An excerpt from, "An Actor’s Secret Sauce: Shakespeare" New York Film Academy, August 27, 2015:
Therefore, to ensure effective storytelling, Shakespearean actors are instructed to use all of their natural tools. Voice, physicality, facial expression, and thought are all used to communicate a character’s intention to the audience. Additionally, the unusual structure of Shakespearean dialogue forces actors to consider their pacing and cadence, which increases their awareness of timing. Over the course of a career in Shakespeare, this all-around approach to acting teaches thespians to think critically and creatively about their characters, and leads to consistently moving performances.
An excerpt from, "Birth of the Method: the revolution in American acting" By Foster Hirsch, British Film Institute, October 31, 2014:
Critics of Strasberg’s Method claimed that his unrelenting focus on inner work neglected such external matters as voice and projection, and out of this common complaint emerged the stereotype of the mumbling, unwashed Method performer who ended up playing his or her own neuroses rather than the psychological truth of their character.
An excerpt from, "David Milch Gets Theatrical" By Terry Morgan, Backstage, March 25, 2013:
"I think it's no accident that so many of our best people are certainly trained in theatre," he says. "And most of them maintain their connection with theatre. That's always been my experience. I, regrettably, do not get to theatre as much as I would like. I have worked in particular with [CDs] Junie Lowry-Johnson and Libby Goldstein for several decades, and Scott Genkinger as well, and they are resolute in their commitment to theatre, and that's how they spend their time."
He says he seeks out particular kinds of theatre actors: those who work realistically and who are able to deliver lyrical monologues for his shows.
"Realism is not reality; it's a convention, says Milch. "I think that, because I do series work, and the audience is exposed to a character over a long period of time, it doesn't diminish the sense of the character's imaginative reality to allow the character, every so often, expression which might not be strictly perceived as real but nonetheless draws on an internal reality. That's obviously [something] the theatre has been used to for centuries. I don't think it's an accident that people who are able to sustain the audience's sense of reality, even as they are, for example, soliloquizing, are people who are trained in theatre."
An excerpt from, "David Harbour Calls Method Acting ‘Dangerous’ and ‘Silly’: Daniel Day-Lewis’ Process Is ‘Nonsense to Me’" By Zack Sharf, Variety, July 8, 2022:
Harbour joins a handful of actors in recent months who have spoken out against method acting. “Hannibal” favorite Mads Mikkelsen railed against the process in an April interview, saying, “It’s bullshit. But preparation, you can take into insanity. What if it’s a shit film — what do you think you achieved? Am I impressed that you didn’t drop character? You should have dropped it from the beginning! How do you prepare for a serial killer? You gonna spend two years checking it out?”
An excerpt from, "Jeremy Strong and Hollywood's most extreme actors" By Hanna Flint, BBC, March 22, 2023:
To say his acting technique has been unpopular with his coworkers is an understatement. Castmates Kieran Culkin and Brian Cox both articulated their concern in the same article, despite what Cox described as the "tremendous" results the method had delivered. "I worry about the crises he puts himself through in order to prepare," said Cox. "I've worked with intense actors before. It's a particularly American disease, I think, this inability to separate yourself off while you're doing the job."
Recently, the classically trained Cox, who plays Strong's formidable father Logan Roy in the series, has been reiterating his distaste for Strong's extreme, often antisocial technique. He puts it down to the differing sensibilities between British and US performers. "It's really a cultural clash," the Scottish actor told Variety in an interview last week. "I don't put up with all that American s***. I'm sorry. All that sort of 'I think, therefore I feel'. Just do the job… Don't identify."
An excerpt from, "Are British Actors Better Than American Actors?" Acting Magazine:
“They [British actors] deserve the roles. They’re often better [than American actors] because they grow up with Shakespeare from day one, and they grow up with a lot of poetry in their lives.”
Actor Martin Freeman, in an interview on the Tonight Show, also attributed the great success British actors often achieve to their deep theatre backgrounds.
“It’s not completely true of all British actors and all American actors, but generally, we [British actors] go to drama school and generally we come up in theatre. That is a cultural difference. We are a bit more steeped in theatre,” said Freeman.
