It has been a long while since the public saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 that he would cease to pursue acting, just before the release of The Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. Yet, during his hiatus, his reputation expanded further.
The Legend of His Method
Primarily, this legend centers on his favored style of working. Being an actor who famously immerses himself in his characters – for instance, during the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked the director address him as “Mr. President” for the entire production – the world has become increasingly obsessed with how he works. Is it true he actually sent messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis is back to public attention, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. He is using this to express his frustration regarding how method acting is viewed. “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 acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he stated to the New York Times. “People tends to focus on the less important aspects of acting, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-punishment or a situation that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or mental instability. However, in the life for a performer, it must mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
A World Full of Followers
Frankly, it appears as if Day-Lewis has come out from his retreat only to discover shocked by the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. If you’re regarded as one of the greatest actors in history, and your process involves headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or spending two days in solitary confinement without food or water (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will attempt to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.
In other words, we now live in a landscape full of half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who want nothing more than to show the world the extensive degree of effort they put into their roles. At the shallow end of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she became functionally Italian for a year and a half as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself into the role of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” gifts to his castmates. These items, according to various accounts, included dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, though the actor refuted the most extreme claims. And then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that they succeeded to get a feature-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him making life to the utmost for everyone around him.
The Modern Method Practitioners
The main Method Guy at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the basis of a derisive New Yorker profile, including statements from people who were worried about his conduct (“It’s the cost on himself concerns me,” remarked Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by it (“I remember [him] making everyone else to react with exasperation,” said an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘did not plan to stop acting, really’
There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal during The Revenant. It’s quite possible that actor Austin Butler continues to talk in the style of Elvis, years following that film came out. Each of these instances, in part, is meant to invoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.
An Admirable But Uphill Fight
Moreover, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to alter perceptions, not to mention their behaviour. Maybe if he wants to make audiences recall the true essence of the Method, or to show them its potential results, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to just start making more films. Surely everyone would get behind that.
