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Jon Bernthal Shares His Thoughts on Method Acting

Jon Bernthal is sharing his thoughts on “method acting” and why that term has been abused lately in the media.

The 45-year-old actor was photographed while stepping out for the premiere of his new HBO limited series We Own This City on Thursday (April 21) in New York City.

Jon was joined at the event by co-stars Jamie Hector, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Josh Charles with wife Sophie Flack, Rob Brown, David Corenswet, Don Harvey, Larry Mitchell, Ian Duff, Delaney Williams, and Gabrielle Carteris, as well as director Reinaldo Marcus Green.

In a new interview with THR, Jon talked about “method acting” and if the word has been abused.

“Absolutely. And that’s why these conversations are difficult for me, honestly, because every actor has a process,” Jon said. “Having studied in Moscow at the Moscow Art Theater, I guarantee you that making everybody call you by your character name and not showering for eight months was not what Stanislavski had in mind with the Method. But at the end of the day, these sacred seconds between action and cut, that’s all we got. So that means that I got to stay in proximity to that role, close to those sacred seconds, that I’m not on a cellphone or eating Chinese food or making plans for the evening. But if I’m talking like Wayne and I’m acting like Wayne, because it’s going to help those seconds, I think you got to do that. And sometimes that’s a day, sometimes it’s a week, sometimes it’s five minutes. But I think this idea of Method acting where George was only allowed to call me Wayne, I don’t roll like that. I don’t see any benefit in that.”

The six-episode series We Own This City premieres on HBO on April 25.

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