It has been quite some time since the public saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 declaring he would no longer pursue acting, prior to the release of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. However, in his absence, his reputation has only grown.
The Legend Surrounding His Method
Largely, this reputation centers on his preferred style of working. Being an actor who famously disappears into his characters – for example, while filming the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked the director call him “Mr President” throughout the shoot – the world has grown increasingly obsessed with how he works. Did he really send messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat animals he’d killed during The Last of the Mohicans? And did he demand receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis is back to public attention, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. He is taking this chance to vocalise his anger regarding how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross these days to hear various individuals talking carelessly and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which seems is meant to imply that someone is acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he stated to a major publication. “Everyone tends to focus on superficial details of the work, and these elements typically include some sort of self-punishment or an experience that causes extreme unease or mental instability. But of course, in the career of an actor, it has to principally be about the internal work.”
An Industry of Imitators
Frankly, it appears like Day-Lewis has emerged from his retreat and found himself shocked by the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. If you’re regarded as among the best actors to ever work, and your process includes striking a prop to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in isolation deprived of sustenance (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will want to emulate that example by imitating your hero.
In other words, we now live in an environment populated by half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to demonstrate 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 with House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she transformed into functionally Italian for a year and a half in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself in the character of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” presents to fellow cast members. These items, according to various accounts, included dead pigs and rats to anal beads and personal hygiene products, though the actor refuted the most extreme claims. And then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded in creating a feature-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties to the utmost for everyone around him.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The main Method Guy at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the basis of a critical magazine feature, including statements from people who were either concerned for his behaviour (“It’s the cost to himself concerns me,” said Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall him causing everyone else to react with exasperation,” stated an anonymous cast member).
Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘did not plan to stop acting, really’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, three years after that film came out. Each of these instances, in part, is meant to invoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.
An Admirable Yet Challenging Battle
Moreover, while his fightback against method detractors might be noble, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Maybe if he wishes to remind people what method acting is, or to demonstrate its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just begin producing additional movies. Certainly everyone would get behind that.
