It’s been a long while since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 that he would cease to work as an actor, just before the debut of Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. However, in his absence, his reputation has only grown.
The Legend Surrounding His Method
Primarily, this reputation centers on his favored style of working. As someone known for immerses himself in the roles he plays – for example, during Lincoln, he had the director call him “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – audiences has become more fascinated with how he works. Is it true he actually sent texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he only eat animals he’d killed during Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public lost interest with over-the-top performances?
Currently, Day-Lewis is back to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. And he is using this to vocalise his frustration at how method acting is perceived. “I’m a little cross these days when I hear various individuals gobbling off and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which I think is meant to imply that someone is acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he stated to a major publication. “People tends to focus on superficial aspects of acting, and those details always seem to involve some sort of self-punishment or a situation that causes extreme unease or mental instability. However, in the career of an actor, it must mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
An Industry of Imitators
Frankly, this sounds as if the actor has emerged from seclusion only to discover aghast at the world that has developed mirroring his methods. If you’re regarded as one of the greatest actors to ever work, and your approach includes striking a prop until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or spending two days in isolation deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will want to emulate that example by imitating your hero.
In other words, we exist in a landscape full of imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to demonstrate the sheer amount of effort they put into their roles. At the shallow end of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she became functionally Italian for a year and a half as preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself in the character of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” presents to fellow cast members. These, according to various accounts, included deceased animals to anal beads and personal hygiene products, although Leto denied the most extreme claims. And then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed in creating a full-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him making life as impossible as he could for his colleagues.
The Modern Method Practitioners
The foremost practitioner of the Method currently seems to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the subject of a critical New Yorker profile, including statements from people who were worried for his behaviour (“It’s the cost to himself that worries me,” said Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember him causing everyone else roll their eyes,” stated an anonymous cast member).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘did not plan to retire, truly’
There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, years following that film came out. All of this, in part, is meant to invoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis approaches his work.
A Noble Yet Challenging Fight
Moreover, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method might be noble, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to alter perceptions, not to mention their practices. Perhaps if he wishes to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to show them what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just start making additional movies. Certainly everyone would get behind that.
