It has been a long while since the public saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to pursue acting, just before the debut of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. However, during his hiatus, his reputation expanded further.
The Legend of His Method
Largely, this reputation centers on his favored approach to roles. As someone who famously disappears into his characters – for example, while filming Lincoln, he had Steven Spielberg call him “Mr. President” for the entire production – audiences has grown more fascinated with how he works. Is it true he actually sent texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely game he hunted during Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we lost interest with actorly excess?
Now, Day-Lewis is back 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 nowadays when I hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think is meant to imply that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he stated to a major publication. “Everyone often concentrate on the less important aspects of acting, and these elements always seem to involve some sort of self-punishment or an experience that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or mental instability. But of course, in the life of an actor, it must principally be about the internal work.”
An Industry Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds as if the actor has emerged from his retreat and found himself shocked by the world that has been created mirroring his methods. If you’re regarded as among the best actors in history, and your process involves striking a prop to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or spending two days in isolation without food or water (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that fellow performers will want to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic their idol.
In other words, we now live in an environment full of half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the sheer amount of effort they invest in their roles. At the shallow end of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award for House of Gucci that she spent 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 chose to deeply embed himself into the role of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” gifts to fellow cast members. These, according to various accounts, range from deceased animals to anal beads and personal hygiene products, though the actor refuted those worst excesses. And then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they literally managed in creating a feature-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for his colleagues.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the basis of a derisive New Yorker profile, full of quotes from individuals who were either concerned about his conduct (“The toll on himself that worries me,” remarked Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I remember [him] making everyone else to react with exasperation,” said an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘never intended to stop acting, truly’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass during The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, three years after the movie’s release. All of this, in part, aims to evoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis approaches his work.
An Admirable Yet Challenging Fight
And, while his fightback to critics of the Method might be noble, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to alter perceptions, let alone their practices. Maybe if he wishes to make audiences recall the true essence of the Method, or to show them what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply start making more films. Certainly we could all support that idea.
