He conducted extensive research on the great detective and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself, and was very attentive to discrepancies between the scripts he had been given and Conan Doyle’s original stories.[37] One of Brett’s dearest possessions on the set was his 77-page “Baker Street File” on everything from Holmes’ mannerisms to his eating and drinking habits. Brett once explained that “some actors are becomers—they try to become their characters. When it works, the actor is like a sponge, squeezing himself dry to remove his own personality, then absorbing the character’s like a liquid”.[38]Brett was focused on bringing more passion to the role of Holmes. He introduced Holmes’s rather eccentric hand gestures and short violent laughter. He would hurl himself on the ground just to look for a footprint, “he would leap over the furniture or jump onto the parapet of a bridge with no regard for his personal safety.”[39]
It’s a great portrayal, but the later episodes when he was quite ill are hard to watch. He is still fantastic, but clearly struggling with his illness and the side effects of medication. Of course, by all accounts he smoked ferociously, but still.
It was definitely sad to see… On the other hand, Holmes was also a heavy smoker and, although he did quit cocaine in both the stories and the series (but at different points), he had abused his body for years. So that actually worked in-character as well.
Gotta say, when I think about Sherlock Holmes I see Jeremy Brett’s face.
Then there’s the other way, a la Sir Laurence Olivier, though it sounds like in having a “Bible” for the character, maybe Brett was still part of that workaday British tradition.
Dustin Hoffman has long been known as one of method acting’s most earnest exponents. A showbiz story involves his collaboration with Laurence Olivier on the 1976 film Marathon Man. Upon being asked by his co-star how a previous scene had gone, one in which Hoffmann’s character had supposedly stayed up for three days, Hoffmann admitted that he too had not slept for 72 hours to achieve emotional verisimilitude. “My dear boy,” replied Olivier smoothly, “why don’t you just try acting?” (Hoffman subsequently attributed his insomnia to excessive partying rather than artistry).
I do love that line, but I also have to admit that Olivier could be super hammy (I love Sleuth, but he hams it up like crazy) and Brett is Holmes. Similarly- Daniel Day-Lewis gets into his roles to a ridiculous extent, living as if he were the character for months, which is going much further than Brett, but it’s really paid off for him.
Really, I don’t think there’s one way of being an actor. If you’re a quick-change artist and you can put on a convincing performance, terrific. If you need to study your part like you were writing a doctoral thesis to put on a convincing performance, also terrific. Olivier got a lifetime achievement Oscar and his own award named after him. Daniel Day-Lewis has won three Oscars. Obviously, both techniques work out, but Olivier’s sure seems less taxing.
