It has been quite some time since anyone caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 that he would cease to pursue acting, prior to the release of The Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. Yet, in his absence, his legend expanded further.
The Legend Surrounding His Method
Primarily, this legend centers on his favored style of working. Being an actor known for immerses himself in the roles he plays – for example, during Lincoln, he had the director address him as “Mr. President” for the entire production – the world has grown increasingly obsessed with his process. Is it true he actually sent texts to Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. And he is using this to express his anger regarding how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays when I hear various individuals gobbling off and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which seems is meant to imply that a person’s acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he told a major publication. “Everyone tends to focus on superficial aspects of acting, and these elements always seem to involve some sort of self-punishment or an experience that causes a severe discomfort or psychological strain. But of course, in the career for a performer, it must principally be about the inner transformation.”
A World Full of Followers
To be honest, this sounds as if the actor has come out from his retreat and found himself aghast at the world that has been created in his image. If you’re regarded as one of the greatest actors to ever work, and your process involves striking a prop to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or enduring 48 hours in solitary confinement without food or water (during In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that fellow performers will want to emulate that example by trying to mimic their idol.
Essentially, we now live in a landscape populated by half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to demonstrate the extensive degree of effort they invest in a character. At the shallow end of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award with House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she transformed into functionally Italian over 18 months as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself in the character of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” gifts to his castmates. These items, depending on who you ask, included dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, although Leto denied those worst excesses. And then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman during 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 Method Practitioners
The foremost Method Guy currently seems to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it formed the subject of a critical 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 it (“I recall him causing everyone else roll their eyes,” said an anonymous cast member).
The actor claims he ‘did not plan to stop acting, truly’
There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal during The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, years following the movie’s release. All of this, in part, aims to evoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis takes his work.
An Admirable But Uphill Battle
And, although his rebuttal against method detractors might be noble, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to change anyone’s mind, let alone their behaviour. Maybe if he wishes to make audiences recall the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply start making more films. Surely everyone would support that idea.
