It’s been a long while since the public caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to pursue acting, just before the release of The Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. Yet, in his absence, his legend expanded further.
The Legend of His Acting Method
Largely, this legend revolves around his favored style of working. As someone known for immerses himself in his characters – for example, during Lincoln, he had Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – audiences has grown more fascinated with his process. Did he really send messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Did he only eat game he hunted for The Last of the Mohicans? And did he demand receiving food via spoon 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, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. He is taking this chance to vocalise his frustration regarding how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays to hear various individuals gobbling off and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that a person’s acting insane 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 always seem to involve some form of self-flagellation or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or psychological strain. However, in the life of an actor, it has to principally be about the internal work.”
An Industry Full of Followers
To be honest, this sounds as if the actor has come out from seclusion and found himself shocked by the world that has been created mirroring his methods. When you are regarded as one of the greatest actors to ever work, and your process includes headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in isolation deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will want 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 demonstrate the sheer amount of dedication they invest in their roles. At the shallow end of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to earn an Academy Award for House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she transformed into functionally Italian for a year and a half in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself into the role as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” gifts to fellow cast members. These, according to various accounts, included deceased animals to anal beads and personal hygiene products, though the actor refuted those worst excesses. And then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they succeeded to get a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life as impossible as he could for his colleagues.
The Modern Method Practitioners
The main Method Guy at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach during Succession was so rigorously detailed that it formed the basis of a derisive New Yorker profile, full of quotes from individuals who were worried about his conduct (“The toll on himself concerns me,” remarked Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall [him] making everyone else roll their eyes,” said an anonymous cast member).
Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘never intended to retire, truly’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal for The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler continues to talk in the style of Elvis, three years after that film came out. Each of these instances, to some extent, is meant to invoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
An Admirable But Uphill Battle
And, while his fightback against method detractors could be commendable, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Perhaps if he wishes to make audiences recall the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to just start making more films. Surely everyone would get behind that.
