It’s been a long while since the public caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to pursue acting, just before the debut of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. Yet, during his hiatus, his legend expanded further.
The Legend of His Method
Largely, this legend centers on his preferred style of working. As someone who famously disappears into the roles he plays – for example, while filming Lincoln, he had the director address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – audiences has grown increasingly obsessed with his process. Did he really send messages to co-star 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 insist on receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public lost interest with over-the-top performances?
Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis is back to public attention, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. And he is using this to express his anger at how method acting is perceived. “I’m a little cross these days to hear various individuals gobbling off and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think is meant to imply that a person’s acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he stated to a major publication. “People often concentrate on superficial aspects of acting, and these elements always seem to involve some sort of self-flagellation or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or psychological strain. However, in the career of an actor, it has to mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
An Industry of Imitators
Frankly, this sounds like the actor has come out from seclusion only to discover aghast at the world that has been created in his image. If you’re widely considered among the best actors to ever work, and your approach includes headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will attempt to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.
In other words, we now live in an environment full of imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to demonstrate the sheer amount of effort they invest in their roles. At the shallow end of this trend we have people like Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she became an Italian native over 18 months as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to deeply embed himself into the role as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” presents to his castmates. These items, according to various accounts, included deceased animals to intimate objects and used condoms, although the actor refuted the most extreme claims. And then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed to get a full-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
The main Method Guy currently 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 New Yorker profile, full of quotes from individuals who were either concerned about his conduct (“The toll to himself concerns me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I remember [him] making everyone else to react with exasperation,” stated an anonymous cast member).
The actor claims he ‘never intended to stop acting, truly’
There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass for The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, years following that film came out. All of this, in part, is meant to invoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.
An Admirable Yet Challenging Fight
And, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method could be commendable, a short publicity tour might not be enough to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Perhaps if he wishes to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to show them what it can achieve, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to just begin producing more films. Surely everyone would support that idea.
