Author: Bella Siu

Adler and DeNiro: The Masculine Method

In the archival footage of Adler’s teachings, she focuses on ideas of class background, “size,” gender, and masculinity in order to develop her iteration of method acting. Adler’s version of method acting typically consists of extensive research so that the actor can better “become” the character. As Adler states in one of the archival videos, “There is no ‘you’ when you’re an actor, you’re only the character.” Through annotating these videos, these ideas became clear as they recurred over a period of years throughout analyses of various scripts and can be connected to a plethora of her students and their work. One of the most notable students of hers being Robert De Niro, who studied full-time with Adler from about the time he was 18 until he was 21. Looking at Adler’s archival footage in conjunction with materials from the Robert De Niro collection at the Harry Ransom Center, the long lasting impact of Adler and her teaching can be observed in the ways she has shaped masculinity in American cinema as well as method in general.

One of the most striking things in the archival videos is the process in which Adler goes breaking down the backgrounds of the characters she analyzes in the scripts. In the videos, Adler seemingly switches between two states, the active teacher and the active actor. Adler typically begins in a more subdued state but then as she gets more into the script she switches into a much more emotionally charged state. In her teaching state, she is physically much more still, she asks the class questions and checks in here and there to make sure they’re following. In this state, her theories and techniques are presented in a much more concrete way unlike the more abstract manner in which they manifest in her acting state. This acting state is usually indicated by Adler looking up, becoming a lot more active, sometimes there will be a verbal perspective shift, and most significantly is the line of questioning she goes down. Countless amounts of times as Adler is trying to break down a character, such as Nora in A Doll’s House, she fires off various questions about them usually relating to their background in order to better supplement their characterization. This state can be observed from 0:47 to 1:32 in this video, as well as a few other times as she often switches in and out of this state, as Adler begins by employing a perspective switch to “become” the character and follows with her questioning. By asking all these questions, it allows Adler and other actors alike to really consider how different aspects of life, like class and gender, shape and inform a character’s actions. Sometimes as the acting state closes out, Adler is able to make some sort of revelation about the character as a result of the active process she went through. Even if there is no revelation, Adler is still able to exercise this active process to strengthen these skills for later use. This ebb and flow between these two states allow the students to observe the exemplary active process of “becoming” the character while also getting a more traditional formal education. By differentiating these states, Adler’s unique style of teaching makes itself known through these recently digitized videos in the Harold Clurman and Stella Adler Collection at the Harry Ransom Center.

The importance of Adler’s teaching style comes in conjunction with the contents of her teaching. As both the active teacher and the active actor, Adler emphasizes extensive character research as well as script analysis. Adler used the script as a tool that was to supplement the understanding of the character but she was also able to tell when the script was not useful to the characterization. When breaking down Nora in A Doll’s House, Adler states that “I have a lot of words but I have more than that” and here Adler finds an inconsistency within the script and rejects the script outright as she says “the words are absolutely useless.” Adler is able to use the script in some sense to build up part of a character, usually when doing more traditional script analysis in her teaching state, but is also able to build her own image of the character separate from the script, typically through her line of questioning in her acting state, in order to have a more thorough understanding of them. In terms of character research, Adler’s focus on class background, gender, “size”, and masculinity all work together to shape a very specific and American image of masculinity and acting in general. Her focus on “size” is notable as it is typically related to how an actor could command the stage through both physicality and emotion. Though this emphasis on size definitely relates back to masculinity as she would say things like “the size must come through…It is important for everybody to understand that the man represents the inflated ego. It is built up through the ages. The man is the dominant character on earth and everyone will listen to me,” which pretty clearly connects “size” to the male ego. This focus on “size,” especially for young male actors, is notable in the way her students went on to develop masculinity in American acting through theater and cinema.

When going through the De Niro collection, looking predominantly at materials from Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980), the impact of Adler’s teachings that focus on ideas of masculinity, size, and class as well as extensive character research in general becomes abundantly clear. The aforementioned roles in particular had a unique focus on physicality as well as the pitfalls of hyper masculinity which was only achieved through De Niro’s meticulous process. By having access to scripts as well as a multitude of supplementary materials of De Niro’s, these areas of focus can be observed in his rigorous preparation process.

In many of De Niro’s scripts he writes in the margins hyper specific questions and notes relating to things like the character’s physicality. On the shooting script from Taxi Driver (1976), De Niro underlined Travis’ physical attributes, made note of his costuming, and highlighted the fact that Travis had what was described as a “steely” gaze which is on par with Adler’s advice to “write down the physicality of each character.” In the margins of a draft of a Raging Bull (1980) script, De Niro crossed out a line that describes another character as “151 lbs” and re-wrote “149 ¼” over it which reflects Adler’s emphasis on “becoming” the character as Jake LaMotta was obsessed with weight while also combining this “becoming” with Adler’s emphasis on script analysis. Adler’s emphasis on “size” also shows through here as weight was very clearly tied to ego for LaMotta. There was also a three page long packet that was filled only with questions De Niro had typed up about his character with questions regarding class background, physicality, behavior, size, and almost every detail imaginable about someone’s life which clearly parallels Adler’s line of questioning in her acting state. “ How important was money in you getting into boxing?” and “Did you really charge people to come and see you work out?” were some of the questions De Niro asked regarding Jake LaMotta’s class background. There were also questions De Niro asked about LaMotta’s diet, though here it is unclear whether he is looking at a line from a script or from LaMotta’s book, but regardless we can see some of Adler’s script analysis training coming through when De Niro asks “ Pg. 184, ‘every morsel I ate was bad food.’ Did he try to eat good food as he trained for fights? Did he care? Did he follow diet that’s good?” It is these hyper-specific questions that seem almost excessive and marginal that really shape De Niro’s acting process and reflect the impact that Adler had on him. A lot of the characters De Niro plays, such as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976), Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980), Max Cady in Cape Fear (1991), and Neil McCauley in Heat (1995), fit into the hyper-masculine middle class male image that Adler had focused so much on in her years of teaching.

The impact of these hyper-masculine characters has undoubtedly shaped modern cinema, a notorious example being Joker (2019) taking direct influence from both Taxi Driver (1976) and King of Comedy (1982). The way De Niro’s career, along with many other notable male actors who were students of Adler’s, has shaped masculinity in American cinema leads back to Adler’s desire to create a theory of acting that reflected the American national identity.