It’s been quite some time since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to pursue acting, just before the debut of The Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, during his hiatus, his legend expanded further.
The Legend Surrounding His Method
Primarily, this legend revolves around his preferred style of working. As someone who famously immerses himself in the roles he plays – for example, while filming the Lincoln biopic, he had 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 messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he consumed solely animals he’d killed during Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. And he is using this to express his frustration at how method acting is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays when I hear all kinds of people gobbling off and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that a person’s acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he stated to a major publication. “People tends to focus on the less important aspects of acting, and these elements always seem to involve some sort of self-punishment or a situation that causes extreme unease or psychological strain. But of course, in the career of an actor, it has to mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
An Industry Full of Followers
To be honest, this sounds like the actor has emerged from seclusion only to discover shocked by the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. When you are regarded as one of the greatest performers to ever work, and your approach involves headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or enduring 48 hours in isolation without food or water (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will attempt to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.
Essentially, we now live in an environment full of half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to show the world the sheer amount of dedication they put into their roles. On the milder side of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion trying to convince everyone that she became an Italian native over 18 months in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself into the role of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” presents to fellow cast members. These, according to various accounts, included deceased animals to intimate objects and used condoms, though the actor refuted the most extreme claims. And then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they succeeded to get a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life to the utmost for everyone around him.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the subject of a derisive magazine feature, full of quotes from individuals who were either concerned for his behaviour (“The toll on himself concerns me,” remarked Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by it (“I remember him causing everyone else to react with exasperation,” stated an unnamed co-star).
The actor says he ‘did not plan to retire, really’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, three years after that film came out. Each of these instances, in part, is meant to invoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis takes his work.
An Admirable Yet Challenging Battle
Moreover, although his rebuttal against method detractors could be commendable, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their behaviour. Perhaps if he wants to remind people what method acting is, or to show them its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply begin producing more films. Surely we could all support that idea.
