Editing Anthony Perkins (section)

==Artistry==
===Influences===
Perkins, having grown up in New York as the son of a theater performer, was heavily influenced by stage actors in the early years of his interest in acting. Slowly, however, his influences shifted, especially with the new wave of Method actors on the big screen. In 1958, Perkins admitted to ''Holiday'' magazine that the single performance that he believed had impacted his acting the most wasn't off the boards: "The single performance which influenced my own acting the most was [Marlon] Brando's in ''On the Waterfront''{{nbsp}}... That's the direction I want to go as an actor. To convey the maximum with the simplest, barest means."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=153}} He also mentioned James Dean later on: "Well, I was certainly impressed with the originality of [Dean's] talent. Of course, it was popular at the time of his emergence."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRUnHo7Tzp0|title=The Dick Cavett Show: Anthony Perkins|website=The Dick Cavett Show|access-date=January 19, 2022}}</ref>

Perkins was a lifelong member of the Actors Studio, an institution both Brando and Dean attended as well, which could have contributed to his interest in the Method. Perkins's posthumous biographer, Charles Winecoff, though, dismisses any ideas that Perkins was a Method actor: "Young Perkins fell somewhere in between the mannered style of his father's era and the new, seemingly organic style exemplified by Brando and Dean."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=153}}

Especially in his early years, Perkins took advice from a host of his costars, a majority of whom were experienced and revered actors in their own right. The most influential of his fellow stars were [[Gary Cooper]] and [[Henry Fonda]].

===Acting style===
Despite his many celebrated performances, Perkins never discussed the method with which he acted. Many said he was somewhere between his father's style of acting (building a character from the outside in) and the Method technique (building a character from the inside out).{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=153}} Recalling how he prepared for his mental breakdown scene in ''Fear Strikes Out'', Norma Moore said he was especially "serious, very intent, very nervous before shooting{{nbsp}}...–pacing, not talking to anybody, shaking his hands." The film's director, Robert Mulligan, said that Perkins was "riding on instinct, very giving and very trusting and very brave."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=125}} A year later, when Perkins played Eugene Gant for Broadway in ''Look Homeward, Angel'', not much had changed. "His approach was a purely pragmatic one," friend George Roy Hill remembered. "He'd find a way to play it, and he had no theories to get in his way. I don't know what devices he used internally, but he was always very concerned with acting as acting."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=153}}

There is evidence to suggest that Perkins used previous (sometimes traumatic) experiences to drive his performance. During his debut run on Broadway in ''Tea and Sympathy'', Perkins was allegedly drafted into the army, which he dodged by admitting he was a homosexual. This backfired, leading to harsh mistreatment at the hands of the Selective Service that reportedly scarred him so much he wouldn't speak about it. His boyfriend was there when he returned home, listening to him crying and whimpering. He later said that Perkins incorporated the same whimpering into his performance as Tom Lee in ''Sympathy''.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=93}} Perkins, though, never hinted at this in a rare mention of his technique when speaking about the scene in ''Friendly Persuasion'' when Josh Birdwell decides to enlist:
<blockquote>"That scene started [filming at] about 9:30 in the morning and by 1 o'clock the unions at that time declared that we had to go to lunch, right in the middle of the scene–just before my close-up. And [William Wyler, the director] came to me and said, 'I'm really sorry about this. You're doing a fabulous job and I want you to hold onto this if you possibly can. Why don't you go back to your room and sort of concentrate and reread the script? I'm very very sorry; we'll start again in an hour.' Well, I went to the commissary and had two cheeseburgers and a malted and came back and sat down and started over again. I didn't have the self-consciousness as an actor to find that that would be a difficult thing to do, so since I didn't think it was gonna be difficult, it wasn't{{nbsp}}... Well, youth can do anything."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kOBNlL3jG8|title=Reflections on the Silver Screen|website=AMC|date=March 12, 2015 |access-date=January 19, 2022}}</ref></blockquote>

Either way, it worked. Many of Perkins's films distinguished him as a powerful actor of the day, garnering numerous awards and nominations. As ''Turner Classic Movies'' summarized: "A masterful character actor, Perkins' ability to convey mental instability in a fashion that was simultaneously disturbing, affecting, and darkly humorous made him a unique and valuable talent."<ref name="Charles"/>