Is method acting in Hollywood a man's game?

OK, so look, I mean, I was talking about like, you know, the long love affair Hollywood has with method actors.

I mean, some of the most famous examples is like Robert De Niro gaining all this weight, Enraging Bull and, you know, Daniel Day-Lewis in Mr. Lincoln, having everyone call him Mr. Lincoln on the set of Lincoln.

And then there's Jeremy Strong, who, of course, he's been known for being a method actor for a very long time in his latest role for The Social Reckoning.

I mean, he would be sending late night emails to the writer and director Aaron Sorkin in character as Mark Zuckerberg.

And I want to start with a clip from an interview that Jeremy Strong did recently with the New Yorker Radio Hour.

He's talking about working on The Trial of Chicago 7, his previous movie with writer and director Aaron Sorkin.

And at one point on set, Jeremy asked if Aaron Sorkin can pepper spray him so that, you know, the tear gas, sorry, hit him with tear gas, spray him with tear gas so that he could experience the real effects for that scene.

And here's Jeremy explaining that request.

Now, what I wanted to do, I want to be very clear, involved no one else and would have involved no one else.

It was for the purpose of a close-up and to have the physiological effects of what that would be.

Of your eyes burning.

So that I don't really – the goal in a sense – You know, Brando put himself in a bathtub of ice once to to get a certain effect of numbness.

You don't want to act is the point.

You don't ever want to act.

So Sorkin said no to Jeremy Strong's request to be tear gas.

But, Ro, I mean, I'm gonna start with you here.

Like, how does someone like Jeremy Strong get to a place where he's like, I need to be tear gas so that I don't because I don't ever want to act?

First, can I say, I really like Jeremy Strong.

Like, I really, I think he's a fantastic actor.

I love his performances.

And I kind of love how seriously he takes his work.

Like, he's incredibly intellectual and he's always referencing poets and playwrights and philosophers.

And frankly, at a time of increasing anti-intellectualism and culture, I think we need more artists who take... those ideas seriously and he'll use press junks to talk about them.

I think that's beautiful.

And I do want to distinguish him from some of the actors we're going to discuss later because while his approach can make some of his colleagues uncomfortable, I'm not aware of evidence that he's in any way harmful or abusive or trying to put anyone off.