It’s been a long while since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 declaring he would cease to work as an actor, just before the release of The Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, during his hiatus, 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, during Lincoln, he had the director address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – audiences has grown increasingly obsessed with his process. Did he really send messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Did he consumed solely game he hunted during The Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: has the public lost interest with actorly excess?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, with some hesitation, promoting his latest movie Anemone. And he is using this to express his anger at how the Method technique is perceived. “I am somewhat annoyed these days when I hear all kinds of people gobbling off and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which I think suggests that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he told the New York Times. “People often concentrate on superficial aspects of acting, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-punishment or an experience that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or psychological strain. But of course, in the life of an actor, it must mainly focus on the internal work.”
An Industry Full of Followers
To be honest, this sounds as if Day-Lewis has come out from seclusion and found himself shocked by the world that has been created mirroring his methods. When you are regarded as among the best actors in history, and your process includes headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or enduring 48 hours in isolation without food or water (for 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 a landscape full of imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to demonstrate the extensive degree of effort they put into a character. At the shallow end of this trend we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award for House of Gucci that she spent the entire promotion trying to convince everyone that she became functionally Italian over 18 months as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself in the character as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” presents to fellow cast members. These items, depending on who you ask, included deceased animals to anal beads and used condoms, although the actor refuted those worst excesses. Then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they literally managed in creating a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for his colleagues.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The main Method Guy at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the subject of a critical magazine feature, including statements from individuals who were either concerned about his conduct (“It’s the cost on himself that worries me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by it (“I remember him causing others roll their eyes,” said an anonymous cast member).
The actor claims he ‘did not plan to retire, truly’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, three years after the movie’s release. Each of these instances, to some extent, aims to evoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.
An Admirable Yet Challenging Fight
And, although his rebuttal against method detractors might be noble, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their practices. Maybe if he wants to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to show them its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just start making more films. Certainly we could all get behind that.
