It has been a long while since the public saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 declaring he would cease to work as an actor, prior to the debut of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. Yet, during his hiatus, his reputation expanded further.
The Legend of His Acting Method
Largely, this reputation centers on his preferred style of working. Being an actor who famously disappears into the roles he plays – for example, while filming Lincoln, he had Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has grown increasingly obsessed with how he works. Is it true he really send texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat game he hunted during 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 over-the-top performances?
Now, Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. And he is using this to express his anger at how method acting is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays when I hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which I think suggests that someone is acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he told the New York Times. “People often concentrate on the less important details of the work, and those details typically include some form of self-flagellation or a situation that causes a severe discomfort or psychological strain. However, in the career for a performer, it must mainly focus on the internal work.”
A World of Imitators
To be honest, it appears as if the actor has come out from his retreat only to discover aghast at the acting community that has been created in his image. When you are widely considered among the best actors in history, and your process involves headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or spending two days in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that fellow performers will attempt to emulate that example by trying to mimic their idol.
In other words, we exist in an environment full of half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to demonstrate the sheer amount of effort they invest in a character. At the shallow end of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award with House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she became functionally Italian for a year and a half in preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself into the role of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” presents to his castmates. These items, depending on who you ask, included dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and used condoms, although the actor refuted the most extreme claims. And then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed to get 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 would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the subject of a derisive New Yorker profile, including statements from individuals who were worried about his conduct (“It’s the cost on himself concerns me,” said Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall [him] making others to react with exasperation,” said an unnamed co-star).
The actor says he ‘never intended to retire, really’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal during The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, years following the movie’s release. Each of these instances, in part, is meant to invoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis takes his work.
A Noble Yet Challenging Battle
Moreover, while his fightback to critics of the Method could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Maybe if he wants to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to show them what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply start making more films. Surely everyone would support that idea.
