SecretMethod70

Well, see, that's the thing. A lot of Method Actors seem to feel as though replicating the experience is what Method Acting is. What Dustin Hoffman pointed out in a recent Inside the Actor's Studio interview is that The Method is drawing on experience to know HOW to act moreso than it is recreating that experience.

Nonetheless, this isn't an area where there's exactly a right and wrong. Many actors DO try to recreate the feeling of the character within themselves. And, as for your question, yes, the idea is to get as close as possible. Using your example, I'd point to the fact that we all have a dark side. Obviously, most of us are not child molesters, but being in touch with whatever your own dark side is helps to transfer it to a different character in a different situation.

A little anecdote regarding Dustin Hoffman and Method Acting, courtesy of Wikipedia (once again)...

In Marathon Man's most famous scene, Sir Laurence Olivier tortures Hoffman while repeating the seemingly non-sequitur question: "Is it safe?" The quote was voted as the 70th greatest quote in the history of film by AFI. To achieve his character's exhausted look in this scene, Hoffman deprived himself of sleep for two days. During the filming Olivier famously said to Hoffman "Try acting. . . It's much easier!" While this is widely believed to have been a joke about Hoffman's Strasbergian method, Hoffman himself, who for many years denied the story altogether, now claims that Olivier had been referring to how Hoffman had been partying too hard (the real reason he had deprived himself of sleep) as a way of coping with his depression and the pain of his divorce.

For scenes in which Hoffman was to appear breathless, he would run a half mile until the moment Schlesinger called "action".

I can only assume that his view has shifted more towards that of Sir Laurence Olivier in the 30 years since Marathon Man came out, based on what he said at the Actor's Studio. Incidentally, this story, and specifically Sir Laurence Olivier's attributed quote, was highlighted in some of my own acting training as an example of the extremes to which Method Acting can sometimes be taken.

There is no right or wrong way to act, but I do think the best actors are those capable of drawing on experience without needing to make themselves feel like shit, just to play a character who does.

Offtopic: can you believe Dustin Hoffman is nearly 70 years old!!!

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