It has been a long while since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 that he would cease to pursue acting, prior to the release of Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. However, during his hiatus, his legend has only grown.
The Mythos Surrounding His Acting Method
Primarily, this legend revolves around his favored style of working. Being an actor known for immerses himself in his characters – for instance, while filming the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – audiences has become more fascinated with how he works. Is it true he really send texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he consumed solely animals he’d killed for The Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Currently, Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. And he is taking this chance to vocalise his frustration regarding how the Method technique is perceived. “I’m a little cross these days when I hear various individuals gobbling off and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that a person’s acting insane in a drastic way,” he stated to the New York Times. “Everyone tends to focus on the less important aspects of acting, and those details typically include some sort of self-punishment or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or psychological strain. However, in the life of an actor, it must mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
A World Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds as if the actor has emerged from his retreat and found himself aghast at the acting community that has developed in his image. If you’re regarded as one of the greatest actors in history, and your approach involves striking a prop to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that fellow performers will attempt to emulate that example by imitating their idol.
Essentially, we now live in an environment full of imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the sheer amount of effort they invest in a character. On the milder side of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award for House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she transformed into an Italian native for a year and a half as preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself into the role as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” presents to fellow cast members. These items, depending on who you ask, 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 immersed himself so fully as Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded to get a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life to the utmost for his colleagues.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
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 subject of a derisive New Yorker profile, full of quotes from people who were either concerned about his conduct (“The toll to himself concerns me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I remember [him] making others to react with exasperation,” stated an anonymous cast member).
The actor claims he ‘did not plan to stop acting, really’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, years following that film came out. Each of these instances, to some extent, aims to evoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis takes his work.
A Noble But Uphill Fight
And, while his fightback to critics of the Method might be noble, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their practices. Maybe if he wishes to make audiences recall the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just begin producing additional movies. Certainly everyone would get behind that.
