It’s been a long while since anyone saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 declaring he would cease to work as an actor, prior to the debut of The Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. However, during his hiatus, his legend has only grown.
The Legend of His Acting Method
Primarily, this reputation centers on his favored style of working. Being an actor who famously disappears into the roles he plays – for example, while filming Lincoln, reportedly asked the director call him “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – the world has become increasingly obsessed with his process. Is it true he really send messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely game he hunted during Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. And he is taking this chance to vocalise his frustration at how the Method technique is perceived. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays to hear various individuals talking carelessly and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he told the New York Times. “Everyone often concentrate on superficial aspects of acting, and these elements always seem to involve some form of self-punishment or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or mental instability. However, in the life of an actor, it must mainly focus on the internal work.”
A World Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds like Day-Lewis has emerged from seclusion only to discover aghast at the acting community that has developed in his image. If you’re regarded as among the best actors to ever work, and your approach involves headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or spending two days in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will attempt to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.
Essentially, we exist in an environment full of half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the extensive degree of dedication they put into a character. On the milder side of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she became an Italian native over 18 months in preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who chose to deeply embed himself into the role as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” presents to fellow cast members. These, according to various accounts, included dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, although the actor refuted the most extreme claims. And then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully as Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded to get a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
The foremost Method Guy currently seems to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the subject of a derisive magazine feature, 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 roll their eyes,” stated an anonymous cast member).
Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘did not plan to stop acting, really’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, years following that film came out. Each of these instances, in part, aims to evoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.
A Noble Yet Challenging Battle
And, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method might be noble, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their behaviour. Maybe if he wants to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to show them its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply begin producing more films. Surely we could all support that idea.
