It has been quite some time since the public caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to work as an actor, prior to the debut of Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, during his hiatus, his legend expanded further.
The Mythos of His Acting Method
Largely, this reputation centers on his preferred style of working. As someone known for disappears into his characters – for example, while filming the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – audiences has grown increasingly obsessed with his process. Is it true he really send texts to Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Did he only eat animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: has the public lost interest with actorly excess?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, with some hesitation, promoting his latest movie Anemone. And he is using this to express his anger at how the Method technique is perceived. “I am somewhat annoyed these days when I hear various individuals talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which seems is meant to imply that a person’s acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he stated to the New York Times. “Everyone tends to focus on superficial details of the work, and these elements always seem to involve some sort of self-punishment or a situation that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or mental instability. But of course, in the career of an actor, it has to principally be about the internal work.”
A World Full of Followers
To be honest, this sounds as if the actor has emerged from his retreat and found himself shocked by the acting community that has been created mirroring his methods. If you’re widely considered one of the greatest performers to ever work, and your process involves headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (for 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 fellow performers will attempt to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.
In other words, we now live in a landscape full of imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who want nothing more than to show the world the sheer amount of effort they put into their roles. At the shallow end of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award with House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she transformed into an Italian native over 18 months as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself in the character of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” presents to his castmates. These, according to various accounts, range from dead pigs and rats to anal beads and used condoms, though Leto denied those worst excesses. Then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they literally managed to get a feature-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him making life as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The main practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the basis of a critical New Yorker profile, full of quotes from people who were worried for his behaviour (“The toll to himself concerns me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember [him] making everyone else to react with exasperation,” stated an unnamed co-star).
The actor says he ‘never intended to stop acting, really’
We have so many other examples. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, years following that film came out. All of this, in part, aims to evoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.
A Noble But Uphill Battle
Moreover, while his fightback to critics of the Method could be commendable, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Perhaps if he wishes 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 simply start making more films. Certainly we could all get behind that.
