Oscar-winning actress Ellen Burstyn laid out her reservations about method acting during a masterclass at the Venice Film Festival. The actress, who is in Italy as the recipient of the festival’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement and the star of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “Flesh Impact” and Kornél Mundruczó’s “A Place to Be,” noted how what actors currently call “method” vastly differs from the original concept developed by her mentor Lee Strasberg.
Playing Marilyn Monroe in Gyllenhaal’s “Flesh Impact,” which imagines a reality where the star lived into her old age, led Burstyn to look back at her encounter with the actress. The two crossed paths only once, at a comedy club. “Once I saw her, I couldn’t stop looking at her,” said the “Flowers in the Attic” performer. “At one point she looked at me, and she smiled and nodded at me like she recognized me. I was early in my career, and I was so thrilled to be recognized by Marilyn Monroe.”
Burstyn called Waititi “a great actor,” noting that “working with him is like being in life, not in a movie.” “We were alive with each other […] It was full of love without being a sexual relationship.”
