Jacob Elordi Talks Method Acting And Wuthering Heights
Method acting has always been controversial but Jacob Elordi didn’t expect the debate to follow him off-set. In a recent Esquire interview, the actor joked about going “partially method” for his role as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights – before a freak accident made the experience all too real.
The Wuthering Heights star shared that the films makeup artist Siân Miller, “was designing the scars from the whips for Heathcliff’s back” and sarcastically challenged Elordi to go method, quipping “If Daniel Day-Lewis was playing Heathcliff, he would’ve come in with scars”. Elordi sarcastically shot back with “I’m going to go away on the weekend and maim myself on the weekend to prove to you I’m Heathcliff!”
That night, however, the joke took an unexpected turn. Elordi explained “that night I went home, and the house I was staying in had a steam shower: a brass knob that steam came from out the wall.”
“The full story is that when I was doing Frankenstein, I had so much make-up on my fingers and feet all the time, and I left it on for the whole shoot because I couldn’t be bothered washing it all off. As Heathcliff I was covered in mange and dirt and I thought ‘I’m not going to do that again, I’m going to clean my feet properly every night and come into work fresh the next day’. So I went to clean my feet, and I leant back and my back seared into the steam knob and I stood up screaming; it tore up my back. When I went to work on Monday I had a second-degree burn.”
Director Emerald Fennell remembers the incident clearly, recalling the moment she received a text in the first week of shooting saying “Jacob’s in the hospital”. “Obviously I thought, ‘Oh my god, he’s had a car accident” she shares, “and then he was like, ‘He’s burnt his back in the shower’”. Adding that she eventually asked Elordi if his injury was in the spirit of Daniel Day-Lewis.
“It was actually Day-Lewis in the shower” Elordi joked.
Day-Lewis is a name that often comes up surrounding the debate of Method acting, sharing when promoting his new film Anemone that the criticisms surrounding Method acting come from those who simply don’t understand it. “The recent commentary in the last few years about Method is invariably from people who have little or no understanding of what it actually involves. It’s almost as if it’s some specious science that we’re involved in, or a cult, he said. “But it’s just a way of freeing yourself so that the spontaneity, when you are working with your colleagues in front of the camera, that you are free to respond in any way that you’ll move in that moment.”
However, many actors have spoken out against method acting, with Mads Mikkelsen telling GQ that “It’s bullsh*t”. The actor criticised performers who refuse to break character, suggesting their approach is both pointless and unimpressive. While he emphasised that he prepares diligently for his roles, Mikkelson argued that taking it any further is unnecessary adding that “it’s just pretentious”.
Wuthering Heights releases in the UK and Ireland on February 13th
source: Variety
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