Key Points<\/h3>\n\n- \n\n
Ellen Burstyn\u2019s career in Hollywood got off to a fast start, racking up dozens of television credits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
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She realized while making a movie with Debbie Reynolds that she was on the wrong career track.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
- \n\n
After studying at the Actors Studio, Burstyn became one of the most celebrated movie stars of the \u201870s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Ellen Burstyn<\/a> was a rising commodity in Hollywood during the early 1960s, but there was a specific moment when she realized that she wasn\u2019t progressing into the kind of career she wanted \u2014\u00a0and that moment just so happened to involve legendary star Debbie Reynolds<\/a>.<\/p>\nAfter making her first television appearance in the New York-based Kraft Television Theatre in 1958, the same year she made her Broadway debut, Burstyn \u2014 at the time going by the stage name Ellen McRae \u2014made the trek to Hollywood and guested on some of the biggest TV shows of the day, including Dr. Kildare, 77 Sunset Strip, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, and Wagon Train.<\/p>\n
In 1964, she landed her first role in a feature film, putting her in the ring with the heavyweights. In the Vincente Minnelli<\/a>-directed Goodbye Charlie, she appeared with Tony Curtis<\/a>, Walter Matthau, Pat Boone, Reynolds, and \u2014 in a cameo appearance playing himself \u2014\u00a0Michael Jackson (no, not that<\/a> Michael Jackson, this<\/a> one<\/a>). That same year, she\u2019d also appear in a beach movie called For Those Who Think Young with James Darren and Nancy Sinatra<\/a>, but it was while filming a scene in Goodbye Charlie that she had an epiphany.<\/p>\n\n![\"Ellen](\"https:\/\/hermes.media.static.aol.com\/media\/2026\/07\/18\/0c6d3b6c-0d0e-3d05-a5b6-e6e3aa7b0343\/f116d9db-e17d-4c3f-8c6e-3487f757c6d4.jpg\"\/)
<\/div>\nEllen Burstyn in \u2018Alice Doesn\u2019t Live Here Anymore\u2019Credit: Alamy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI was sitting on the set, and I said, \u2018Well, this is the big time. 20th Century Fox. Technicolor, starring Debbie Reynolds and Walter Matthau and Tony Curtis, and I\u2019m co-starring. Next, I\u2019ll have Debbie Reynolds\u2019 part,\u2019\u201d Burstyn told Criterion<\/a>. \u201cAnd a voice in my head went, \u2018I don\u2019t want it.\u2019 Seriously, just like that. And I closed up my whole Hollywood life and moved back to New York and went to Lee Strasberg, literally to learn how to act.\u201d<\/p>\nShe joined the Actors Studio, and while continuing to appear on television throughout the late-\u201960s \u2014\u00a0briefly a regular on the daytime soap opera The Doctors \u2014 she honed her craft.<\/p>\n
\n![\"Debbie](\"https:\/\/hermes.media.static.aol.com\/media\/2026\/07\/18\/0c6d3b6c-0d0e-3d05-a5b6-e6e3aa7b0343\/14d4e1c8-2fe3-4516-b2af-21a3f558876d.jpg\"\/)
<\/div>\nDebbie ReynoldsCredit: Alamy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat I learned with Lee was how to be present, because that\u2019s a good starting place to then build character. Instead of if you\u2019re already trying to be a character as you walk in the door. It\u2019s learning how to be present. That\u2019s what I learned from him,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
She added that, while many people have the misconception that method acting means you have to become the character, it\u2019s actually more about training \u201csense memory.\u201d \u201cMethod acting is training the senses to respond to imaginary circumstances,\u201d the Interstellar<\/a> star said.<\/p>\nOf course, upon returning to the big screen in the 1970s, Burstyn (now credited under her then-married name, a moniker that has far outlasted the marriage) would carve out a niche in the New Hollywood movement, using her Actors Studio training in some of the most iconic movies of the decade, including the grim The Last Picture Show, the horrifying blockbuster The Exorcist<\/a>, and the seminal, Martin Scorsese<\/a>-directed dramedy Alice Doesn\u2019t Live Here Anymore, for which she would win the Academy Award for Best Actress.<\/p>\n\u201cThe whole experience making that film was freeing, because Marty had such a creative process. He rehearsed every scene the night before he was going to shoot the next day, and that rehearsal was always very loose, and very often the script got enhanced,\u201d Burstyn related.<\/p>\n
Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with\u00a0our\u00a0<\/strong>EW Dispatch newsletter<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\nBustyn, now 93, has remained a film, television, and stage mainstay, and she\u2019ll soon appear with Taika Waititi<\/a> in Place to Be<\/a>, which has yet to announce a release date. The Requiem for a Dream actress also reprised her role as Chris McNeil in the 2023 film Exorcist: Believer and appeared on the series The First Lady as Sara Roosevelt in 2022.<\/p>\nWatch the full Criterion interview with Burstyn below.<\/p>\n
Ellen Burstyn\u2019s career in Hollywood got off to a fast start, racking up dozens of television credits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
She realized while making a movie with Debbie Reynolds that she was on the wrong career track.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
After studying at the Actors Studio, Burstyn became one of the most celebrated movie stars of the \u201870s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Ellen Burstyn<\/a> was a rising commodity in Hollywood during the early 1960s, but there was a specific moment when she realized that she wasn\u2019t progressing into the kind of career she wanted \u2014\u00a0and that moment just so happened to involve legendary star Debbie Reynolds<\/a>.<\/p>\n After making her first television appearance in the New York-based Kraft Television Theatre in 1958, the same year she made her Broadway debut, Burstyn \u2014 at the time going by the stage name Ellen McRae \u2014made the trek to Hollywood and guested on some of the biggest TV shows of the day, including Dr. Kildare, 77 Sunset Strip, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, and Wagon Train.<\/p>\n In 1964, she landed her first role in a feature film, putting her in the ring with the heavyweights. In the Vincente Minnelli<\/a>-directed Goodbye Charlie, she appeared with Tony Curtis<\/a>, Walter Matthau, Pat Boone, Reynolds, and \u2014 in a cameo appearance playing himself \u2014\u00a0Michael Jackson (no, not that<\/a> Michael Jackson, this<\/a> one<\/a>). That same year, she\u2019d also appear in a beach movie called For Those Who Think Young with James Darren and Nancy Sinatra<\/a>, but it was while filming a scene in Goodbye Charlie that she had an epiphany.<\/p>\n Ellen Burstyn in \u2018Alice Doesn\u2019t Live Here Anymore\u2019Credit: Alamy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI was sitting on the set, and I said, \u2018Well, this is the big time. 20th Century Fox. Technicolor, starring Debbie Reynolds and Walter Matthau and Tony Curtis, and I\u2019m co-starring. Next, I\u2019ll have Debbie Reynolds\u2019 part,\u2019\u201d Burstyn told Criterion<\/a>. \u201cAnd a voice in my head went, \u2018I don\u2019t want it.\u2019 Seriously, just like that. And I closed up my whole Hollywood life and moved back to New York and went to Lee Strasberg, literally to learn how to act.\u201d<\/p>\n She joined the Actors Studio, and while continuing to appear on television throughout the late-\u201960s \u2014\u00a0briefly a regular on the daytime soap opera The Doctors \u2014 she honed her craft.<\/p>\n Debbie ReynoldsCredit: Alamy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhat I learned with Lee was how to be present, because that\u2019s a good starting place to then build character. Instead of if you\u2019re already trying to be a character as you walk in the door. It\u2019s learning how to be present. That\u2019s what I learned from him,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n She added that, while many people have the misconception that method acting means you have to become the character, it\u2019s actually more about training \u201csense memory.\u201d \u201cMethod acting is training the senses to respond to imaginary circumstances,\u201d the Interstellar<\/a> star said.<\/p>\n Of course, upon returning to the big screen in the 1970s, Burstyn (now credited under her then-married name, a moniker that has far outlasted the marriage) would carve out a niche in the New Hollywood movement, using her Actors Studio training in some of the most iconic movies of the decade, including the grim The Last Picture Show, the horrifying blockbuster The Exorcist<\/a>, and the seminal, Martin Scorsese<\/a>-directed dramedy Alice Doesn\u2019t Live Here Anymore, for which she would win the Academy Award for Best Actress.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole experience making that film was freeing, because Marty had such a creative process. He rehearsed every scene the night before he was going to shoot the next day, and that rehearsal was always very loose, and very often the script got enhanced,\u201d Burstyn related.<\/p>\n Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with\u00a0our\u00a0<\/strong>EW Dispatch newsletter<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Bustyn, now 93, has remained a film, television, and stage mainstay, and she\u2019ll soon appear with Taika Waititi<\/a> in Place to Be<\/a>, which has yet to announce a release date. The Requiem for a Dream actress also reprised her role as Chris McNeil in the 2023 film Exorcist: Believer and appeared on the series The First Lady as Sara Roosevelt in 2022.<\/p>\n Watch the full Criterion interview with Burstyn below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n