It’s been quite some time since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 declaring he would cease to pursue acting, just before the debut of The Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. Yet, during his hiatus, his legend has only grown.
The Legend of His Method
Largely, this legend centers on his preferred style of working. As someone who famously immerses himself in the roles he plays – for example, during the Lincoln biopic, he had the director call him “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has become increasingly obsessed with how he works. Did he really send messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat game he hunted for Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: has the public fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?
Now, Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. And he is using this to express his frustration at how the Method technique is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays to hear various individuals talking carelessly and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that someone is behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he stated to a major publication. “Everyone often concentrate on superficial details of the work, and these elements always seem to involve some form of self-flagellation or a situation that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or psychological strain. However, in the life of an actor, it has to mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
An Industry of Imitators
To be honest, it appears like Day-Lewis has come out from his retreat only to discover aghast at the world that has been created in his image. When you are regarded as among the best actors to ever work, and your approach involves headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (during In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will want to emulate that example by trying to mimic their idol.
In other words, we exist in an environment populated by half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the extensive degree of dedication they put into a character. At the shallow end of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award for House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion trying to convince everyone that she transformed into functionally Italian for a year and a half in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to deeply embed himself into the role of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” gifts to fellow cast members. These, according to various accounts, included deceased animals to anal beads and used condoms, though Leto denied the most extreme claims. And then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into 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 to the utmost for everyone around him.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The foremost practitioner of the Method currently seems to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it formed the subject of a derisive New Yorker profile, including statements from individuals who were either concerned about his conduct (“The toll on himself that worries me,” said Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I remember him causing others roll their eyes,” said an anonymous cast member).
The actor says he ‘never intended to stop acting, really’
There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor 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 takes his craft.
A Noble Yet Challenging Battle
And, although his rebuttal against method detractors could be commendable, a short publicity tour might not be enough to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their practices. Maybe 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 simply start making more films. Surely we could all get behind that.
