raised on a farm outside the city. Theron is of Afrikaner (Dutch, with some French Huguenot and German) descent, and Afrikaner ...
Best known for Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde, Monster, The Devil's Advocate, The Italian Job, Æon Flux, Tully, The Huntsman films, Bombshell, Hancock, Prometheus, Dark Places, and The Road.
11. Tom Hanks
Producer | Cast Away
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born in Concord, California, to Janet Marylyn (Frager), a hospital worker, and Amos Mefford Hanks, an itinerant cook. His mother's family, originally surnamed "Fraga", was entirely Portuguese, while his father was of mostly English ancestry. Tom grew up in what he has ...
Best Known for Cast Away, Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, Philadelphia, The Green Mile, Apollo 13, Catch Me If You Can, Sully, Bridge of Spies, Captain Phillips, The Terminal, Road to Perdition, Cloud Atlas, The Da Vinci Code, Saving Mr. Banks, Sleepless in Seattle, The Post, Big and Toy Story series.
12. Denzel Washington
Actor | Fences
Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. was born on December 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York. He is the middle of three children of a beautician mother, Lennis, from Georgia, and a Pentecostal minister father, Denzel Washington, Sr., from Virginia. After graduating from high school, Denzel enrolled at ...
Best known for Training Day, Glory, Fences, American Gangster, Philadelphia, Flight, The Book of Eli, Man on Fire, Inside Man, Remember the Titans, The Magnificent Seven, Malcolm X, The Hurricane, Antwone Fisher, Roman J. Israel, Esq., and The Equalizer Duology.
13. Jim Carrey
Actor | Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Jim Carrey, Canadian-born and a U.S. citizen since 2004, is an actor and producer famous for his rubbery body movements and flexible facial expressions. The two-time Golden Globe-winner rose to fame as a cast member of the Fox sketch comedy In Living Color (1990) but leading roles in Ace Ventura: ...
Best Known for Man on the Moon, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Truman Show, Batman Forever, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Dumb and Dumber Duology, The Mask, Yes Man, The Cable Guy, Liar Liar, Ace Ventura Duology, and Bruce Almighty.
14. Nicolas Cage
Actor | Face/Off
Nicolas Cage was born Nicolas Kim Coppola in Long Beach, California, the son of comparative literature professor August Coppola (whose brother is director Francis Ford Coppola) and dancer/choreographer Joy Vogelsang. He is of Italian (father) and Polish and German (mother) descent. Cage changed his...
Best Known for Face/Off, Lord of War, Adaptation., Leaving Las Vegas, The Rock, Raising Arizona, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Birdy, and Ghost Rider Duology.
15. Tom Hardy
Actor | Inception
With his breakthrough performance as Eames in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi thriller Inception (2010), English actor Tom Hardy has been brought to the attention of mainstream audiences worldwide. However, the versatile actor has been steadily working on both stage and screen since his television debut...
Best Known for Mad Max: Fury Road, Dunkirk, The Revenant, Warrior, Locke, Bronson, Venom, Inception, and The Dark Knight Rises.
16. Johnny Depp
Actor | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II was born on June 9, 1963 in Owensboro, Kentucky, to Betty Sue Palmer (née Wells), a waitress, and John Christopher Depp, a civil engineer. He was raised in Florida. He dropped out of school when he was 15, and fronted a series of music-garage bands, including one ...
Best known for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Edward Scissorhands, Blow, Finding Neverland, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Transcendence, Dark Shadows, The Lone Ranger, Black Mass, Donnie Brasco, Platoon, and The Pirates of the Caribbean series.
17. Gary Oldman
Actor | The Dark Knight
Gary Oldman is a talented English movie star and character actor, renowned for his expressive acting style. One of the most celebrated thespians of his generation, with a diverse career encompassing theatre, film and television, he is known for his roles as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), ...
Best known for Darkest Hour, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Hannibal, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Léon, The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Fifth Element, and The Laundromat.
18. Dustin Hoffman
Actor | Tootsie
Dustin Lee Hoffman was born in Los Angeles, California, to Lillian (Gold) and Harry Hoffman, who was a furniture salesman and prop supervisor for Columbia Pictures. He was raised in a Jewish family (from Ukraine, Russia-Poland, and Romania). Hoffman graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955, ...
Best known for Hook, Papillon, Marathon Man, Outbreak, Little Big Man, All the President's Men, Rain Man, Kramer vs. Kramer, Wag the Dog, Tootsie, Lenny, Midnight Cowboy, and The Graduate.
19. Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Actor | Bajrangi Bhaijaan
Nawazuddin Siddiqui (born 1974) is an Indian film actor who has appeared in some of Bollywood's major films including, Black Friday (2004), New York (2009), Peepli Live (2010), Kahani (2012), Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 2 (2012).
Early life and education
Nawazuddin ...
Best Known for Raman Raghav 2.0, Sacred Games TV Series, Gangs of Wasseypur Duology, Manjhi: The Mountain Man, Badlapur, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Manto, Bombay Talkies, The Lunchbox, Talaash, Te3n, Babumoshai Bandookbaaz, and Lion.
20. Christoph Waltz
Actor | Django Unchained
Christoph Waltz is an Austrian-German actor. He is known for his work with American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, receiving acclaim for portraying SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds (2009) and bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained (2012). For each performance, he won...
Best Known for Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, Carnage, Spectre, The Legend of Tarzan, Water for Elephants, Big Eyes, The Zero Theorem, and A King for Burning.
21. Anne Hathaway
Actress | Les Misérables
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Kate McCauley Hathaway, an actress, and Gerald T. Hathaway, a lawyer, both originally from Philadelphia. She is of mostly Irish descent, along with English, German, and French. Her first major role came in the short-lived television series ...
Best known for Les Misérables, Rachel Getting Married, Love & Other Drugs, The Dark Knight Rises, and Interstellar.
22. Angelina Jolie
Actress | Maleficent
Angelina Jolie is an Academy Award-winning actress who rose to fame after her role in Girl, Interrupted (1999), playing the title role in the "Lara Croft" blockbuster movies, as well as Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Wanted (2008), Salt (2010) and Maleficent (2014). Off-screen, Jolie has become ...
Best known for Girl, Interrupted, Changeling, Salt, Gia, Unbroken, The Tourist, A Mighty Heart, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Original Sin, Wanted, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Maleficent Duology, and Tomb Raider Duology.
23. Natalie Portman
Actress | Black Swan
Natalie Portman is the first person born in the 1980s to have won the Academy Award for Best Actress (for Black Swan (2010)).
Natalie was born Natalie Hershlag on June 9, 1981, in Jerusalem, Israel. She is the only child of Avner Hershlag, an Israeli-born doctor, and Shelley Stevens, an ...
Best known for Black Swan (2010), V for Vendetta, Closer, Léon, Jackie, Anywhere But Here, Brothers, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy and Thor films.
24. Adrien Brody
Actor | The Pianist
Adrien Nicholas Brody was born in Woodhaven, Queens, New York, the only child of retired history professor Elliot Brody and Hungarian-born photographer Sylvia Plachy. He accompanied his mother on assignments for the Village Voice, and credits her with making him feel comfortable in front of the ...
Best known for The Pianist, The Experiment, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Midnight in Paris, Detachment, The Jacket, Backtrack, Bullet Head, and American Heist.
25. Philip Seymour Hoffman
Actor | The Master
Film and stage actor and theater director Philip Seymour Hoffman was born in the Rochester, New York, suburb of Fairport to Marilyn (Loucks), a lawyer and judge, and Gordon Stowell Hoffman, a Xerox employee, and was mostly of German, Irish, English and Dutch ancestry. After becoming involved in ...
26. Manoj Bajpayee
Actor | Gangs of Wasseypur
Manoj Bajpayee is a highly acclaimed Indian film actor known for his versatile acting skills and intense performances. Despite facing financial struggles during his childhood, he pursued his passion for acting and worked hard to achieve success in the film industry. Bajpayee is the second child in ...
Best known for Gangs of Wasseypur, Aligarh, Satya, Special 26, In the Shadows, Sonchiriya, Pinjar, Shool, Raajneeti, and Veer-Zaara.
27. Choi Min-sik
Actor | Oldeuboi
Choi Min-shik first made a name for himself in theater before breaking into the film world with a role in Park Chong-won's acclaimed film 'Our Twisted Hero' (1992). In the mid-nineties he continued to act in theater productions as well as in several TV dramas, including Moon Over Seoul with Han ...
Best known for Oldboy, I Saw the Devil, Failan, The Tiger, Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time, Our Twisted Hero, The Admiral, and Lucy.
28. Edward Norton
Actor | Fight Club
American actor, filmmaker and activist Edward Harrison Norton was born on August 18, 1969, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was raised in Columbia, Maryland.
His mother, Lydia Robinson "Robin" (Rouse), was a foundation executive and teacher of English, and a daughter of famed real estate developer ...
Best Known for American History X, Fight Club, Birdman, Primal Fear, The Illusionist, 25th Hour, Motherless Brooklyn, Red Dragon, The Painted Veil, The Score, The Italian Job, and The Incredible Hulk.
29. Sean Penn
Actor | Mystic River
Sean Penn is a powerhouse film performer capable of intensely moving work, who has gone from strength to strength during a colourful film career, and who has drawn much media attention for his stormy private life and political viewpoints.
Sean Justin Penn was born in Los Angeles, California, the ...
Best known for Mystic River, I Am Sam, Carlito's Way, The Game, 21 Grams, The Tree of Life, Milk, Dead Man Walking, The Professor and the Madman, Casualties of War, and Sweet and Lowdown.
30. Forest Whitaker
Actor | The Last King of Scotland
Forest Steven Whitaker has packaged a king-size talent into his hulking 6' 2", 220 lb. frame. He won an Academy Award for his performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the film The Last King of Scotland (2006), and has also won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. He is the fourth African-American male to...
31. Naomi Watts
Actress | Mulholland Dr.
Naomi Ellen Watts was born on September 28, 1968 in Shoreham, England to Myfanwy Edwards "Miv" (Roberts), an antiques dealer and costume/set designer, and Peter Watts (Peter Anthony Watts), Pink Floyd's road manager. Her maternal grandfather was Welsh. Her father died when she was seven and she ...
Best known for The Impossible, Birdman, 21 Grams, King Kong, Mulholland Drive, The Ring, Eastern Promises, The Painted Veil, Fair Game, Demolition, Adore, and Mother and Child.
32. Jared Leto
Actor | Dallas Buyers Club
Jared Leto is a very familiar face in recent film history. Although he has always been the lead vocals, rhythm guitar, and songwriter for American band Thirty Seconds to Mars, Leto is an accomplished actor merited by the numerous, challenging projects he has taken in his life. He is known to be ...
Best known for Dallas Buyers Club, Blade Runner 2049, Requiem for a Dream, The Outsider, Lord of War, Mr Nobody, Fight Club, The Thin Red Line, and Suicide Squad.
33. Shia LaBeouf
Actor | Honey Boy
Shia LaBeouf's natural talent and raw energy have secured his place as one of Hollywood's leading men.
Most recently, LaBeouf starred alongside Vanessa Kirby and Ellen Burstyn in Kornel Mundruczo's Oscar® nominated Pieces of a Woman. In the critically acclaimed film, a grieving couple (Kirby/LaBeouf...
34. Marilyn Monroe
Actress | Some Like It Hot
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, comedienne, singer, and model. Monroe is of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh descent. She became one of the world's most enduring iconic figures and is remembered both for her winsome embodiment of the Hollywood sex symbol and her tragic personal and ...
Best known for Some Like It Hot, Bus Stop, The Seven Year Itch, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and The Prince and the Showgirl.
35. James Dean
Actor | East of Eden
James Byron Dean was born February 8, 1931 in Marion, Indiana, to Mildred Marie (Wilson) and Winton A. Dean, a farmer turned dental technician. His mother died when Dean was nine, and he was subsequently raised on a farm by his aunt and uncle in Fairmount, Indiana. After grade school, he moved to ...
Best known for Giant, East of Eden, and Rebel Without a Cause.
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