It’s been quite some time since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 declaring he would cease to work as an actor, prior to the debut of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. Yet, in his absence, his legend has only grown.
The Mythos of His Acting Method
Primarily, this legend centers on his preferred style of working. Being an actor known for immerses himself in the roles he plays – for example, while filming the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked Steven Spielberg call him “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – the world has grown more fascinated with his process. Did he really send messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Did he consumed solely animals he’d killed during The Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is taking this chance to express his frustration regarding how the Method technique is perceived. “I’m a little cross nowadays to hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which I think is meant to imply that a person’s acting insane in a drastic way,” he stated to a major publication. “Everyone often concentrate on the less important aspects of acting, and those details typically include some sort of self-flagellation or an experience that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or psychological strain. But of course, in the career of an actor, it must principally be about the internal work.”
An Industry Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds as if the actor has come out from seclusion and found himself aghast at the acting community that has been created mirroring his methods. If you’re widely considered one of the greatest actors in history, and your process involves striking a prop to the point of injury (in 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 other actors will want to emulate that example by trying to mimic your hero.
In other words, we exist in a landscape populated by imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to demonstrate the extensive degree of effort they put into a character. On the milder side of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she became an Italian native over 18 months in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself into the role of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” gifts to his castmates. These items, according to various accounts, range from dead pigs and rats to anal beads and personal hygiene products, though Leto denied the most extreme claims. And then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed to get 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 Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the subject of a derisive New Yorker profile, including statements from individuals who were either concerned about his conduct (“It’s the cost to himself concerns me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by his actions (“I recall him causing everyone else to react with exasperation,” stated an unnamed co-star).
The actor says he ‘did not plan to stop acting, truly’
There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, three years after that film came out. All of this, to some extent, is meant to invoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis takes his work.
A Noble But Uphill Fight
And, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method might be noble, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their behaviour. Maybe if he wishes to make audiences recall the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to just start making more films. Certainly we could all get behind that.
