Actors need to look to Lee Strasberg for help, not me. So I asked him. And here it is: the first blog on the history of Lee Strasberg in his own words.
I’m not a big fan of Lee Strasberg. He was a good teacher, he had some great ideas, and he helped many actors over the years – including some of the greats, like Marlon Brando and James Dean. But what he did for those two guys was almost purely negative. He taught them to act by getting out of their way, and letting them find their own way to play a character; that’s not teaching, that’s babysitting.
Brando even said so in an interview: “Lee Strasberg didn’t teach me anything,” he said. “He just let me do my thing.”
Brando had been acting since he was five years old, so you might say that what he learned from Strasberg was simply to trust his instincts – which is another way of saying that Strasberg didn’t teach him anything at all.
And what about James Dean? He learned how to act by watching movies – especially Marlon Brando movies. That’s it!
I am often asked about my involvement with Lee Strasberg and if I had any contact with him. Yes, I worked with him for nine years. I also studied with him for six years and was a member of the Strasberg Institute for many years.
The reason I chose to work with Mr. Strasberg is because I believed he could help me become a better actor. In fact, he did help me in many ways; however, I don’t want to give the impression that he helped me in any way other than through his method of acting. He never gave me private lessons or anything like that. He just helped me in class by telling me what to do and how to do it.
I have been asked many times if I had any influence on Mr. Strasberg’s work or if he ever told me anything about himself or his life story. The answer is no, nothing at all! However, I have met some wonderful people who have studied with Mr. Strasberg and they are friends of mine and they know a lot more about him than I do. They have told me a lot about what went on between them and Mr. Strasberg but nothing that would be of interest to anyone else other than actors or people who are interested in acting.
It’s obvious that you need to look at the work of Lee Strasberg, the director and playwright, who worked in theater. And you need to read his writings and his letters. But what about his own words? What did he actually say?
He wrote all over the place, so I was surprised when I found this blog post from 1933, written by a young, struggling actor. It’s about an interview with Lee Strasberg, who had just directed a production of The Crucible at the Provincetown Playhouse. And it’s about how Strasberg viewed himself as a creative artist.
“I want to be known as an actor,” Lee Strasberg writes in the blog post. “And I want people to know that I am a writer.” And there it is: A young actor talking about how he wants his work to be judged on its merits and not on the basis of some outside opinion.
This is the man who is credited with creating Method acting — a style of acting in which actors are encouraged to think like their characters instead of reciting lines — but who also worked as a stage manager for years and then went on to become one of America’s greatest directors and screenwriters. He is someone who has always been regarded as one
Lee Strasberg is one of the most famous names in acting. He is widely thought of as the “father” of acting. He founded many of the most famous acting schools in the country, including The Actor’s Studio and The Lee Strasberg Actors Studio, where he taught acting to actors like Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Marilyn Monroe and Robert De Niro. It is said that his work was instrumental in creating a new kind of actor in Hollywood.
Lee Strasberg was born on November 22nd, 1901, in New York City. His father was a tailor and his mother a housewife. His parents were immigrants from Russia who moved to New York City when Lee was five years old. Lee’s father died when he was eight years old, and his mother died when he was ten years old.
Lee Strasberg attended public school until the sixth grade, when he transferred to Peekskill Military Academy for grades seven through nine. He graduated from high school at age fifteen and went on to attend NYU (New York University), where he studied law and business administration.
In 1921, Lee Strasberg married actress Frances Taylor (often referred to as Fanny Taylor), whom he met while working as a stage manager at the Belasco Theater in
Actors have the ability to create a world that is not real, but which the audience believes in. When actors use this technique, it creates a deeper understanding of what they are doing and gives them greater control of their emotions. This technique is called “method acting.”
It works by using the emotion or action that is to be portrayed, in order to create an internal mental representation of this emotion or action. That is, the actor thinks about what it would be like to experience that emotion, and then performs it on stage (or on camera).
This technique was first developed by Stanislavski and Lee Strasberg. It has since been used by many actors throughout the world, including Daniel Day Lewis, Anthony Hopkins and Jack Nicholson.
I know that many actors are interested in trying out this technique for themselves.
In the early years of this century, I came to America, a stranger in a strange land. The things that I have achieved and the things that I have done were perhaps the result of the spirit of America, where I found so many opportunities for self-improvement. In America I developed my own theory of acting and its application to the theatre; and in spite of the opposition and ridicule that my theories encountered at first, they were accepted finally as an established method of acting.
Many people say that it is not possible for one man to do so many things — as an actor, a director and a teacher. But without these achievements on my part, my life would have been very empty and full of regrets. For it is only through achievement that one can find complete happiness and contentment. And since I am near seventy-four years old, I have decided to write down all those things which I have learned in my lifetime concerning acting and directing, so that actors and directors will be able to read them after I am gone.
My books are written in such a way that they tell the story of an actor’s life from his birth until he reaches old age. They are also intended to serve as a guide for actors who wish to achieve success by following
When I was in college, one of my friends worked with a group of actors who were all the same age. They had all been at the same school, and they all knew each other very well. One night he was talking to me about how he would like to teach them acting. He said that he felt as though he couldn’t teach them anything that would be useful for their careers.
One night, we were walking home from a party when I saw an actor who looked just like him. The actor had this really cool haircut and a really great smile. And I thought to myself, “Do you know who this guy is?” And I said “I know this guy!” And the actor looked up at me and smiled, and I said “He looks just like you!” And the actor said, “Hey man.” And I said, “You’re Lee Strasberg!”
And the actor said, “I’m Lee Strasberg.” And I was like, “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! This is awesome!” And then he started telling me about his life as an actor. He told me that he had done theater in New York City for years before becoming a teacher in Los Angeles. He told me that he had taught acting
