It has been a long while since the public caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 that he would no longer work as an actor, prior to the release of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. However, in his absence, his reputation has only grown.
The Mythos Surrounding His Acting Method
Largely, this reputation centers on his preferred approach to roles. As someone known for immerses himself in the roles he plays – for instance, while filming Lincoln, he had the director call him “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has become more fascinated with his process. Did he actually sent messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely animals he’d killed during Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis is back to public attention, with some hesitation, promoting his latest movie Anemone. And he is taking this chance to express his frustration at how the Method technique is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays when I hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think is meant to imply that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he told a major publication. “People tends to focus on the less important aspects of acting, and these elements typically include some sort of self-punishment or an experience that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or psychological strain. But of course, in the career for a performer, it must mainly focus on the internal work.”
An Industry Full of Followers
To be honest, it appears like Day-Lewis has come out from seclusion and found himself aghast at the world that has developed mirroring his methods. If you’re widely considered one of the greatest performers to ever work, and your approach involves striking a prop to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or spending two days in solitary confinement without food or water (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that fellow performers will want to emulate that example by trying to mimic their idol.
Essentially, we now live 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 a character. On the milder side of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she spent the entire promotion trying to convince everyone that she became functionally Italian over 18 months as preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself in the character as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” gifts to his castmates. These items, depending on who you ask, included deceased animals to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, though Leto denied those worst excesses. Then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded in creating a feature-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him making life as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The foremost Method Guy currently would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the subject of a critical magazine feature, full of quotes from people who were either concerned about his conduct (“The toll on himself concerns me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by his actions (“I recall him causing others roll their eyes,” stated an anonymous cast member).
The actor says he ‘did not plan to retire, truly’
There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, three years after the movie’s release. Each of these instances, to some extent, aims to evoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis takes his work.
An Admirable But Uphill Fight
And, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method might be noble, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to change anyone’s mind, let alone their behaviour. Maybe if he wishes to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to show them what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just begin producing more films. Surely we could all support that idea.
