Drew Barrymore Says She Basically Went Full Method as Edie Beale for ‘Grey Gardens’
Drew Barrymore is chiming in on the method acting debate.
The “Drew Barrymore Show” host revealed that she practiced method acting when starring in critically acclaimed, Emmy-winning made-for-TV biopic “Grey Gardens” opposite Jessica Lange as Edie Beale. The 2009 drama won multiple Emmys, including Outstanding Made-for-TV Movie and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for Lange; Barrymore was also nominated for the award in the mother-daughter dynamic.
During the September 20 episode of “The Drew Barrymore Show,” the “Wedding Singer” alum applauded actors who “transform and fully commit” to roles, citing Christian Bale, Jared Leto, and Matthew McConaughey as method actors she admires (via Decider).
“I definitely, on certain projects, like when I did ‘Grey Gardens,’ this film I did where I played beloved real-life woman Edie Beale, I was so nervous I didn’t really chit-chat with everybody on set,” Barrymore said of her transformative technique. “I just really stayed in character.”
Barrymore teased that Andrew Garfield, who recently revealed he went without sex for six months when preparing to play a priest in Martin Scorsese’s 2016 film “Silence,” did not undergo a big enough sacrifice for the role.
“What’s wrong with me that six months doesn’t seem like a very long time?” Barrymore said. “I was like, ‘Yeah so?'”
Garfield previously defended the practice of method acting, weighing in that the oft-debated controversial approach isn’t about being an “arsehole” to co-stars and crew members.
“I’m kind of bothered by the misconception, I’m kind of bothered by this idea that ‘method acting is bullshit,’” Oscar nominee Garfield shared on the “WTF with Marc Maron” podcast. “It’s like, no I don’t think you know what method acting is if you’re calling it bullshit, or you’ve just worked with someone who claims to be a method actor but who actually isn’t acting in the method at all.”
Garfield clarified, “People are still acting in that way, and it’s not about being an arsehole to everyone on set. It’s actually just about living truthfully under imagined circumstances and being really nice to the crew simultaneously and being a normal human being and being able to drop it when you need to, and staying in it when you want to stay in it.”
The “Tick, Tick, Boom” actor said that the “process to create” is “very private,” especially when it comes to employing method acting techniques.
“I don’t want people to fucking see the pipes of my toilet. I don’t want people to see how I’m making the sausage,” Garfield said. “But it really, really is profound work.”
