It’s been a long while since anyone caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 that he would cease to pursue acting, just before the debut of Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. However, in his absence, his legend has only grown.
The Mythos of His Acting Method
Largely, this legend revolves around his favored approach to roles. Being an actor known for immerses himself in his characters – for example, while filming the Lincoln biopic, he had Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr President” throughout the shoot – the world has become increasingly obsessed with his process. Did he really send messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely animals he’d killed during Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?
Now, Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. And he is taking this chance to vocalise his frustration at how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross these days to hear all kinds of people gobbling off and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which I think suggests that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he stated to a major publication. “People tends to focus on the less important details of the work, and these elements always seem to involve some form of self-flagellation or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or mental instability. However, in the life of an actor, it has to principally be about the inner transformation.”
A World of Imitators
Frankly, this sounds like the actor has come out from his retreat only to discover shocked by the acting community that has been created mirroring his methods. If you’re regarded as one of the greatest actors to ever work, and your process involves headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in solitary confinement without food or water (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will attempt to fill that vacuum by imitating their idol.
In other words, we exist in a landscape full of imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the sheer amount of dedication 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 with House of Gucci that she spent the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she transformed into an Italian native over 18 months as preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who chose to deeply embed himself into the role as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” presents to his castmates. These items, according to various accounts, included dead pigs and rats to anal beads and used condoms, though Leto denied those worst excesses. And then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they succeeded to get a full-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties to the utmost for his colleagues.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
The foremost Method Guy at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose process while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the subject of a derisive magazine feature, including statements from individuals who were worried about his conduct (“It’s the cost to himself concerns me,” said co-star 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 ‘never intended to stop acting, truly’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass during The Revenant. It’s quite possible that actor Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, years following the movie’s release. All of this, in part, is meant to invoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis approaches his work.
A Noble Yet Challenging Battle
Moreover, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method might be noble, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Maybe if he wants to make audiences recall the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate its potential results, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to just begin producing additional movies. Surely we could all support that idea.
