It’s been a long while since anyone saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 that he would cease to work as an actor, prior to the release of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. However, during his hiatus, his reputation has only grown.
The Legend of His Method
Largely, this legend centers on his favored style of working. As someone who famously disappears into his characters – for instance, during Lincoln, reportedly asked the director address him as “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – audiences has become more fascinated with how he works. Did he really send texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely game he hunted during The Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we lost interest with actorly excess?
Currently, Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is using this to express 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 ‘gone full method’, which I think suggests that someone is acting insane in a drastic way,” he told a major publication. “People often concentrate on the less important details of the work, and those details always seem to involve some sort of self-flagellation or a situation that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or psychological strain. However, in the life of an actor, it has to mainly focus on the internal work.”
A World Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds as if the actor has come out from his retreat only to discover aghast at the world that has been created mirroring his methods. When you are regarded as among the best performers to ever work, and your process includes headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or spending two days 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 your hero.
In other words, we exist in a landscape populated by imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who want nothing more than to demonstrate the sheer amount of effort they invest in 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 trying to convince everyone that she became an Italian native for a year and a half as preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself into the role as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” gifts to his castmates. These items, according to various accounts, range from deceased animals to anal beads and used condoms, though the actor refuted the most extreme claims. And then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed in creating a full-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life as impossible as he could for his colleagues.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose process while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it formed the basis of a critical magazine feature, full of quotes from people who were either concerned for his behaviour (“The toll to himself concerns me,” said Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I recall [him] making everyone else to react with exasperation,” stated an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘never intended to stop acting, truly’
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. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, years following that film came out. Each of these instances, to some extent, aims to evoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.
A Noble Yet Challenging Fight
Moreover, while his fightback to critics of the Method could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their behaviour. Maybe if he wants to make audiences recall the true essence of the Method, or to show them what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just begin producing more films. Certainly we could all get behind that.
