The essay focuses on two examples of ‘classical acting style’, a style of acting developed whitin the commercial American filmmaking system before the revolution of the Method. Stars and actors of the Golden Age were typecast: they were not supposed to play characters different from the ones they personally embodied. After a brief historical overview on the hollywood acting from silent to sound movies, the essay illustrates the concept of 'naturalness'. The acting style was supposed to be natural, therefore invisible: the Hollywood actor of the Golden Age mustn't show his technique.
The second part of the essay is dedicated to analysis of the most representative Garbo's and Bergman's performances. Greta Garbo always accepted to play Garbo. Ingrid Bergman, on the contrary, didn’t want to play herself: she wanted to be every time different on the screen and she tried to hide herself behind her characters. Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman, in conclusion, embody two different types of acting: the actor-mask and the actor-metamorphosis
