It’s been a long while since anyone caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 that he would no longer work as an actor, just before the release of The Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. Yet, in his absence, his legend has only grown.
The Mythos Surrounding His Acting Method
Primarily, this legend revolves around his favored approach to roles. As someone who famously disappears into the roles he plays – for example, while filming the Lincoln biopic, he had the director address him as “Mr. President” for the entire production – audiences has grown increasingly obsessed with how he works. Is it true he actually sent messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public lost interest with over-the-top performances?
Currently, Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, with some hesitation, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is using this to express his anger regarding how the Method technique is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays when I hear all kinds of people gobbling off and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that someone is behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he stated to the New York Times. “People tends to focus on superficial details of the work, and these elements typically include some form of self-punishment or an experience that causes a severe discomfort or mental instability. But of course, in the career of an actor, it must principally be about the inner transformation.”
An Industry of Imitators
Frankly, it appears as if Day-Lewis has emerged from his retreat only to discover aghast at the world that has developed in his image. When you are regarded as among the best performers in history, and your approach involves striking a prop until you break your nose (for Gangs of New York) or enduring 48 hours in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that fellow performers will attempt to emulate that example by imitating your hero.
Essentially, we now live 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 a character. On the milder side of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award with House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she became functionally Italian over 18 months in preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself in the character of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” presents to fellow cast members. These, according to various accounts, included dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, though the actor refuted those worst excesses. Then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded to get a full-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life as impossible as he could for his colleagues.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The main Method Guy currently would appear to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the basis of a derisive New Yorker profile, full of quotes from people who were either concerned about his conduct (“It’s the cost on himself concerns me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember [him] making everyone else roll their eyes,” said an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘never intended to stop acting, really’
There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal for The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler continues to talk in the style of Elvis, three years after that film came out. Each of these instances, in part, aims to evoke the dedication with which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
A Noble Yet Challenging Battle
And, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to alter perceptions, let alone their behaviour. Perhaps if he wishes to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just start making more films. Certainly we could all get behind that.
