Method acting began with Konstantin Stanislavski, who co-founded the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898 and wanted actors to build authentic feeling from within instead of performing external poses. His 'system' was an experiment he kept revising, and it never told actors to lose themselves in a role. In the 1920s and 1930s, Americans such as Lee Strasberg, trained at the Group Theatre, developed 'affective memory', drawing on painful episodes from the actor's own life, which Stanislavski's writing never describes. The later image of the method actor as a tortured, difficult genius, staying in character between takes, is largely a publicity-shaped myth. Women doing the same immersive preparation, such as Hilary Swank training to box for Million Dollar Baby, have rarely received the same mythology.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.