It’s been quite some time since anyone caught a glimpse of the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 that he would cease to work as an actor, prior to the release of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. However, in his absence, his reputation has only grown.
The Legend of His Acting Method
Primarily, this legend centers on his favored approach to roles. As someone known for disappears into the roles he plays – for example, while filming Lincoln, he had the director call him “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – audiences has become more fascinated with his process. Is it true he actually sent texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he only eat game he hunted for The Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: have we fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?
Now, Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. And he is taking this chance to express his frustration regarding how the Method technique is perceived. “I’m a little cross these days when I hear all kinds of people gobbling off and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think suggests that someone is acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he told the New York Times. “People often concentrate on superficial details of the work, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-punishment or a situation that causes a severe discomfort or mental instability. But of course, in the life of an actor, it has to mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
A World of Imitators
To be honest, this sounds as if Day-Lewis has come out from his retreat only to discover shocked by the world that has been created mirroring his methods. If you’re widely considered one of the greatest performers in history, and your process involves headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (for Gangs of New York) or spending two days in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will want to emulate that example by trying to mimic their idol.
Essentially, we now live in an environment populated by imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to demonstrate the sheer amount of dedication they put into a character. At the shallow end of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she became functionally Italian for a year and a half in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself in the character as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” presents to fellow cast members. These items, according to various accounts, included dead pigs and rats to anal beads and personal hygiene products, although the actor refuted those worst excesses. And then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully as Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that they literally managed to get a full-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life to the utmost for everyone around him.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The main Method Guy at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach during Succession was so rigorously detailed that it formed the subject of a derisive magazine feature, full of quotes from individuals who were worried for his behaviour (“The toll on himself that worries me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by it (“I remember [him] making everyone else roll their eyes,” said an unnamed co-star).
The actor claims he ‘did not plan to stop acting, really’
There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass for The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, three years after the movie’s release. All of this, to some extent, aims to evoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis approaches his work.
A Noble But Uphill Fight
Moreover, while his fightback to critics of the Method might be noble, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their practices. Perhaps if he wishes to make audiences recall the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just begin producing additional movies. Surely everyone would get behind that.
