It has been quite some time since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 declaring he would no longer work as an actor, just before the release of The Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. However, during his hiatus, his reputation expanded further.
The Mythos of His Method
Largely, this legend revolves around his preferred approach to roles. As someone who famously disappears into the roles he plays – for example, during the Lincoln biopic, he had Steven Spielberg call him “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – audiences has become more fascinated with how he works. Is it true he actually sent messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat animals he’d killed for The Last of the Mohicans? And did he demand receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis is back to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. And he is taking this chance to express his frustration at how method acting is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed these days to 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 a drastic way,” he told a major publication. “People tends to focus on superficial details of the work, and those details typically include some sort of self-flagellation or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or mental instability. However, in the life of an actor, it must principally be about the internal work.”
An Industry of Imitators
Frankly, this sounds like the actor has come out from seclusion only to discover aghast at the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. When you are regarded as among the best actors to ever work, and your approach includes striking a prop to the point of injury (in 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 fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.
Essentially, we now live in an environment populated by imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the sheer amount of dedication they invest in their roles. On the milder side of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was so desperate 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 immerse himself into the role of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” presents to his castmates. These, depending on who you ask, included dead pigs and rats to anal beads and personal hygiene products, although Leto denied the most extreme claims. And then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded to get a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties to the utmost for everyone around him.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The main practitioner of the Method currently seems to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the basis of a critical magazine feature, full of quotes from individuals who were worried about his conduct (“It’s the cost to himself concerns me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I remember him causing everyone else to react with exasperation,” said an anonymous cast member).
The actor claims he ‘did not plan to retire, really’
We have so many other examples. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, years following that film came out. All of this, in part, aims to evoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.
A Noble Yet Challenging Fight
And, while his fightback against method detractors could be commendable, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their behaviour. Maybe if he wishes to remind people what method acting is, or to demonstrate its potential results, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to simply start making more films. Certainly everyone would support that idea.
