Politics & Power Quote by Norman Jewison

There is a faint eye-roll baked into Jewison's complaint, and it lands because it targets a very American kind of seriousness: the performance of depth. When he says actors are "in character all day long" and "you can't talk to them", he's not attacking craft so much as the social cost of craft-as-identity. The set becomes less a workplace than a shrine, where access to the actor is treated like access to the art.

Jewison's phrasing does the real work. "A lot of American actors" is a broad brush that reads like a veteran's pattern recognition, not a one-off gripe. "All day long" turns Method from a technique into an endurance sport; the implication is that it isn't just helping the scene, it's colonizing time, crew dynamics, even basic human interaction. "It's Method and the whole thing" is the kicker: the dismissive shorthand suggests an industry script, a set of rituals and excuses everyone recognizes. He doesn't even need to name names; the stereotype is already fully furnished in our heads.

Context matters: Jewison is a director from a tradition that privileges collaboration, tempo, and problem-solving. Method acting, especially in its popularized American form, can read as anti-collaborative theater kid intensity imported into film production, where dozens of people need quick, clear communication. The subtext is power. Staying "in character" can be a boundary, but it can also be leverage: a way to make everyone orbit the actor's process. Jewison is calling out not just a method, but a hierarchy disguised as art.