About the Author

Scott Balcerzak is associate professor of film and media in the Department of English at Northern Illinois University. He is the author of Buffoon Men: Classic Hollywood Comedians and Queered Masculinity (Wayne State University Press, 2013). He is also the co-editor of Cinephilia in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Film, Pleasure, and Digital Culture, Vols. 1 and 2.

Reviews

Balcerzak's insightful, astute interpretations and observations across a range of media and actors make Beyond Method a dense read, richly rewarding the effort.--Diane Carson "Journal of Film and Video"

Beyond Method: Stella Adler and the Male Actor is an invaluable contribution to the history of acting, not only on the screen, but across media as well. Using newly observed archival resources, he is finally able to give Stella Adler her due within this history. Moreover, this book aids in disentangling the often-confusing ideas about the Method by correcting the public record about two of the actors (Brando, De Niro) wrongly associated with this practice. Instead, Balcerzak's research provides an entirely new narrative, not only related to the trope of acting, but for Stella Adler, one of the most important figures of the twentieth century.--R. Colin Tait "The Journal of Popular Culture"

The connections between politics, social currents, and acting techniques are drawn out in Beyond Method, Scott Balcerzak's illuminating book on Stella Adler's teachings and masculinity on screen. [. . .] Acting [. . .] is what it is in part because it announces itself as such. [This book] helps us to understand the amplitude of that announcement and find both the magic and labor in it.--Nicholas Forster "Cineaste"