It has been a long while since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 that he would no longer pursue acting, prior to the debut of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. However, during his hiatus, his reputation expanded further.
The Mythos of His Method
Largely, this reputation centers on his favored style of working. Being an actor known for disappears into the roles he plays – for example, during the Lincoln biopic, he had the director address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has grown increasingly obsessed with how he works. Is it true he really send messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he consumed solely animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we lost interest with actorly excess?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. He is taking this chance to express his anger regarding how method acting is perceived. “I’m a little cross these days when I hear various individuals gobbling off and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which seems suggests that someone is behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he stated to the New York Times. “Everyone tends to focus on the less important aspects of acting, and those details always seem to involve some sort of self-punishment or an experience that causes extreme unease or psychological strain. However, in the career for a performer, it must principally be about the internal work.”
An Industry of Imitators
To be honest, it appears like Day-Lewis has emerged from his retreat and found himself aghast at the world that has developed mirroring his methods. When you are widely considered among the best performers to ever work, and your approach involves striking a prop until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours 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 imitating your hero.
Essentially, we now live in a landscape populated by imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the extensive degree of effort they put into their roles. On the milder side of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award with House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she became an Italian native for a year and a half as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself in the character of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” gifts to fellow cast members. These items, according to various accounts, included dead pigs and rats to anal beads and used condoms, although the actor refuted those worst excesses. And then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded in creating a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose process during Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the subject of a critical New Yorker profile, including statements from individuals who were worried for his behaviour (“The toll on himself concerns me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by his actions (“I recall [him] making everyone else to react with exasperation,” stated an anonymous cast member).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘never intended to retire, really’
We have so many other examples. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass for The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, three years after that film came out. All of this, in part, aims to evoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.
An Admirable Yet Challenging Fight
And, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method could be commendable, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to alter perceptions, let alone their practices. Maybe if he wishes to remind people what method acting is, or to show them its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply begin producing more films. Surely everyone would support that idea.
