It has been quite some time since anyone caught a glimpse of the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to pursue acting, just before the debut of The Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. Yet, in his absence, his legend has only grown.
The Legend Surrounding His Method
Largely, this legend centers on his favored style of working. As someone known for immerses himself in his characters – for instance, while filming the Lincoln biopic, he had Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – audiences has become more fascinated with how he works. Did he really send texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely game he hunted for The Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: have we lost interest with actorly excess?
Now, Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. He is using this to express his frustration at how the Method technique is perceived. “I am somewhat annoyed these days when I hear various individuals gobbling off and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which I think is meant to imply that someone is behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he stated to a major publication. “Everyone tends to focus on the less important aspects of acting, and those details typically include some form of self-flagellation or an experience that causes a severe discomfort or mental instability. However, in the career for a performer, it has to principally be about the internal work.”
An Industry Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds like Day-Lewis has come out from seclusion only to discover aghast at the world that has developed in his image. When you are regarded as among the best actors to ever work, and your process involves striking a prop to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in isolation 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.
In other words, we now live in an environment full of imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to demonstrate the extensive degree of dedication they put into their roles. On the milder side of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award for House of Gucci that she spent 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 in the character of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” gifts to fellow cast members. These, depending on who you ask, included dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, although the actor refuted the most extreme claims. And then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they succeeded in creating a full-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life to the utmost for his colleagues.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
The foremost Method Guy at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the subject of a critical New Yorker profile, including statements from people who were worried for his behaviour (“It’s the cost on himself that worries me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I remember [him] making everyone else to react with exasperation,” stated an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘did not plan to retire, truly’
There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal for The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, years following that film came out. Each of these instances, in part, is meant to invoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis approaches his work.
A Noble Yet Challenging Fight
And, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their practices. Perhaps if he wants to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to just begin producing more films. Certainly everyone would get behind that.
