For Strehler, the image of the puppet master pulling the actor's strings from offstage does not apply. The director does not “guide” the actor, but invests him with himself, transposing himself completely into the character. “Madame Bovary c'est moi": Strehler could say this of Macbeth, Simon Boccanegra, Don Giovanni, but also of a soldier in Florence's Straw Hat, of the Spirit of Evil in the Angel of Fire and of a gossipy Windsor comedian, in Falstaff. The gesture arises from a total, almost violent identification between director and stage person, through the actor. If there is a directorial “method” with Strehler, it coincides with that identification and that violence.