It has been a long while since anyone caught a glimpse of the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 that he would no longer work as an actor, prior to the release of The Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. Yet, during his hiatus, his reputation has only grown.
The Mythos Surrounding His Method
Primarily, this reputation revolves around his favored approach to roles. Being an actor who famously immerses himself in his characters – for instance, during Lincoln, he had Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr President” throughout the shoot – the world has grown more fascinated with how he works. Is it true he really send texts to Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Did he only eat game he hunted during Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: has the public lost interest with actorly excess?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. And he is using this to vocalise his frustration regarding how the Method technique is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays when I hear all kinds of people gobbling off and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which I think is meant to imply that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he stated to the New York Times. “People often concentrate on the less important details of the work, and these elements typically include some form of self-punishment or a situation that causes a severe discomfort or mental instability. However, in the life of an actor, it must principally be about the internal work.”
An Industry of Imitators
Frankly, it appears as if Day-Lewis has emerged from his retreat and found himself aghast at the world that has been created in his image. When you are widely considered one of the greatest performers in history, and your approach involves headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in isolation deprived of sustenance (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that fellow performers will attempt to fill that vacuum by imitating their idol.
In other words, we now live in a landscape full of half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to show the world the extensive degree of dedication they put into a character. On the milder side of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she spent the entire promotion 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 immerse himself in the character of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” gifts to fellow cast members. These items, according to various accounts, included deceased animals to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, although Leto denied those worst excesses. Then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed to get a full-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the basis of a derisive New Yorker profile, full of quotes from individuals who were worried about his conduct (“It’s the cost on himself that worries me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall him causing everyone else to react with exasperation,” said an anonymous cast member).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘did not plan to stop acting, really’
There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass during The Revenant. It’s quite possible that 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 dedication in which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.
An Admirable Yet Challenging Fight
Moreover, 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. Perhaps 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 simply start making more films. Surely we could all support that idea.
