Nah, its different. An actors choice to develop their character (It was Bales choice alone to lose the weight, the Director planned to use CGI) compared to a Director imposing themselves on the actual person to influence the performance is unethical. Even though I am nowhere near his level as a Director, I see the performances I can get from an actor without the mind games. It shows a lack of respect for an actors intellect and emotional depth imo...
So what do you think about the Blair Witch Project?
I ask because they dropped those 3 actors out in the middle of the woods with a shytty map and no food and hid in the woods to fukk with their heads until they were on the verge of losing their minds. I saw some PTSD interview with the female about how horrible it was to endure and how she'd never do it again. People can hate on the movie all they'd like and (rightly) criticize various pieces of it, but a lot of the praise it gets come from people who appreciate the authentic acting - which only came to be because the entire production was based around fukking their minds up and making them legitimately scared.
The actors didn't choose to get into the role by doing some method training like Bales, but they signed up for it none the less.
And I'm not picking sides here, I'm just curious as to how this fits in with what you're saying. Is it okay if the actor says it's okay? And if the actor knows they're going to be working with a Kubrick/Hitchcock type that's known for putting pressure on, do they still get to complain?
