It has been quite some time since anyone saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 that he would cease to pursue acting, just before the release of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. However, in his absence, his legend expanded further.
The Legend Surrounding His Acting Method
Largely, this reputation revolves around his preferred approach to roles. Being an actor known for disappears into the roles he plays – for instance, while filming Lincoln, he had Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – audiences has become more fascinated with his process. Is it true he really send texts to Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat game he hunted for The Last of the Mohicans? And did he demand receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we lost interest with actorly excess?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. And he is using this to vocalise his anger at how the Method technique is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays to hear various individuals gobbling off and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that a person’s acting insane in a drastic way,” he told the New York Times. “Everyone often concentrate on superficial aspects of acting, and those details always seem to involve some sort of self-flagellation or an experience that causes extreme unease or mental instability. However, in the career of an actor, it has to mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
A World Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds as if the actor has emerged from his retreat and found himself shocked by the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. When you are regarded as one of the greatest actors in history, and your process includes headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or enduring 48 hours in solitary confinement 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.
Essentially, we exist in a landscape populated by imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to show the world the extensive degree of effort they put into their roles. At the shallow end of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to earn an Academy Award for House of Gucci that she spent the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she became an Italian native for a year and a half as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself in the character of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” presents to fellow cast members. These, depending on who you ask, range from dead pigs and rats to anal beads and personal hygiene products, though Leto denied the most extreme claims. Then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded to get a full-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
The foremost Method Guy at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach during Succession was so rigorously detailed that it formed the subject of a derisive magazine feature, full of quotes from people who were either concerned about his conduct (“It’s the cost on himself concerns me,” said Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I remember [him] making others to react with exasperation,” stated an unnamed co-star).
The actor claims he ‘never intended to stop acting, truly’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, three years after that film came out. Each of these instances, in part, is meant to invoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.
An Admirable But Uphill Battle
Moreover, while his fightback to critics of the Method might be noble, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to alter perceptions, let alone their behaviour. Maybe if he wants to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate its potential results, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to simply begin producing additional movies. Certainly we could all get behind that.
