It has been a long while since anyone caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 declaring he would no longer pursue acting, prior to the debut of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. Yet, during his hiatus, his legend has only grown.
The Legend of His Acting Method
Largely, this legend centers on his favored approach to roles. As someone known for disappears into the roles he plays – for instance, while filming the Lincoln biopic, 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 texts to Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Did he consumed solely game he hunted during The Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we lost interest with over-the-top performances?
Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. And he is using this to express his frustration regarding how the Method technique is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays when I hear various individuals gobbling off and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think is meant to imply that someone is behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he stated to the New York Times. “Everyone often concentrate on superficial details of the work, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-punishment or an experience 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.”
An Industry Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds like Day-Lewis has emerged from his retreat only to discover shocked by the acting community that has been created mirroring his methods. When you are widely considered among the best actors in history, and your approach includes striking a prop until you break your nose (for Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in solitary confinement without food or water (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will attempt to fill that vacuum by imitating their idol.
Essentially, we exist in an environment full of imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the extensive degree of dedication they put into a character. On the milder side of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award with House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she became functionally Italian over 18 months in preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself in the character of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” gifts to his castmates. These items, according to various accounts, included dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, though Leto denied the most extreme claims. Then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they succeeded in creating 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 an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose process while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the basis of a critical New Yorker profile, full of quotes from individuals who were worried for his behaviour (“The toll to himself that worries me,” remarked Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by his actions (“I remember [him] making everyone else roll their eyes,” stated an anonymous cast member).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘did not plan to stop acting, really’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler continues to talk in the style of Elvis, years following the movie’s release. Each of these instances, to some extent, is meant to invoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis takes his work.
An Admirable But Uphill Fight
Moreover, although his rebuttal against method detractors might be noble, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their practices. Perhaps if he wishes to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to show them its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply start making additional movies. Surely we could all support that idea.
