Anya Taylor-Joy shared thoughts on why it seems less women are practitioners of Method acting than men: “We have things to take care of,” she said.
In an interview with Complex timed to Apple TV’s “Lucky” and her upcoming “Dune 3,” Taylor-Joy pointed out that there are a number of men who go the Method acting route when shooting movies or TV, but women rarely talk about using the technique.
The “Lucky” star doesn’t see the point to the process and thinks women have too many other things going on to bother with it, whereas for men, it’s notoriously viewed as being disruptive to others on set and somewhat indulgent to stay in character.
“If you’ll notice, women don’t Method act because we have things to take care of, so we can’t completely lose our minds,” Taylor-Joy said.
“I see acting as a controlled psychosis in a way. You’re pretending to be somebody else and having their thoughts 16 hours a day and moving like them, in their house, in their clothes. It’s like having a sister or a roommate check in up [there] for a little bit.”
Of being baffled by the Method, she added: “I can’t imagine keeping it up all the time because, again, you’re going to work with hundreds of people ― and it is your responsibility to be good to them and to help them do their best job. If you’re too invested in being an asshole, then that’s not gonna be very fun.”
Watch the full interview below:
Taylor-Joy is far from the first person to point out the fact that more men than women go full Method while acting. Natalie Portman called the process “a luxury women can’t afford.”
“I don’t think that children or partners would be very understanding of, you know, me making everyone call me ‘Jackie Kennedy’ all the time,” Portman told The Wall Street Journal at the time.
Kristen Stewart has also touched on Method acting a number of times in recent years, arguing that women would be forgiven less for going to the lengths it takes to fully lean into the Method.
“Performance is inherently vulnerable and therefore quite embarrassing and un-masculine,” Stewart reflected to the New York Times in 2025. “There’s no bravado in suggesting that you’re a mouthpiece for someone else’s ideas. It’s inherently submissive. Have you ever heard of a female actor that was Method?”
