It’s been a long while since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 declaring he would cease to work as an actor, just before the debut of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. However, in his absence, his legend has only grown.
The Mythos Surrounding His Method
Primarily, this reputation revolves around his favored style of working. As someone who famously disappears into the roles he plays – for instance, while filming Lincoln, he had the director address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – the world 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 during The Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public lost interest with actorly excess?
Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, with some hesitation, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is using this to vocalise his frustration at how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays when I hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he stated to a major publication. “People often concentrate on the less important aspects of acting, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-punishment or a situation that causes extreme unease or mental instability. But of course, in the life of an actor, it has to principally be about the inner transformation.”
An Industry Full of Followers
To be honest, it appears like Day-Lewis has emerged from his retreat and found himself aghast at the world that has developed in his image. When you are widely considered among the best performers to ever work, and your approach involves headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in isolation deprived of sustenance (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will want to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic their idol.
Essentially, we exist in a landscape full of half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to demonstrate the sheer amount of effort they put into a character. At the shallow end of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she transformed into functionally Italian over 18 months in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to deeply embed himself into the role of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” gifts to fellow cast members. These items, according to various accounts, included deceased animals to intimate objects and used condoms, though Leto denied the most extreme claims. Then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded in creating a full-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties to the utmost for everyone around him.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the basis of a critical New Yorker profile, full of quotes from people who were either concerned for his behaviour (“The toll on himself concerns me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember him causing everyone else roll their eyes,” said an anonymous cast member).
Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘did not plan to stop acting, really’
We have so many other examples. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, three years after that film came out. All of this, in part, aims to evoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
A Noble But Uphill Fight
Moreover, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method could be commendable, a short publicity tour might not be enough to alter perceptions, not to mention their behaviour. Perhaps if he wants to make audiences recall the true essence of the Method, or to show them its potential results, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to just begin producing more films. Surely everyone would get behind that.
