It has been quite some time since anyone caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to pursue acting, prior to the debut of Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, in his absence, his reputation has only grown.
The Legend of His Acting Method
Largely, this reputation revolves around his preferred style of working. Being an actor who famously immerses himself in the roles he plays – for instance, while filming the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked the director call him “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has become more fascinated with how he works. Is it true he actually sent messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat game he hunted for Last of the Mohicans? And did he demand receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: has the public fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. And he is using this to vocalise his anger regarding how the Method technique is perceived. “I’m a little cross nowadays to hear all kinds of people gobbling off and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which I think suggests that someone is behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he told a major publication. “Everyone often concentrate on superficial aspects of acting, and those details typically include some sort of self-punishment or a situation that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or mental instability. But of course, in the life for a performer, it must mainly focus on the internal work.”
A World of Imitators
To be honest, this sounds as if the actor has emerged from his retreat and found himself shocked by the world that has developed in his image. If you’re widely considered one of the greatest performers in history, and your approach involves striking a prop until you break your nose (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 fellow performers will attempt to emulate that example by trying to mimic your hero.
In other words, we now live in an environment full of half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to demonstrate the extensive degree of effort they invest in their roles. At the shallow end of this trend we have people like Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to earn an Academy Award for House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she became functionally Italian over 18 months in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to deeply embed himself into the role of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” gifts to his castmates. These items, depending on who you ask, range from dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and used condoms, although the actor refuted those worst excesses. Then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they literally managed to get a full-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The foremost practitioner of the Method currently would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it formed the basis of a derisive magazine feature, full of quotes from individuals who were worried about his conduct (“The toll to himself concerns me,” said Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by his actions (“I remember him causing everyone else to react with exasperation,” stated an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘did not plan to stop acting, really’
There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass for The Revenant. It’s quite possible that actor Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, years following the movie’s release. All of this, to some extent, aims to evoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
An Admirable But Uphill Fight
And, although his rebuttal against method detractors might be noble, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to alter perceptions, let alone their practices. Maybe if he wishes to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to show them what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just begin producing additional movies. Certainly we could all get behind that.
