Anya Taylor-Joy has offered a candid assessment of method acting, suggesting that it is a practice largely pursued by men.
In a recent interview with Complex News, Taylor-Joy stated that women typically do not engage in method acting because they have responsibilities that prevent them from fully immersing themselves in a character for extended periods. "If you'll notice, women don't method act because we have things to take care of, so we can't completely lose our minds," the 30-year-old actress said.
Taylor-Joy described acting as a form of "controlled psychosis," where an actor spends long hours embodying another person's thoughts and mannerisms. She added that her own support system helps her manage the intensity of her roles, with friends sometimes calling her by a character's name to help her disengage. "Sometimes if it gets out of hand, they'll call me by the character name and they'll be like, 'We need to check in again,'" she shared.
She emphasized the importance of being considerate to colleagues on set, noting that excessive immersion in a character could lead to difficult interactions. "I can't imagine keeping it up all the time because, again, you're going to work with hundreds of people — and it is your responsibility to be good to them and to help them do their best job," Taylor-Joy explained. "If you're too invested in being an asshole, then that's not gonna be very fun."
Taylor-Joy's comments echo sentiments previously expressed by actresses Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart. Portman has described method acting as a "luxury women can't afford," citing the impracticality of asking partners or children to address her by a character's name constantly.
Stewart, in a separate interview, theorized that the reluctance of female actors to engage in method acting might stem from the inherently vulnerable and potentially "un-masculine" nature of performance. "Performance is inherently vulnerable and therefore quite embarrassing and un-masculine," Stewart said. "There's no bravado in suggesting that you're a mouthpiece for someone else's ideas. It's inherently submissive. Have you ever heard of a female actor that was method?"