History Main / EnforcedMethodActing

* Actors' real-life relationships like HostilityOnTheSet or RomanceOnTheSet bleed over into their characters' interactions. If an actor dislikes their costar in real life, it'll be easy for them to portray their character as an ArchEnemy or SitcomArchNemesis.

* In ''Manga/OshiNoKo'', Kana stars in the adaptation of InUniverse manga "Sweet Love," but it's a mediocre work filled with amateur actors. After Aqua learns that Kana TookTheBadFilmSeriously, he steps into his role for the climactic scene in the filming for its final episode, ad-libs his lines and position a little, and even subtly goads the amateur actor into a rage to get an authentic emotional outburst. The director picks up with this and rolls with it, and it makes for a finale that's way better than the rest of the ShowWithinAShow.

** In ''WebVideo/MidnightScreenings'', Jillian reviewed ''Literature/{{Twilight}} Breaking Dawn Part 1'', and had stuff thrown at her from off screen. She knew it would happen, just not the timing, to keep her reactions as genuine as possible.

[[folder:Manhua]]
* An in-universe joke from ''Manhua/OldMasterQ'' have Master Q and his rival, Mr. Chiu, acting out a skit where Chiu is supposed to pretend he's slapping Master Q. Chiu does it ''for real'', to Master Q's surprise, leading to the director yelling, "CUT!" and praising that was an excellent, if not overly-realistic take. Cue Master Q walking away ''absolutely fuming'' while Chiu chuckles to himself (with an accompanying thought bubble, "Miss this chance? Surely not!").
[[/folder]]

* To give Dash in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' a more realistic sounding out-of-breath voice, Director Creator/BradBird would make Spencer Fox run laps around the studio.

* The fictional director in ''WesternAnimation/{{Bolt}}'' ran Bolt's ''life'' this way. The words "method acting" are even mentioned by the exec who came to evaluate the show. This results in Bolt being unable to tell the difference between the show and his real life, with a stressful cliffhanger causing him to escape the set and kicking off the plot.

* The fictional director in ''WesternAnimation/{{Bolt}}'' ran Bolt's ''life'' this way. The words "method acting" are even mentioned by the exec who came to evaluate the show.

* ''Film/TropicThunder'' uses this trope in the plot, which involves a director filming a movie about UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar dropping his five actors into the Golden Triangle of Asia while riddling the jungle with hidden cameras as advised by ShellShockedVeteran Four-Leaf Tayback.
%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample* ''Film/TheTrumanShow'' takes this concept, and [[{{Deconstruction}} runs it into the ground]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel II'' during the scene [[spoiler: revealing that Osborne was alive and that Crow's attempt to assassinate him was in vain]], Rean reaches for him, grabs him, and yells with so much emotion that he never shows off for most of the game. This is because Creator/SeanChiplock, who voices [[TheHero Rean]], had issues with his real life father at the time when he recorded the line. Which then gave the moment a very convincing [[spoiler: LukeIAmYourFather moment]].

* In the children's picture book ''Evie and Margie,'' Evie tries out for the role of Cinderella in a school play. The play includes a scene where Cinderella cries after not being allowed to attend the ball. Margie is able to cry on command, and when Evie asks her how she did it, Margie tells her to remember something so bad that thinking about it makes her cry. Evie figures it out by remembering a birthday party where she was the only one who didn't get a cupcake because they ran out, and the mom offered her a carrot stick instead.

** One episode has Burns insisting that they whip extras for real during the recreation of the Bible stories. When Ned says no one will tell the difference if they add the sound in later, Burns says the extras being whipped will.

** When filming the Radioactive Man movie, the director informs Rainier Wolfcastle at the last second that the acid being used in one of the scenes is real. Cut to Wolfcastle with his hands and feet tied, screaming for his life as an acid tsunami barrels towards him. (He survives, but his costume and trailer don't.)

* In the children's picture book ''Evie and Margie,'' Evie tries out for the role of Cinderella in a school play. The play includes a scene where Cinderella cries after not being allowed to attend the ball. Margie is able to cry on command, and when Evie asks her how she did it, Margie advises her to remember something so bad that thinking about it makes her cry. Evie figures it out by remembering a birthday party where she was the only one who didn't get a cupcake because they ran out, and the mom offered her a carrot stick instead.

* In the children's picture book ''Evie and Margie,'' Evie tries out for the role of Cinderella in a school play. The play includes a scene where Cinderella cries after not being allowed to attend the ball. Evie figures out how to make herself cry by remembering a birthday party where she was the only one who didn't get a cupcake because they ran out, and the mom offered her a carrot stick instead.

* In the children's picture book ''Evie and Margie,'' Evie tries out for the role of Cinderella in a school play. The play includes a scene where Cinderella cries after not being allowed to attend the ball. Evie figures out how to make herself cry by remembering a particular incident in which she was at a birthday party and didn't get a cupcake because they ran out, and they offered her a carrot stick instead.

* "Confessions of a Republican", in which a Republican voter expresses his anxiety about voting for Barry Goldwater, hired William Gibson to play the guy because he was a Republican voter expressing his own fears about voting for Goldwater.

* ''VideoGame/IdolManager'': During the quiz show in story mode, both the PlayerCharacter and their rival turn out to have been tricked into [[spoiler:trying to lose the quizz for a non-existent prize]]. When the PlayerCharacter and Fujimoto later discuss the fact that trick required Fujimoto to lie, Fujimoto's explanation is that he wanted a genuine reaction to the trick getting discovered.

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': Occurs in universe in "The Pilot." James the Director realizes Bolt is a natural actor during filming and arranges it so the dog has to remain on-set during the show's run -- that the pooch must never find out that he's acting in a TV show. Bolt is shown to be thoroughly confused by what has transpired.

* ''[[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)]]'' English dub:

* ''VideoGame/IdolManager'': During the quiz show in story mode, both the PlayerCharacter and their rival turn out to have been tricked into [[spoiler:trying to lose the quiz for a non-existent prize]]. Upon finding out that Fujimoto knew this was going to happen before the quiz show started, the PlayerCharacter asks why they weren't informed. Fujimoto's explanation is that he wanted their on-camera reaction to be genuine.

* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WON_217wzE this]] ''{{Webcomic/Homestuck}}'' fancomic, the cast is putting on a production of ''Theatre/PeterPan''. When Vriska (playing Tinker Bell) is "dying," Tavros (playing Peter) asks the audience to clap their hands to bring her back to life. Unfortunately, since everybody hates Vriska, they're not eager to start clapping...until Kanaya starts revving her chainsaw, resulting in the audience bursting into rapturous applause.
-->'''Eridan''': Yes! I love this show! It's the best! OH, GOD, CLAP HARDER!

* In the first episode of the ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qbt1h_XBRgU Ben McYellow Returns]]'' series, the title character's... butler(?) Jeeves pours him a disgusting mixture of dishwashing liquid, tap water, hand soap, and honey into a coffee cup, [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext which Ben then drinks]]. The cup of water that lead actor Aidan Childers drank actually did have a small drop of toothpaste in it, the look of disgust on his face is completely genuine.