Andrew Garfield defends method acting, saying other actors who annoy people on set are doing it wrong

• Andrew Garfield defended method acting during an interview on the "WTF with Marc Maron" podcast.
• The technique has been criticized by actors like Mads Mikkelsen and Brian Cox.

Andrew Garfield has taken a stand against actors and fans calling method acting "bullshit."

Over the last year, actors like Brian Cox and Mads Mikkelsen have criticized people using the technique for making their co-stars and crewmembers uncomfortable.

At the time Lady Gaga, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Jared Leto were at the center of the discussion.

Garfield told Marc Maron on the "WTF with Marc Maron" podcast that he thinks actors have a "misconception" about what method acting is.

"It's not about being an arsehole to everyone on set," he said. "It's actually just about living truthfully under imagined circumstances, and being really nice to the crew simultaneously, and being a normal human being, and being able to drop it when you need to, and staying in it when you want to stay in it."

He continued: "I'm kind of bothered by this misconception. I'm kind of bothered by this idea that 'Method acting's fucking bullshit.' No, I don't think you know what method acting is if you're calling it bullshit. Or you just worked with someone who claims to be a method actor that isn't actually acting the method at all."

Garfield said he has tried method acting before, including being celibate for six months and fasting during preparation for his role as a Jesuit priest in "Silence."

"And it's also very private," he said about method acting. "I think the process of creating — I don't want people to see the fucking pipes of my toilet. I don't want them to see how I'm making the sausage."

He said later: "I had some pretty wild, trippy experiences from starving myself of sex and food for that period of time."

Other stars have spoken out against the technique for being excessive.

In April, "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore" star Mads Mikkelsen told GQ that he thinks method acting is "bullshit."

"Preparation, you can take into insanity," he continued. "What if it's a shit film — what do you think you achieved? Am I impressed that you didn't drop character? You should have dropped it from the beginning! How do you prepare for a serial killer? You gonna spend two years checking it out?"

"Succession" star Brian Cox called method acting an "American disease" during an interview for a New Yorker profile about his co-star Jeremy Strong. Strong's co-stars have spoken out about him irritating them with his method acting.

"I just worry about what he does to himself. I worry about the crises he puts himself through in order to prepare," Cox said.