David Chiu

Today I have been reading several news stories covering Marlon Brando, the “Godfather” of method acting who died today at age 80. His performance in “Streetcar Named Desire” revolutionized acting by demonstrating what was possible with “method” acting as pioneered by Constantin Stanislavsky. This is the “method” of acting that I have been studying for the last two years at the Joanne Baron/DW Brown acting studio in Santa Monica. What differentiates this “method” of acting from all the others is that method actors really “live” the emotions and circumstances of a scene as if it really was happening. The emotions are real and they are affected and come off of the other person who they are acting with in a scene. This makes method acting look very real and organic.

More and more, I am realizing that serious acting training is like martial arts training. There are so many levels of training and so much to learn and experience that to be a true master would take years of study and experience. In the last two years I feel I have been taught all the basic principals and more intermediate skills but it will take discipline and a lot of practice to really master all the information I have been taught. Although, the level of training we have received has prepared us enough to work in Hollywood. Heck, most actors working in Hollywood don’t have any real training but what the studio is trying to do is give us the training and skills for Oscar winning performances.