It has been quite some time since the public saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 that he would no longer work as an actor, just before the debut of Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, in his absence, his reputation has only grown.
The Mythos of His Method
Primarily, this legend revolves around his favored approach to roles. Being an actor who famously immerses himself in the roles he plays – for example, during Lincoln, he had Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – audiences has become more fascinated with his process. Did he really send texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he consumed solely game he hunted for The Last of the Mohicans? And did he demand receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we lost interest with over-the-top performances?
Now, Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. He is using this to express his anger at 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 I think is meant to imply that a person’s acting insane in a drastic way,” he stated to a major publication. “Everyone tends to focus on the less important details of the work, and these elements always seem to involve some sort of self-punishment or a situation that causes extreme unease or psychological strain. But of course, in the career for a performer, it has to mainly focus on the internal work.”
An Industry of Imitators
Frankly, it appears as if Day-Lewis has emerged from seclusion only to discover shocked by the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. When you are regarded as one of the greatest actors to ever work, and your approach involves headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in solitary confinement without food or water (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will attempt to emulate that example by trying to mimic your hero.
In other words, we exist in an environment populated by imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the sheer amount of effort they put into their roles. At the shallow end of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award for House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she transformed into an Italian native for a year and a half in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself into the role as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” presents to his castmates. These items, depending on who you ask, range from dead pigs and rats to anal beads and used condoms, although Leto denied those worst excesses. And then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they succeeded to get a feature-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties to the utmost for his colleagues.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the basis of a derisive New Yorker profile, including statements from individuals who were either concerned for his behaviour (“It’s the cost to himself concerns me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I remember [him] making everyone else to react with exasperation,” said an anonymous cast member).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘never intended to retire, truly’
There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal during The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler continues to talk in the style of Elvis, three years after the movie’s release. All of this, to some extent, is meant to invoke the dedication with which Day-Lewis approaches his work.
A Noble Yet Challenging Fight
And, while his fightback to critics of the Method might be noble, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to alter perceptions, let alone their practices. Maybe if he wants to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to simply begin producing additional movies. Surely everyone would support that idea.
