Blood, Sweat & Tears
By: Kayla Martell Feldman
Tags: Health And Safety, Movies, Oscars, Mental Health, Method Acting

Blood, Sweat & Tears

The secret To Oscar-worthy performances

In 2012, when Leonardo DiCaprio was denied an Oscar nomination for his performance in Django Unchained, fans everywhere were outraged. In one scene of the movie, DiCaprio accidentally smashed his hand into a glass during filming, obviously injuring himself, but carried on, incorporating this injury into the scene, which was then used in the final cut. “He gave them blood!” the public cried. “What more do they want!?” Leonardo DiCaprio’s lack of victory with the Academy for the first 26 years of his very high profile career was a running joke among movie fans until he finally won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of Hugh Glass in The Revenant in 2015.

The entertainment industry is rife with stories like this: actors who have pushed themselves to a mental and/or physical breaking point, who injure themselves on stage or screen and carry on without stopping, who ignore the personal boundaries of their scene partner, all in the name of authenticity. Heath Ledger famously isolated himself in his hotel room for six weeks in preparation for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight, and, more recently, Joaquin Phoenix gave himself an eating disorder and caused severe psychological damage by losing 52lbs for the same role in the origin story Joker. Natalie Portman went to such extremes during her training to play ballet dancer Nina in Black Swan that she dislocated a rib during filming. For his role in Sling Blade, Billy Bob Thornton placed crushed glass inside his shoes to achieve Karl’s signature shuffle – a level of dedication (or sheer stupidity) that earned him an Oscar nomination, but ultimately not a win. These methods of acting are, oddly enough, called Method acting, which itself is based on the System of acting pioneered by Russian theatre practitioner Stanislavski, and then further developed by a group of American practitioners (most famously Lee Strasberg) in the 1930s. Simply put, Method acting is a group of techniques actors might use to reach complete emotional identification with a part. It is not uncommon for actors to go to extremes to achieve total psychological (as with Heath Ledger) or physical (a la Portman’s extreme weight loss) “authenticity”. In fact, such extremes are often celebrated to such a degree that this is what the industry has come to expect. An actor is only as strong as their willingness to put themselves through mental and/or physical torture.

The public might worship these actors for what is perceived as commitment to their art, but what they aren’t seeing are the decades of training that have prepared them for this, the personal boundaries they have set and the slow but steady process of extending them. Moreover, it completely disregards all of the actors who achieve greatness through styles of acting other than the Method. Young actors entering the industry, desperate to keep up with expectations and the unshakeable feeling of being replaceable, will either stay in their comfort zone or put themselves in danger, completely unaware of the vast ground to cover in between these two extremes. Stay in your comfort zone and you will give mediocre performances, unsatisfying to both you and your audiences. Venture into the unsafe space and you will break down — maybe not right away, and maybe not completely, but over time, it will take its toll. It’s no wonder that the “27 Club” is almost exclusively comprised of performers.

I believe that theatre and film are important — I wouldn’t be in this industry if I didn’t believe that. They are vital elements of the arts and culture upon which society is built and maintained. But let’s be honest here. This isn’t heart surgery. There is no script in existence so important that an actor’s health should be risked in bringing it to life. It’s why we have fight directors and stunt coordinators and body doubles. It’s why we fill out risk assessment forms and use harnesses and install grab-rails above kill height. It baffles me that the same care does not seem to be taken for actors’ mental health. Mental illness is rife in the entertainment industry, and I believe a major factor in this is the pressure put on actors to go to psychologically dangerous extremes in the name of authenticity. All we see is the finished product: the extraordinary, award-winning performances. We never see the cost at which these performances are produced. We mourn our favourite actors when they overdose or commit suicide or suffer psychologically-induced physical symptoms, but we never question the cause. We never show concern when watching a film in which they appear emaciated, sallow, or insane. We simply assume they are just acting.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance in Django Unchained was deemed by the public as Oscar-worthy for two reasons. Firstly, because he had been working so much, so hard, and for so long with 5 Oscar nominations (but no wins) to his name, and secondly because that one scene was interpreted by many as an indication of his commitment. He had given blood, sweat, and tears to this industry for a quarter of a century, and this proved that he was “one of the greats”. While I do believe that perseverance and hard work should indicate success, I do not believe that blood, sweat, and tears, is the only way to show dedication to your craft. Method acting is not the only way to do it, and, although boundaries and comfort zones should expand and develop over the course of a career, the pressure to drive yourself to a physical or psychological breaking point as a measure of talent is dangerous not only to those established performers, but to those following in their footsteps.

This all comes back to the simple, uncomfortable fact that the entertainment industry is completely oversaturated. With thousands of young hopefuls to choose from, there’s bound to be dozens who are willing to put themselves through the mill in order to reach the elite. Sure, you can’t legally ask an actor to starve themselves or shove crushed glass in their shoes, but if they’ve proven that they are willing to go above and beyond for a part, you’ll hire them, certain in the knowledge that they will go past what is expected of them, that they will do whatever it takes to give a convincing performance. That they will give blood, sweat, and tears.

Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash

I have policies in place for every project I work on to ensure that my actors are kept safe. In every rehearsal, in every exercise, I ensure that they are aware they can tap out at any time, that they should not feel responsible to carry on if they are unwell in any way. A stock phrase I use is “we’re all adults here — if it feels unsafe, don’t go there,” and I repeat it regularly. I give actors safewords that can easily fit into a script so that they can subtly let their castmates know if they are feeling unstable during a performance, and there are procedures in place for the entire cast to help them carry on, or to end the show early if that is what is needed. This has worked so well in my experience that no actor I have worked with has ever had to use a safeword during a performance — simply having those measures in place has made them feel completely safe at work.

I’m certain that there will be those who are cynical about the way I work, but I’ve pushed myself to a breaking point for the sake of the arts before. I know what that feels like in the moment, and how utterly unnecessary it is. I have no interest in working in this industry if it is a danger to me or my colleagues. I’m aware of the hard work that this industry requires, but I’m not prepared to die for it, and I wouldn’t expect anyone else to. If you think I’m being over-dramatic — people have died for it. Robin Williams died for it. Amy Winehouse died for it. Marilyn Monroe died for it.

It is madness to me that Quentin Tarantino did not yell “cut” the second his actor was injured. Sure, they’ve been working together for a long time and probably know one another’s boundaries a lot better than I do. Personally, it doesn’t sit well. It doesn’t sit well that there are still such unsafe practices in the industry. That those in power who know how oversaturated the industry is will feel entitled to force their actors to lose weight for roles. That actors can be fired for not losing weight quick enough. One extreme example that always horrifies me is the barbaric treatment received by Shelley Duvall from director Stanley Kubrick whilst filming The Shining — and that he ordered the crew to show no sympathy for her, to ignore her completely, which meant that she had nowhere to turn, no place to feel safe, no HR department to protect her. This is not something she chose, it is something that was done to her, by a tyrannical director who put his own ego above the safety of his lead actress (it’s worth noting that The Shining’s author Stephen King was repulsed by Kubrick’s treatment of Duvall, and has spoken out against the way his book was adapted for the film).

Shelley Duvall in The Shining, dir. Kubrick (1980) — she was forced to perform this scene 127 times to give the character a more exhausted look. She had splinters from the bat, and clumps of her hair fell out from the stress. The tears are real.

A construction worker is trained to be able to do their job safely, and it is the responsibility of the contractors or project managers to ensure that they take the necessary precautions so that they are not at risk of death in their place of work. I’ve worked in construction, and I got yelled at for standing on a ladder wrong (I was less than a metre off the ground, although to be fair I did have a drill in my hand). There is no project so important that it is worth risking the lives of your employees. And that is what actors are — employees. Employees who are trained to do a job safely, and who must be able to trust that there are preventative measures in their place of work to ensure their mental and physical safety. Those in positions of power — directors, producers, showrunners — have a duty of care to the actors under their employ. It is their responsibility to ensure that actors do not put themselves in danger, and to be aware of the immense amount of pressures they are put under to do so. It is the responsibility of the largest production companies and those in positions of power within the industry to set positive examples of good practice. Equally, it is our responsibility as consumers not to idolize those who set bad examples.