CBH Talk | Isaac Butler and Zoe Kazan Discuss “The Method”

Join director and culture writer Isaac Butler and actress Zoe Kazan for a spirited conversation about the history of Method acting and its impact on American culture. Butler is the author of The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act. Kazan is the granddaughter of Elia Kazan, co-founder of The Actors Studio which introduced Method acting to America. Together they discuss the collision of art, cultural change, and politics, ignited by a revolution in acting theory that traveled from Russia across the Atlantic. It’s an ebullient saga studded with marquee names, classic films, feuds, rivalries, and misunderstandings, unpacked by two people who bring their personal perspectives and professional expertise to the conversation. Butler’s The Method, which is just out in paperback, won the National Book Critics Circle Award, was named one of the best books of 2022 by The New Yorker, Time Magazine and Vanity Fair, and was described by Nathan Lane as “the best and most important book about acting I’ve ever read!”