It has been a long while since the public saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to pursue acting, just before the release of Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. Yet, during his hiatus, his legend expanded further.
The Mythos Surrounding His Method
Primarily, this reputation revolves around his favored approach to roles. As someone known for immerses himself in the roles he plays – for example, while filming the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked the director call him “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – audiences has grown more fascinated with his process. Did he really send texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat animals he’d killed during The Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?
Now, Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is using this to vocalise his anger at how the Method technique is perceived. “I’m a little cross nowadays to hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think is meant to imply that someone is acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he told the New York Times. “Everyone tends to focus on superficial aspects of acting, and these elements always seem to involve some form of self-punishment or a situation that causes extreme unease or mental instability. But of course, in the career for a performer, it must principally be about the internal work.”
An Industry of Imitators
To be honest, it appears as if Day-Lewis has emerged from seclusion only to discover shocked by the acting community that has been created mirroring his methods. If you’re widely considered one of the greatest performers in history, and your approach includes striking a prop until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in isolation deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that fellow performers will attempt to emulate that example by trying to mimic your hero.
In other words, we exist in an environment full of imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to show the world the sheer amount of effort they put into their roles. At the shallow end of this trend we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she transformed into functionally Italian for a year and a half 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” gifts to his castmates. These items, according to various accounts, range from dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, though the actor refuted those worst excesses. And then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that they succeeded in creating a full-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for his colleagues.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The main Method Guy currently seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose process during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the subject of a derisive magazine feature, including statements from people who were worried for his behaviour (“The toll on himself concerns me,” said Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by it (“I remember [him] making others to react with exasperation,” said an anonymous cast member).
Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘never intended to stop acting, really’
There are so many other examples. 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 Austin Butler continues to talk in the style of Elvis, years following that film came out. All of this, to some extent, aims to evoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
An Admirable Yet Challenging Battle
And, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to change anyone’s mind, let alone their behaviour. Maybe if he wants to remind people what method acting is, or to show them what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply start making more films. Surely everyone would support that idea.
