It’s been a long while since anyone saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to pursue acting, prior to the release of Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, during his hiatus, his legend has only grown.
The Legend of His Acting Method
Primarily, this legend centers on his preferred style of working. Being an actor known for immerses himself in the roles he plays – for example, during Lincoln, he had the director address him as “Mr. President” for the entire production – audiences has become more fascinated with how he works. Is it true he actually sent messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he only eat animals he’d killed during The Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public lost interest with actorly excess?
Currently, Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. And he is taking this chance to vocalise his anger regarding how the Method technique is viewed. “I’m a little cross these days when I hear various individuals gobbling off and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which I think suggests that someone is acting insane in a drastic way,” he told the New York Times. “People often concentrate on the less important aspects of acting, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-flagellation or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or mental instability. But of course, in the life for a performer, it has to principally be about the inner transformation.”
An Industry Full of Followers
Frankly, it appears like Day-Lewis has come out from his retreat only to discover aghast at the world that has developed in his image. When you are widely considered one of the greatest actors to ever work, and your process includes striking a prop until you break your nose (for Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in isolation without food or water (during In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that fellow performers will want to fill that vacuum by imitating their idol.
Essentially, we now live in an environment full of imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to demonstrate the sheer amount of effort they put into a character. At the shallow end of this trend we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she became functionally Italian for a year and a half in preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who chose to deeply embed himself into the role as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” gifts to his castmates. These items, according to various accounts, included dead pigs and rats to anal beads and used condoms, though Leto denied the most extreme claims. Then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they literally managed in creating a full-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The foremost Method Guy at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose process during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the basis of a derisive magazine feature, full of quotes from individuals who were worried about his conduct (“It’s the cost to himself concerns me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember [him] making others to react with exasperation,” stated an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘did not plan to stop acting, really’
There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, years following the movie’s release. Each of these instances, to some extent, aims to evoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
A Noble Yet Challenging Fight
And, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method might be noble, a short publicity tour might not be enough to alter perceptions, let alone their behaviour. Maybe if he wants to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate its potential results, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to just begin producing more films. Surely everyone would get behind that.
