Billy Crudup has played complicated men for nearly three decades, but the actor admits he rarely works in full Method style. So when Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly needed a breakdown in the middle of a bar — tears welling up in his eyes when he read the words “truffle Parmesan fries” — he had to delve into techniques he’d avoided since drama school.
Speaking to The Independent, the actor said, “Re-traumatizing yourself works.” The scene depicts Crudup’s character, Timothy, a therapist who has never “worked” as an actor, performing for George Clooney, a fading movie star.
Billy Crudup on Method Acting
Crudup says he needed real pain to highlight that moment, even though he long believed that spontaneity trumps immersion.
His issue with method acting depends on how it affects the room. That said, if a director needs to make quick adjustments, things can become stressful. “You can’t just say, ‘Excuse me, Daniel (Day-Lewis), can you step out of this for a second?’ Other actors and crew find this selfish. Recalling previous on-set skirmishes, he laughed, saying he never liked being cheated on in reactions – even if directors tried. William Friedkin firing a gun during The Exorcist? “It’s a great bullshit moment,” Crudup said. But… generally speaking, no, it’s a bad idea.”
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A career built on enigmatic people and lingering doubts
Crudup has spent years adapting to characters audiences don’t fully understand: the CIA agent, the stone-faced captain, the slippery executive. Yet he is unclear about his view of his early work. Much of it, he said, feels “not authentic”, even almost tame. The exception was Harry Clarke, his one-man play where he played 19 characters and finally, in his words, felt “in control of the text” and free of self-consciousness.
Now, the actor is playing Will Kane in Eric Roth’s High Noon adaptation, a marshal who is forced into a performance that challenges both his manhood and his marriage. Crudup said the tension of the story plays out differently today. “We’re thinking right now about how to create civility in a community that is becoming increasingly lawless. You don’t see government officials disobeying laws without any accountability from Congress, and no use of force by the Supreme Court, and that’s not even somewhat lawless,” he explained, pointing to officials who ignore laws without consequences. He further said, Kane “is a scoundrel, but he is a scoundrel to the law.”
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Fame, politics and a grassroots worldview
Crudup joked that for years, he was only recognized when standing next to his wife, Naomi Watts. But he has a clear view about the disadvantages of fame. He cited a speech by former US President Jimmy Carter and said, “And it was like a ‘Come to Jesus’ thing with America and its conscience, saying, ‘If you guys keep moving forward to get things, you’ll forget what the purpose of living is.'” “I feel the same way about fame,” he explained.