It’s been quite some time since the public saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to pursue acting, prior to the debut of The Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. Yet, in his absence, his legend has only grown.
The Legend Surrounding His Acting Method
Largely, this legend centers on his favored style of working. Being an actor known for disappears into his characters – for example, during Lincoln, reportedly asked the director address him as “Mr President” throughout the shoot – audiences has grown increasingly obsessed with his process. Is it true he really send messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he only eat game he hunted for Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: has the public lost interest with actorly excess?
Now, Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. And he is using this to vocalise his anger at how method acting is perceived. “I’m a little cross nowadays to hear various individuals talking carelessly and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that someone is acting insane in a drastic way,” he stated to the New York Times. “Everyone tends to focus on superficial details of the work, and these elements typically include some sort of self-flagellation or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or mental instability. However, in the life for a performer, it has to principally be about the inner transformation.”
An Industry Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds as if Day-Lewis has come out from his retreat only to discover shocked by the world that has been created mirroring his methods. If you’re regarded as one of the greatest performers in history, and your approach involves striking a prop to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or spending two days in isolation without food or water (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that fellow performers will attempt to fill that vacuum by imitating your hero.
Essentially, we now live in an environment full of imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to demonstrate the extensive degree of dedication they invest in a character. At the shallow end of this trend we have people like Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to earn an Academy Award with House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she transformed into functionally Italian for a year and a half as preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself into the role as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” presents to his castmates. These, according to various accounts, range from deceased animals to anal beads and used condoms, though the actor refuted the most extreme claims. Then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they literally managed to get a full-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life as impossible as he could for his colleagues.
The Modern Method Practitioners
The main Method Guy currently seems to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the basis of a critical magazine feature, including statements from people who were either concerned about his conduct (“The toll to himself concerns me,” remarked Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I remember [him] making everyone else roll their eyes,” stated an unnamed co-star).
The actor says he ‘did not plan to stop acting, really’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor 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 dedication with which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
A Noble Yet Challenging Fight
And, while his fightback against method detractors could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their practices. Maybe if he wants to remind people the true essence of the Method, 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.
