It’s been a long while since the public saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 declaring he would cease to work as an actor, just before the debut of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. However, during his hiatus, his legend has only grown.
The Mythos Surrounding His Method
Largely, this legend centers on his favored approach to roles. As someone known for disappears into the roles he plays – for example, during the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked the director call him “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has become increasingly obsessed with his process. Is it true he really send texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat game he hunted during The Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we lost interest with over-the-top performances?
Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. And he is taking this chance to express his anger at how the Method technique is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays 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 an extreme fashion,” he told the New York Times. “People tends to focus on superficial aspects of acting, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-punishment or an experience that causes extreme unease or psychological strain. However, in the career for a performer, it has to mainly focus on the internal work.”
An Industry of Imitators
Frankly, this sounds like the actor has emerged from his retreat only to discover aghast at the world that has developed mirroring his methods. If you’re regarded as among the best performers to ever work, and your approach includes headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or spending two days in isolation without food or water (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that fellow performers will want to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic their idol.
In other words, we exist in an environment full of half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to demonstrate the extensive degree of dedication they put into their roles. At the shallow end of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she transformed into an Italian native over 18 months in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself in the character as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” presents to his castmates. These items, depending on who you ask, range from deceased animals to intimate objects and used condoms, 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 literally managed to get a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the basis of a derisive magazine feature, including statements from individuals who were worried about his conduct (“It’s the cost to himself that worries me,” said Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I recall [him] making everyone else to react with exasperation,” stated an unnamed co-star).
The actor says he ‘never intended to stop acting, truly’
We have so many other examples. 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 continues to talk in the style of Elvis, years following that film came out. Each of these instances, in part, is meant to invoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
An Admirable But Uphill Battle
Moreover, while his fightback to critics of the Method could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to alter perceptions, let alone their behaviour. Maybe if he wants to remind people what method acting is, or to show them what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just begin producing additional movies. Surely everyone would get behind that.
