It has been quite some time since anyone saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 declaring he would no longer pursue acting, prior to the debut of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. Yet, in his absence, his reputation has only grown.
The Legend of His Method
Primarily, this legend centers on his favored approach to roles. As someone who famously immerses himself in the roles he plays – for example, while filming Lincoln, he had the director call him “Mr President” throughout the shoot – audiences has grown increasingly obsessed with how he works. Is it true he really send texts to Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Did he consumed solely animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand 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. He is using this to vocalise his anger at how the Method technique is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed these days when I hear all kinds of people gobbling off and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think suggests that a person’s acting insane in a drastic way,” he told a major publication. “Everyone tends to focus on superficial details of the work, and those details typically include some sort of self-flagellation or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or psychological strain. However, in the life of an actor, it must mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
A World of Imitators
Frankly, it appears like the actor has come out from seclusion only to discover shocked by the acting community that has been created mirroring his methods. If you’re widely considered among the best actors to ever work, and your approach includes striking a prop to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or spending two days in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that fellow performers will attempt to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.
In other words, we exist in an environment populated by half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the extensive degree of effort they put into their roles. On the milder side of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award for House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she became an Italian native for a year and a half as preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself into the role as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” gifts to fellow cast members. These, depending on who you ask, range from deceased animals to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, though Leto denied 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 they succeeded to get a full-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for his colleagues.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the basis of a derisive New Yorker profile, full of quotes from individuals who were either concerned for his behaviour (“It’s the cost to himself concerns me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember [him] making everyone else roll their eyes,” stated an anonymous cast member).
The actor says he ‘never intended to stop acting, truly’
We have so many other examples. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, years following the movie’s release. All of this, to some extent, is meant to invoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis takes his work.
An Admirable Yet Challenging Fight
Moreover, while his fightback against method detractors might be noble, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their behaviour. Maybe if he wishes to remind people what method acting is, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just begin producing more films. Surely everyone would support that idea.
