It has been a long while since the public caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 declaring he would no longer pursue acting, just before the debut of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. However, in his absence, his legend has only grown.
The Mythos of His Method
Primarily, this legend revolves around his preferred approach to roles. As someone who famously disappears into his characters – for example, while filming the Lincoln biopic, he had the director address him as “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – audiences has grown increasingly obsessed with his process. Did he really send texts to Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely game he hunted for Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: have we fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, with some hesitation, promoting his latest movie Anemone. And he is using this to vocalise his frustration regarding how method acting is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays to hear various individuals gobbling off and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that someone is acting insane in a drastic way,” he told a major publication. “People tends to focus on the less important aspects of acting, and those details always seem to involve some sort of self-punishment or a situation that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or psychological strain. But of course, in the life for a performer, it has to principally be about the inner transformation.”
An Industry of Imitators
Frankly, it appears as if the actor has come out from his retreat only to discover aghast at the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. If you’re regarded as among the best actors to ever work, and your process includes striking a prop until you break your nose (for Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in isolation without food or water (during In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that fellow performers will want to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.
In other words, we exist in an environment populated by imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to demonstrate the sheer amount of dedication they put into a character. On the milder side of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she transformed into an Italian native for a year and a half in preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself in the character as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” gifts to his castmates. These items, depending on who you ask, range from deceased animals to anal beads and used condoms, though the actor refuted the most extreme claims. And then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded to get a full-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 foremost Method Guy at the moment would appear 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 critical New Yorker profile, including statements from people who were either concerned about his conduct (“The toll to himself that worries me,” said Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I recall [him] making others roll their eyes,” said an anonymous cast member).
Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘did not plan to retire, really’
We have so many other examples. 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 Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, three years after the movie’s release. Each of these instances, in part, is meant to invoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis approaches his work.
A Noble But Uphill Fight
Moreover, while his fightback against method detractors could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to alter perceptions, let alone their behaviour. Perhaps if he wants to remind people what method acting is, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to simply begin producing more films. Certainly we could all support that idea.
