Elisabeth Moss: ‘Method acting must be exhausting’

Elisabeth Moss doesn’t use the method acting approach because she believes it would be exhausting.

In her latest film Shirley, the actress stars as The Haunting of Hill House author Shirley Jackson, alongside Michael Stuhlbarg as her professor husband Stanley Edgar Hyman. The fictional story follows a young couple, Fred and Rose (Logan Lerman and Odessa Young) who move into the famous author’s home and become fodder for her next novel.

Like in her TV show The Handmaid’s Tale, Elisabeth has to express a range of dark emotions to play Shirley, such as madness, loneliness, depression, and despair. When asked if it was fun to play a character having those feelings, she told Collider she enjoyed exploring those emotions during rehearsal and filming because she can switch them off afterwards.

“I love it. I love that kind of work. I am very fulfilled by it. I am not afraid of it. I’m not a method actor. Part of the reason why I’m not a method actor is because I do think that would be exhausting and maybe I’m just lazy,” she replied. “Maybe I’d be a better actor, if I was a method actor, but it’s just not quite my style, so I don’t get exhausted by it. I love it. I find that all characters end up being a facet of your personality, and I have a lot of Shirley in me. I loved exploring that. It was liberating.”

While Elisabeth can switch her character on and off between takes, method actors, such as Marlon Brando, Dustin Hoffman, and Daniel Day-Lewis, usually go to great lengths to “become” the person they’re portraying and will usually stay in character for the duration of the shoot.