Specialist Question, Unit 11

 

How can certain roles have psychological effects on the actors themselves?

The whole point of acting is the practice of embodying other characteristics and mindsets to play a range of fictional and non-fictional characters. To portray these characters correctly, actors need to dive deep into the character’s mindset and put lots of research into the role that they are portraying. There are many methods actor use to become these characters, however, can these roles affect actor’s mental health, after all what if the role is very challenging or triggering. This question is meant to tackle the positive but mostly negative effects and some famous examples of it as well as discussing how the pressures of the role affect the actor, particularly on stage.

Now there are many ways this can affect the actor’s mental health directly, most notably, how you approach becoming this character. The most infamous way to do this is a method we have all probably heard of: method acting. This is a very intense method where the actor in question would take on the role of the character by pretending to be them when they are not on stage or being filmed, experiencing the same trauma or experiences, or incorporating characteristics or physical changes into everyday life. There are a lot of actors that come to mind when you think about method acting, Jeremy Strong, Christian Bale and Jim Carey.  Now it is a choice to method act, but when these actors train using this method, the results can be outstanding, such as Heath Ledger’s The Joker. Depending on the role and how deep you want to dive, method acting is the quickest way to affect you psychologically. So, let’s talk about Heath Ledger. Ledger stated that he often could not sleep when taking on roles, and that the role of The Joker in The Dark Knight was causing his usual insomnia (Lyall, 4 November 2007). This role particularly affected him more due to the character’s psychotic nature and through locking himself in a hotel room for months to prepare for the role.  This was exacerbated by him suffering from insomnia and depression; indeed, many believe it led to his accidental drug overdose where he used a mixture of anxiety and sleeping pills.  Now we have no idea what was going through his mind, he may have had underlying problems at the time, but did this role help at all?   This could be an example of how some roles, in extreme cases, may tip actors over the edge, having a negative psychological impact on them.

Another example of how roles can affect actors mentally would be the case of Bob Hoskins role of Eddie Valiant in Who framed Roger Rabbit?  This film is known for its incredible technological advances in the age before digital VFX.  It used traditional animation plastered in the real world, having real actors interact with animated characters in a goofy alternate universe where cartoons live amongst us in everyday life. This meant Bob Hoskins had to shoot the whole movie speaking to people who aren't there, not only that but to cartoon characters and trying his best to make it look believable, "after eight months of filming, he eventually began seeing cartoon rabbits and weasels everywhere for many months after Who Framed Roger Rabbit wrapped shooting." (BUCHOLTZ, 2019) This goes to show that sometimes it is not even the role itself that is the problem, but that we must consider it may be the technical elements and demanding nature of it that has a psychological effect on the actor.

Even though these examples do take some dark routes, there are some examples that can give the actor clarity, most famously in the case of Danial-Day Lewis. He famously retired acting to focus on shoe making after he played the role of Reynolds woodcock on phantom thread.  He plays a renowned dressmaker whose fastidious life is disrupted by a young, strong-willed woman, Alma, who becomes his muse and lover. It was quoted that he felt an “Overwhelmed by a sense of sadness” (Why Daniel Day-Lewis Hasn't Starred In A Movie Since 2017, 2021) while playing this role. This was his final straw with his complicated relationship with acting.

Even though there are a lot of examples for the effects of the roles it really does just boil down to the actor themselves, are they in the right state of mind, do they feel comfortable in the role, do they know it’s all just pretend and maybe you don’t have to affect yourself mentally it get completely into character? there are plenty of actors that believe there is no affect at all, In one of Hugh Grant’s recent roles where he plays a psychotic villain in the film Heretic, a reporter asked if the role stayed with him and had any effect on him still, where he jokingly replied “It’s still very much with me, I killed three people this afternoon” (Grant, 2024). Many actors feel the same way as in they feel like it just is pretend, and it isn’t strenuous on them at all or their mental state

Now how could we test this out? In a practical element how could we prove or disprove that roles affect us psychologically. One test I came up with was to give a some of my fellow actors a monologue to run over, think through it and how they would approach it then simply just perform it, afterwards I would ask them how they felt, did they feel more moved compared to doing something more upbeat? Would they possibly not feel anything at all because they couldn’t relate to the text or just haven’t had enough time to properly think about it? I gave them a short monologue from breaking bad, a scene was the series co-star has wound up in hospital, one of his lowest points where he says he feels completely and utterly lonely. My results are as follows Keiran said “it’s hard to imagine such a low point so I would say it only affected me so far as, as far as the text goes however it defiantly makes me feel more angry than if we were doing a happier monologue” (Beattie-Lewis, 2025). When I asked Lola about how she felt she quoted “I think it would take a lot more for me to be affected by it, its probably all in the preparation really.” (Smith, 2025)

In conclusion, I believe it really comes down to several things, the role itself and the actors mental state, how much preparation and willingness from the actor is giving to completely become the actor mentally and how comfortable the actor feels with giving this performance. A lot of actors love to change their mental state for a role. Case in point, tom Hardy says he love diving as deep in the character to get away from himself. Actors need to have a lot of resilience when it comes to taking on hard roles as well as the pressure from the industry and keeping track of your own mental health.

 

Bibliography

Beattie-lewis, K. (2025, March 15). psycological affects of roles . (N. Dixon, Interviewer)

BUCHOLTZ, M. (2019, December 3rd). Why Bob Hoskins Was Never The Same After Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Retrieved from Looper: https://www.looper.com/177365/why-bob-hoskins-was-never-the-same-after-who-framed-roger-rabbit/

Grant, H. (2024, October 25th). "i killed three people this afternoon," jokes Hugh Grant . (A. Press, Interviewer)

Smith, L. (2025, March 18th). psycological affects of roles. (N. Dixon, Interviewer)

themselves?, H. c. (DEC. 3, 2019). Why Bob Hoskins Was Never The Same After Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Looper.

Why Daniel Day-Lewis Hasn't Starred In A Movie Since 2017. (2021, August 7th). Retrieved from the things: https://www.thethings.com/why-daniel-day-lewis-hasnt-starred-in-a-movie-since-2017/

Lyall, S. ( 4 November 2007). Heath Ledger . New York : New York Times .