The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act

by Isaac Butler

By the time he appeared in The Misfits, Clift was more walking shade than man. Five years earlier, he had fallen asleep at the wheel of his car and plowed into a telephone pole. His injuries necessitated several surgeries and months of recovery, and he never looked the same again. In constant pain, stupefied by alcohol and drugs, and partially paralyzed on one side of his beautiful, expressive face, Clift lost his gift for public solitude. He could never again fully let go and be unselfconscious, and his performances became increasingly odder and more alienating. Kazan used this to incredible effect in Wild River, in which Clift’s inability to relate to those around him is his character’s central conflict.