It has been a long while since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 that he would cease to pursue acting, prior to the release of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. Yet, in his absence, his reputation has only grown.
The Mythos Surrounding His Method
Primarily, this legend revolves around his preferred approach to roles. Being an actor who famously immerses himself in the roles he plays – for instance, while filming the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked the director address him as “Mr. President” for the entire production – the world has become increasingly obsessed with his process. Is it true he really send messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely game he hunted during Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public lost interest with actorly excess?
Now, Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is using this to express his anger at how the Method technique is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed these days when I hear all kinds of people gobbling off and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think is meant to imply that someone is behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he stated to a major publication. “Everyone often concentrate on the less important aspects of acting, and those details typically include some form of self-flagellation or a situation that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or psychological strain. However, in the career of an actor, it has to principally be about the internal work.”
An Industry Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds as if the actor has come out from seclusion and found himself aghast at the acting community that has been created in his image. If you’re widely considered one of the greatest actors in history, and your approach includes headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or enduring 48 hours in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will attempt to fill that vacuum by imitating their idol.
In other words, we exist in an environment full of imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to show the world the extensive degree of dedication they invest in their roles. 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 whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she transformed into functionally Italian over 18 months in preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself into the role of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” gifts to his castmates. These, depending on who you ask, included dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and used condoms, though Leto denied the most extreme claims. Then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they literally managed to get a feature-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach during Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the subject of a derisive New Yorker profile, full of quotes from people who were worried about his conduct (“The toll on himself that worries me,” remarked Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by his actions (“I recall [him] making others to react with exasperation,” said an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘never intended to stop acting, really’
There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, three years after the movie’s release. All of this, in part, is meant to invoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
An Admirable Yet Challenging Battle
Moreover, while his fightback to critics of the Method might be noble, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to alter perceptions, let alone their practices. Perhaps if he wishes to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to show them what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just start making additional movies. Surely we could all get behind that.
