It has been a long while since the public caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 declaring he would no longer pursue acting, just before the debut of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. However, in his absence, his legend expanded further.
The Mythos of His Acting Method
Largely, this reputation centers on his favored approach to roles. Being an actor known for immerses himself in the roles he plays – for example, during the Lincoln biopic, he had the director address him as “Mr President” throughout the shoot – the world has grown increasingly obsessed with how he works. Did he actually sent texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely animals he’d killed for The Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: have we lost interest with actorly excess?
Now, Day-Lewis is back to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. And he is taking this chance to express his frustration regarding how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross these days to hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think is meant to imply that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he stated to a major publication. “Everyone tends to focus on superficial details of the work, and these elements always seem to involve some sort of self-punishment or an experience that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or mental instability. But of course, in the career of an actor, it has to mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
An Industry of Imitators
Frankly, this sounds as if Day-Lewis has come out from his retreat only to discover shocked by the world that has been created mirroring his methods. When you are regarded as among the best actors to ever work, and your process includes headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or enduring 48 hours in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that fellow performers will want to emulate that example by imitating your hero.
Essentially, we now live in a landscape populated by half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to show the world the extensive degree of dedication they invest in a character. On the milder side of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award for House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she became an Italian native for a year and a half as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself in the character as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” gifts to his castmates. These, depending on who you ask, range from deceased animals to intimate objects and used condoms, although Leto denied the most extreme claims. And then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed in creating a feature-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him making life to the utmost for everyone around him.
The Modern Method Practitioners
The foremost practitioner of the Method currently seems to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose process while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the subject of a critical New Yorker profile, full of quotes from people who were either concerned for his behaviour (“It’s the cost to himself concerns me,” said Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by it (“I recall him causing others to react with exasperation,” said an anonymous cast member).
The actor claims he ‘never intended to retire, really’
We have numerous additional cases. 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 actor Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, three years after that film came out. All of this, in part, aims to evoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis takes his work.
A Noble Yet Challenging Fight
And, while his fightback against method detractors might be noble, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their behaviour. Perhaps if he wishes to make audiences recall the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to simply begin producing more films. Surely we could all support that idea.
