It’s been a long while since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 declaring he would no longer work as an actor, prior to the debut of The Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. Yet, during his hiatus, his reputation expanded further.
The Legend of His Method
Primarily, this reputation revolves around his favored style of working. Being an actor who famously disappears into his characters – for instance, while filming the Lincoln biopic, he had Steven Spielberg call him “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – the world has become more fascinated with how he works. Did he really send texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he consumed solely animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: have we fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Now, Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. And he is taking this chance to vocalise his anger at how the Method technique is perceived. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays when I hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think suggests that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he stated to the New York Times. “Everyone often concentrate on the less important aspects of acting, and these elements typically include some form of self-flagellation or a situation that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or mental instability. However, in the career for a performer, it must mainly focus on the internal work.”
A World of Imitators
To be honest, it appears like the actor has come out from his retreat and found himself shocked by the world that has developed in his image. If you’re widely considered one of the greatest actors to ever work, and your process involves headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in solitary confinement 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.
In other words, we exist in an environment populated by imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to show the world the sheer amount of effort they put into a character. On the milder side of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar 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 in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself into the role as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” gifts to fellow cast members. These items, depending on who you ask, included deceased animals to intimate objects and used condoms, though Leto denied those worst excesses. And then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully as Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that they literally managed to get a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
The Modern Method Practitioners
The foremost Method Guy currently seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the subject of a derisive magazine feature, full of quotes from individuals who were worried for his behaviour (“It’s the cost to himself concerns me,” remarked Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by it (“I recall him causing everyone else to react with exasperation,” said an anonymous cast member).
The actor claims he ‘never intended to retire, truly’
There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal 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.
An Admirable But Uphill Fight
Moreover, while his fightback against method detractors could be commendable, a short publicity tour might not be enough to alter perceptions, not to mention their practices. Maybe if he wants to remind people what method acting is, or to show them what it can achieve, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to simply start making additional movies. Surely everyone would support that idea.
