Kristen Stewart Calls Method Acting a Boys' Club

Method acting discourse? Still alive and still spicy. The latest nudge comes from Kristen Stewart, who basically asks: why do we celebrate certain messy, chest-thumpy actor behavior... and why does it seem so gendered?

The setup: the Method myth and its mascots

When people say 'method acting,' the greatest hits playlist pops up: Daniel Day-Lewis disappearing into cobblers and presidents, Marlon Brando mumbling legends into existence, Christian Bale yo-yo dieting for roles. There is also the counter-programming: Brian Cox famously called the whole thing 'American sh**.' Into that conversation walks Stewart, speaking to The New York Times, with a take that is less about process and more about how we talk about it.

What Kristen Stewart actually said

'Have you ever heard of a female actor that was method?'

Stewart told the NYT that performing is inherently vulnerable, which makes it, in her words, kind of embarrassing and not exactly macho. In her view, there is nothing swaggering about being a conduit for someone else’s ideas; it is, by design, a little submissive. She argues men get lionized for holding onto a loud sense of self inside the work: Marlon Brando gets talked about like a folk hero. If a woman carried herself the same way, she says, the reaction would be different.

She also side-eyed the pre-scene rituals some actors use to psych up — cranking out push-ups before a close-up, refusing to say a line a particular way — because that can function as armor. Her point: if you can puff up before a take, it’s less humiliating to then break down on camera, and it sells the idea that what you’re doing is so mystical only you can do it.

The conversation that lit the fuse

Stewart described asking a fellow actor if he had ever met a woman who needed to go full method — the screaming, the whole production. As soon as she framed it as 'male actor' versus 'female actor,' she says the vibe instantly turned into a silent 'do not go there.' Then came the line: 'Oh, actresses are crazy.' Stewart’s response was essentially, so now I’m crazy, and you didn’t even hear what I asked?

So... do women go method?

Short answer: yes, but the lore and the leeway look different.

• Meryl Streep stayed in Miranda Priestly mode on The Devil Wears Prada, keeping a chilly, distant energy with her co-stars to protect the character. She later called it miserable: 'It was horrible! I was [miserable] in my trailer. I could hear them all rocking and laughing. I was so depressed!... That’s the last time I ever attempted a method thing!'
• Natalie Portman once said method acting is a 'luxury that women can’t afford' — which gets at the permission structure Stewart is talking about.
• Others who have played with the method toolbox: Ellen Burstyn, Lady Gaga, Hilary Swank, and more.

The double standard Stewart is poking at

We absolutely have women who commit hard to immersion. What we don’t have as much of is the mythmaking around extreme on-set behavior being framed as genius when men do it. Stewart’s calling out that gap. Nobody is confusing Meryl Streep’s approach with sending dead rats to co-stars or hobbling around set on crutches between takes — yes, Jared Leto, that’s your cue — and that contrast is kind of the point.

Whether you love the Method or think it’s theater-kid cosplay, Stewart’s take lands on something real: the industry applauds a certain brand of performative toughness, and it tends to read as 'bravado' on men and 'difficult' on women. The work might be the same. The story we tell about it usually isn’t.