It’s been quite some time since the public caught a glimpse of the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 that he would cease to pursue acting, just before the debut of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. However, in his absence, his legend has only grown.
The Mythos Surrounding His Method
Primarily, this reputation revolves around his favored style of working. As someone known for disappears into the roles he plays – for instance, while filming Lincoln, he had Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – the world has become increasingly obsessed with how he works. Is it true he actually sent texts to Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Did he consumed solely game he hunted for The Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, with some hesitation, promoting his latest movie Anemone. And he is taking this chance to vocalise his anger 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 seems is meant to imply that someone is behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he told a major publication. “Everyone tends to focus on superficial details of the work, and those details typically include some form of self-flagellation or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or psychological strain. However, in the life for a performer, it has to principally be about the inner transformation.”
An Industry of Imitators
To be honest, it appears like the actor has emerged from seclusion only to discover shocked by the acting community that has been created mirroring his methods. If you’re widely considered one of the greatest performers to ever work, and your approach involves headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or spending two days in isolation without food or water (during In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that fellow performers will attempt to fill that vacuum by imitating their idol.
In other words, we now live in a landscape populated by half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to show the world the extensive degree of effort they invest in a character. On the milder side of the pool we have people like 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 became functionally Italian over 18 months in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself into the role as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” gifts to his castmates. These, according to various accounts, included deceased animals to intimate objects and used condoms, though Leto denied the most extreme claims. Then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they literally managed to get a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life to the utmost for his colleagues.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The foremost Method Guy at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the subject of a critical magazine feature, full of quotes from individuals who were either concerned about his conduct (“It’s the cost on himself that worries me,” remarked Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember [him] making others to react with exasperation,” said an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘never intended to stop acting, really’
We have so many other examples. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, three years after that film came out. All of this, to some extent, aims to evoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.
A Noble Yet Challenging Fight
Moreover, while his fightback against method detractors might be noble, a short publicity tour might not be enough to change anyone’s mind, let alone their behaviour. Perhaps if he wants to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just start making more films. Certainly everyone would get behind that.
