It has been quite some time since the public caught a glimpse of the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 declaring he would no longer pursue acting, prior to the debut of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. Yet, during his hiatus, his legend has only grown.
The Mythos Surrounding His Method
Largely, this legend centers on his favored style of working. Being an actor known for immerses himself in his characters – for instance, while filming Lincoln, reportedly asked Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – audiences has become more fascinated with his process. Is it true he actually sent texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he only eat animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Now, Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. And he is taking this chance to vocalise his anger regarding how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross these days when I hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which seems suggests that a person’s acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he stated to the New York Times. “Everyone often concentrate on the less important details of the work, and those details typically include some sort of self-flagellation or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or mental instability. However, in the life for a performer, it must mainly focus on the internal work.”
A World of Imitators
To be honest, it appears as if Day-Lewis has come out from seclusion only to discover aghast at the acting community that has been created in his image. If you’re regarded as one of the greatest performers in history, and your approach includes striking a prop to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in isolation without food or water (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will want to fill that vacuum by imitating their idol.
In other words, we exist in an environment populated by imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to show the world the extensive degree of dedication they put into a character. At the shallow end of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she transformed into functionally Italian over 18 months in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself in the character of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” presents to his castmates. These, depending on who you ask, included dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, though the actor refuted those worst excesses. And then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded in creating a full-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life to the utmost for everyone around him.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The foremost practitioner of the Method currently seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the basis of a derisive magazine feature, full of quotes from people who were either concerned about his conduct (“The toll on himself that worries me,” remarked Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall [him] making everyone else to react with exasperation,” stated an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis claims 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 actor Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, three years after the movie’s release. Each of these instances, in part, aims to evoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
A Noble Yet Challenging Fight
And, while his fightback to critics of the Method might be noble, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their practices. Maybe if he wants to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to show them its potential results, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to just begin producing additional movies. Certainly we could all support that idea.
