It’s been a long while since the public caught a glimpse of the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to pursue acting, just before the debut of Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, in his absence, his reputation expanded further.
The Mythos of His Method
Primarily, this legend revolves around his preferred approach to roles. As someone known for immerses himself in the roles he plays – for instance, while filming 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 consumed solely animals he’d killed during Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public lost interest with actorly excess?
Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. He is using this to vocalise his anger at how the Method technique is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays to hear all kinds of people gobbling off and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that someone is acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he told a major publication. “People tends to focus on the less important details of the work, and those details always seem to involve some sort of self-punishment or a situation that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or psychological strain. But of course, in the career of an actor, it has to principally be about the internal work.”
A World Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds as if Day-Lewis has emerged from seclusion only to discover shocked by the world that has been created mirroring his methods. When you are widely considered among the best actors to ever work, and your approach involves 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 fellow performers will want to fill that vacuum by imitating your hero.
Essentially, we now live in an environment populated by half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to show the world the extensive degree of dedication they invest in their roles. At the shallow end of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she transformed into an Italian native over 18 months in preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself in the character as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” presents to fellow cast members. These, depending on who you ask, included dead pigs and rats to anal beads and personal hygiene products, though the actor refuted those worst excesses. And then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded in creating a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties to the utmost for his colleagues.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
The foremost practitioner of the Method currently would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose process during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the basis of a critical magazine feature, full of quotes from individuals who were worried about his conduct (“The toll on himself that worries me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by it (“I remember [him] making everyone else roll their eyes,” said an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘never intended to retire, really’
There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal during The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, years following the movie’s release. All of this, to some extent, is meant to invoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
An Admirable But Uphill Fight
Moreover, although his rebuttal against method detractors could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to alter perceptions, not to mention their behaviour. Maybe if he wishes to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to show them its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply begin producing more films. Certainly we could all get behind that.
