It has been a long while since anyone caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to work as an actor, prior to the debut of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. Yet, during his hiatus, his reputation has only grown.
The Mythos Surrounding His Acting Method
Primarily, this legend revolves around his favored style of working. Being an actor who famously immerses himself in his characters – for example, during the Lincoln biopic, he had the director address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – audiences has become increasingly obsessed with how he works. Is it true he really send texts to Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely animals he’d killed for The Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public lost interest with over-the-top performances?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. He is taking this chance to vocalise his anger at how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays when I hear various individuals talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think is meant to imply that someone is behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he told the New York Times. “Everyone tends to focus on the less important details of the work, and these elements always seem to involve some sort of self-punishment or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or psychological strain. However, in the career for a performer, it must mainly focus on the internal work.”
A World of Imitators
Frankly, it appears as if the actor has emerged from seclusion and found himself aghast at the acting community that has developed in his image. If you’re regarded as among the best performers in history, and your approach includes striking a prop until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or spending two days in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (for 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.
In other words, we now live in an environment populated by half-cocked 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 there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she transformed into functionally Italian over 18 months in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself in the character of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” presents to fellow cast members. These, depending on who you ask, range from dead pigs and rats to anal beads and used condoms, although Leto denied the most extreme claims. And then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully as Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded to get a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
The main Method Guy at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the basis of a derisive New Yorker profile, including statements from people who were worried about his conduct (“The toll on himself concerns me,” said Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall him causing others to react with exasperation,” said an anonymous cast member).
The actor claims he ‘never intended to stop acting, truly’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year 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, years following the movie’s release. Each of these instances, in part, is meant to invoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.
A Noble But Uphill Battle
And, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method could be commendable, a short publicity tour might not be enough to alter perceptions, not to mention their behaviour. Perhaps if he wishes to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to show them its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just start making additional movies. Surely everyone would get behind that.
