The Actors Studio Celebrates 75 Years

In conversation with Ellen Burstyn,
Co-President of The Actors Studio

In October of 1947, Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, and Robert Lewis founded The Actors Studio as a private workshop which allowed professional actors a sacred space to hone their craft. Founding Artistic Director Lee Strasberg developed a series of exercises which became known as ‘The Method’ and changed the course of cinema history. One of the most powerful influences on American acting in the 20th century, the Studio continues to serve new generations of actors, directors, and playwrights. In celebration of its 75th Anniversary, Film Review talks with Co-President of The Actors Studio, Oscar-winner and cinema legend Ellen Burstyn.

Film Review (FR): The Actors Studio is celebrating its 75th Anniversary this season. How exciting that the Studio is not only still around, but continues to thrive and grow.

Ellen Burstyn (EB): When Lee Strasberg died in the early 1980s, we all just came together and said, ‘We’ve got to keep it going.’ We have and I’m so moved and happy that we’ve managed to continue. Even though we don’t have our great teacher, we have his teaching. We share it and it’s helpful. It helps actors. I see the change from when they first come in and after working in session. It amazed me when I read that Horowitz, the great pianist, practised eight hours a day, every day of his life. I thought, that’s what artists have to do. If you’re an actor, you need three things, as Peter Brook once said—a stage, an actor, and an audience. That’s what we provide for actors. A stage, and the audience, and the teaching.

(FR): Since the Studio’s founding, I think there have been misconceptions about The Method. When asked about the work, I always refer to your words, ‘There is no such thing as Method acting. There’s good acting and there’s bad acting.’

(EB): And there’s Method rehearsal process. There’s The Method technique of working on, as Lee always called it, your instrument.

(FR): Yes, it’s really a set of tools. Then it’s up to the actor to determine which tools work best for them.

(EB): Yes. Lee said in a book, that I think was so cogent, he said, ‘The Method is a method of training the imagination to respond to imaginary stimuli.’ That really describes it. It’s training the imagination. I think people have a misconception that the imagination isn’t involved. That Method acting has to do with making it real by going out and actually doing the thing that the character in the play does. If that were true, nobody could ever play Medea. Their children would be in jeopardy. It’s making it real to the imagination, not actually doing it.

(FR): How do we continue to change those misconceptions and set the record straight?

(EB): Well, I guess just like what we’re doing right now. Talking about it and clarifying it. Responding when people say things that are just that old fashioned idea—that they know what the Method is and they think it’s actually doing it. We have to correct them.

(FR): Exactly, Method acting isn’t about going to extremes at all, but going within. Training the imagination. The Actors Studio is a real gymnasium for that.

(EB): Yes, absolutely.

(FR): For those that haven’t trained and learned the technique, how does the imagination and memory become essential to the work of good actors?

(EB): Well, that’s a very potent question. What trains the imagination are the sense memories. When I was working with Lee in his classes, before I was a member of the Studio even. He taught the exercise classes and his wife Paula, at that time, taught scene classes. If you think about the great master, you think, ‘Well wouldn’t he be doing the scene classes?’ No, because the exercise classes are where the imagination is being trained. The exercises are taking a bath without any running water there or basking in the sunshine when you’re indoors on the stage or being in a snowstorm. All of those things that when you work on them to really feel them—the way you really feel them is with the imagination and you stimulate your senses. That’s why it’s ‘sense’ memory. Here’s a good example, I played Mary Tyrone, who was a drug addict [in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day's Journey Into Night]. I went off stage aiming to take the drug and when I came back on stage, I wanted the audience to know that I had taken the drug. I wanted them to know that by my behaviour. What I used was a snowstorm. I walked onstage feeling snowflakes landing on my face. I could feel them. How it affected my eyes and how it affected my body. I could feel all of that because I was trained. My imagination was trained. I trained my senses. The audience knew exactly and I didn’t stumble around or do anything overt. I was trying to hide it from my family, but I wanted the audience to know. Doing a snowstorm worked for that. That’s using a trained imagination to create a reality that does the job of making you feel a certain way that the audience gets and understands. I didn’t have to go take a drug in order to experience it.

(FR): That’s it. It was a real sensation for you in the moment. The audience had no idea what you were actually working on.

(EB): Right, and I could physically feel it. All I had to do was remember walking outside in a snowstorm and putting my imagination on the experience of that. My imagination was trained in a way that when I asked something of it, it came alive in me. So that’s what it’s about—having a trained imagination that will respond to whatever you ask of it. Whatever is needed for the part. And it doesn’t match it. There’s no correlation between a snowstorm and drugs, except the way it makes me feel.

Ellen Burstyn and Lee Strasberg at Lee’s 75th birthday party in 1978.

(FR): The best acting instructors are like guides on an expedition into the human condition. I’d love to hear more about your time working with Lee. What was something he illuminated in you?

(EB): There’s so much and it’s all so deep. The first time I did an exercise—the morning drink. I was creating an imaginary cup of coffee. He had never seen me work and out of the corner of my eye I saw him go through the cards where the names were. He said, ‘Ellen?’ He had stopped at my name. I said, ‘Yes.’ I looked out. He said, ‘No, go on, work on the cup.’ Then he said, ‘Do you ride horses?’ I said, ‘Well I used to.’ And he said, ‘Did you ride well? When you rode, did you ride well?’ And I said, ‘Pretty well, I had my own horse.’ I continued creating the cup and there was a pause. He said, ‘Well you don’t have to ride that cup.’ Which was shocking to me. He said, ‘What if you made a mistake? Go on, make a mistake.’ He was addressing something in me that I didn’t know. I got punished a lot as a kid for making any kind of a mistake. That was in me. When I was told to do something, or I was given an exercise to do, I did it. Well there was a voracity about my intention that he saw. I had to examine that and I cried for two weeks. I realised I had built up a defence mechanism that I now had to let go of and I didn’t have a clue how. The clue was doing more exercises. Being diligent and focused, without being afraid of making a mistake. That’s one of the things you have to do when you’re working at The Actors Studio, that’s the whole point. You have to be willing to make a mistake. An impulse occurs, do it. Go for it. See what’s there. If you’re not willing to make a mistake, you get that kind of comment from Mr. Strasberg. It limits what you do. It will keep you in a conventional mode, but if you’re willing to make a mistake under these conditions–you’re not out opening on Broadway, but you’re exploring your own equipment. Which you have to work with. In order to explore, you have to be wide open.

(FR): To have a safe and sacred space to make mistakes is such a gift for an actor.

(EB): That’s why it’s been important to keep the Studio open.

(FR): What were those days like after Lee’s passing, when you and Al Pacino stepped in as Co-Artistic Directors, and Paul Newman became President?

(EB): I would say that a lot of the people that were on the board then and active in keeping the Studio together have passed already. Paul Newman was so intent on keeping the Studio running. He financed it a lot.

(FR): He put up a lot of his own resources to keep it going, didn’t he?

(EB): Yes, he certainly did. He had a fund that allowed him to give to not-for-profits. We were dependent on him. Jim Lipton came up with the idea of the master's degree programme. We had never entered into academia, so there was a lot of discussion about it and a lot of us met and talked about what we would offer. I suggested that we go from Stanislavski’s book An Actor Prepares and start from there. We did and then Inside the Actors Studio came up because Jim invited members of the Studio who were successful to come and talk to the students. The next step was, ‘Gee, maybe we should film this.’ And then the next step was, ‘Gee, maybe we should put it on television.’ That’s how Inside the Actors Studio came about, got on the air, and of course, it became a very rich funding source for the Studio and a very popular show.

(FR): I have to commend and congratulate you on the scholarship you’re creating for students at The Actors Studio Drama School. That’s a special and amazing gift for young artists.

(EB): We have not had a scholarship programme and therefore the most talented people go to Yale, which is fully funded, and other places. I thought, well we really need that to attract people. I wasn’t sure how to go about it and then along came this offer to do another Exorcist. I’d said no to all of the various Exorcist 2, and 3, and 4. I’d always turned it down, but this time I talked to the writer/director [​​David Gordon Green] and I really liked him. The thought just occurred to me that it would be a very good source for a scholarship programme. After examining the pros and cons, I thought that’s really what I want. That’s what I want to do. I’m very happy I did, because not only does it provide funds for students who need it, with a focus on BIPOC students, but also I’m very happy with the movie. I liked David Gordon Green a lot. He listened to me and allowed me to have input on the script. I think it’s going to be a very good film. So it’s all working out very well.

Ellen Burstyn moderates a session at The Actors Studio.

(FR): What do you feel is the legacy of The Actors Studio and where do you hope the organisation will be in 25 years for the centennial?

(EB): I hope we just go on doing what we’re doing. I think the legacy is all of the Oscar winners that are members of the Studio. We just had a celebration in California. The Academy gave screenings of [films from] Oscar-winning members of the Studio every Sunday in August and September. We’ve fertilised the movie industry with hundreds of writers, directors, and actors. And of course, the theatre and the Tonys too. Before The Actors Studio, The Group Theatre transformed theatre. It was because of Lee Strasberg, who had gone to the Moscow Art Theatre, studied Stanislavski, and brought that whole way of thinking about theatre to America. Then because of him, Kazan, who was trained there as an actor, developed into one of the most famous, busy, creative, and great directors of American theatre and film. When The Group Theatre closed and he was directing, he wanted to have actors available to him who were trained the way he was. He opened the Studio and founded it with Cheryl Crawford and Bobby Lewis. Shortly after it opened, he brought in Lee Strasberg. That was the intention—to have really trained actors, in that approach to the work, available to Kazan. So I hope that we go on training actors to do that level of work for all the directors that are casting for theatre and film.

Images courtesy of The Actors Studio

ELLEN BURSTYN holds the Triple Crown of Acting (the Oscar, Emmy, and Tony) in career that spans over six decades and encompasses film, stage and television. In 1975, she became the third woman in history to win an Academy Award and Tony in the same year for her work in Same Time, Next Year on Broadway and in the film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, for which she also won the BAFTA. Her recent films include Pieces of a Woman (2020), Queen Bees (2021), and Three Months (2022). Her rich filmography includes films such as The Last Picture Show (1971), The Exorcist (1973), Resurrection (1981), and Requiem for a Dream (2000). She is Co-President of The Actors Studio, alongside Al Pacino and Alec Baldwin. She became a national best-selling author with the publication of her memoir, Lessons in Becoming Myself.

Past and present notable members of The Actors Studio include Bea Arthur, James Baldwin, Anne Bancroft, Michael Bennett, Marlon Brando, Roscoe Lee Browne, Montgomery Clift, Common, Bradley Cooper, James Dean, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Ben Gazzara, Lee Grant, Lorraine Hansberry, Julie Harris, Dustin Hoffman, Celeste Holm, Kim Hunter, William Inge, Elia Kazan, Harvey Keitel, James Lipton, Martin Landau, Cloris Leachman, Melissa Leo, Norman Mailer, Walter Matthau, Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, Clifford Odets, Geraldine Page, Kim Stanley, Sidney Poitier, Sydney Pollack, Jose Quintero, Jerome Robbins, Mark Rylance, Eva Marie Saint, Maureen Stapleton, Rod Steiger, Rip Torn, Eli Wallach, Tennessee Williams, Gene Wilder, Shelley Winters, and Joanne Woodward—just to name a few.

Learn more about The Actors Studio and purchase tickets to the 75th Anniversary Benefit with Co-President Al Pacino: https://theactorsstudio.org/

CHAD KENNERK