It’s been a long while since anyone saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to pursue acting, prior to the debut of Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, during his hiatus, his legend has only grown.
The Mythos Surrounding His Method
Largely, this legend revolves around his preferred style of working. As someone known for disappears into the roles he plays – for instance, while filming the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked the director call him “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has become more fascinated with how he works. Is it true he really send messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat game he hunted for Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: has the public lost interest with over-the-top performances?
Now, Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. And he is using this to express his frustration at how method acting is perceived. “I’m a little cross these days to hear various individuals talking carelessly and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which seems suggests that someone is 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 those details typically include some form of self-punishment or a situation that causes extreme unease or mental instability. But of course, in the career of an actor, it has to principally be about the inner transformation.”
A World Full of Followers
To be honest, it appears as if the actor has emerged from his retreat only to discover aghast at the acting community that has been created in his image. When you are widely considered one of the greatest actors in history, and your process includes striking a prop until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in isolation deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that fellow performers will want to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic their idol.
In other words, we now live in a landscape populated by imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to demonstrate the extensive degree of dedication they invest in their roles. On the milder side of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she spent the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she became functionally Italian over 18 months as preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself in the character of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” gifts to his castmates. These items, according to various accounts, included deceased animals to anal beads and personal hygiene products, although the actor refuted those worst excesses. And then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they 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 main Method Guy at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the basis of a derisive magazine feature, full of quotes from individuals who were worried for his behaviour (“It’s the cost to himself that worries me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember [him] making others roll their eyes,” stated an anonymous cast member).
The actor claims he ‘never intended to stop acting, really’
There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler continues to talk in the style of Elvis, years following that film came out. Each of these instances, in part, is meant to invoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
An Admirable Yet Challenging Fight
And, although his rebuttal against method detractors could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to alter perceptions, not to mention their practices. Maybe if he wants to make audiences recall the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply start making additional movies. Certainly everyone would get behind that.
