It has been a long while since the public caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 that he would no longer pursue acting, just before the release of The Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. Yet, in his absence, his reputation expanded further.
The Legend of His Acting Method
Largely, this legend centers on his favored style of working. Being an actor known for disappears into his characters – for example, while filming the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked Steven Spielberg call him “Mr. President” for the entire production – audiences has grown more fascinated with his process. Is it true he really send messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Did he consumed solely animals he’d killed during Last of the Mohicans? And did he demand receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, with some hesitation, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is using this to express his frustration at how the Method technique is viewed. “I’m a little cross these days when I hear various individuals gobbling off and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which I think suggests that a person’s acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he told a major publication. “People often concentrate on the less important details of the work, and these elements typically include some sort of self-flagellation or an experience that causes extreme unease or mental instability. But of course, in the career for a performer, it must mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
A World Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds like the actor has emerged from his retreat and found himself aghast at the world that has developed in his image. If you’re widely considered one of the greatest actors in history, and your process includes headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or spending two days in solitary confinement without food or water (during In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will attempt to fill that vacuum by imitating their idol.
Essentially, we now live in a landscape populated by half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to demonstrate the extensive degree of effort they put into their roles. At the shallow end of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion trying to convince everyone that she transformed into an Italian native over 18 months in preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself in the character as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” presents to his castmates. These, depending on who you ask, range from deceased animals to anal beads and personal hygiene products, although Leto denied those worst excesses. And then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded in creating a full-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him making life to the utmost for his colleagues.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
The foremost Method Guy currently seems to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose process during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the basis of a critical New Yorker profile, full of quotes from people who were either concerned for his behaviour (“It’s the cost to himself concerns me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall him causing everyone else to react with exasperation,” said an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘never intended to stop acting, really’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, three years after that film came out. All of this, in part, is meant to invoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
An Admirable But Uphill Battle
Moreover, while his fightback against method detractors might be noble, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Maybe if he wishes to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to simply begin producing additional movies. Certainly everyone would get behind that.
