Method Acting what?

With Sridevi making comedy her domain, her switch-on-switch off method had also become more conspicuous. Why was the actress virtually springing to life with 'Action' and turning surprisingly static with 'Cut'? The camera did turn mortals into gods but the alchemy in Sridevi's case was something else. Was her reel life so ingrained in her that she was blanking out in real life? Or had unresolved issues of the past created a fault line through her psyche? Was the world unknowingly romanticising the stunted social responses of a woman who had never been allowed to grow up normally? Sridevi's response in her 1992 chat with CINE BLITZ threw light on this:

'This was never a conscious act on my part. This has always been the way that I've worked right since the age of four. And I thought that everyone else acted in the same way too. If you talk to me about "Method" acting, or any such fancy term, it'll really go over my head. All I know is that I don't have to get into a particular mood for a scene. I just try to act as spontaneously as I can. For a sad scene, I can never think of my father and cry for the camera. I just cannot draw from real-life experiences. How can people capitalise on their personal emotions? Acting is just a vocation.'

She elaborated this technique further in an interview with AURA in 1993: 

'As an actress I give all I have got to the first take of the shot. All my energy, emotions, getting into the feel of the role are put into the scene, because I would like it to be okayed at the first take itself. The problem arises when for some reason, a second and third take is called for and I am expected to put in the same effort as I did in the first take. But by now I tend to compare my last take with the first and I feel inadequate. This is a drawback with me. With every new take, the energy and intensity go lower and lower.'