That creativity today is often manifested as Method acting, which came to prominence in the 1940s and ‘50s under the guidance of Lee Strasberg. His classes were populated by some of the biggest stars of the last century, from Marlon Brando and James Dean to Bradley Cooper and Jane Fonda. Debra Wiley, who has been acting and teaching the Method for over 40 years and studied briefly with Strasberg, describes the technique as a “series of exercises that help the actor to behave more personally and believably the way they believe that their character would.” But she makes an important distinction between the traditional Method technique and what is frequently called the same in contemporary media: “It is not about being literal. It is about finding what we’ve experienced that we can use, that will allow us to have an analogy to what the character has experienced. It’s not gaining weight. It’s not losing weight. It’s not staying in character for two years.”