It has been a long while since the public saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 that he would no longer pursue acting, prior to the release of Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, during his hiatus, his reputation expanded further.
The Mythos of His Acting Method
Largely, this reputation revolves around his preferred approach to roles. As someone known for disappears into his characters – for example, while filming Lincoln, reportedly asked Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – audiences has become increasingly obsessed with his process. Is it true he really send messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he only eat animals he’d killed for The Last of the Mohicans? And did he demand being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis is back to public attention, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. He is taking this chance to vocalise his anger regarding how the Method technique is perceived. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays to hear various individuals talking carelessly and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think 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 those details typically include some form of self-punishment or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or mental instability. However, in the life for a performer, it must principally be about the inner transformation.”
A World Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds as if the actor has emerged from his retreat and found himself shocked by the world that has been created in his image. If you’re regarded as among the best performers to ever work, and your process involves headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (for Gangs of New York) or enduring 48 hours in solitary confinement without food or water (during In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will attempt to emulate that example by trying to mimic your hero.
In other words, we now live in a landscape populated by imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to demonstrate the sheer amount of dedication they invest in a character. At the shallow end of this trend we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she spent the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she transformed into an Italian native over 18 months as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself in the character of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” gifts to fellow cast members. These, depending on who you ask, range from dead pigs and rats to anal beads and used condoms, though Leto denied the most extreme claims. And then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully as Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that they succeeded to get a full-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
The Modern Method Practitioners
The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the subject of a derisive New Yorker profile, full of quotes from people who were either concerned for his behaviour (“It’s the cost on himself concerns me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I recall him causing others to react with exasperation,” stated an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘did not plan to retire, really’
There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, three years after the movie’s release. All of this, to some extent, is meant to invoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
An Admirable Yet Challenging Battle
And, while his fightback against method detractors could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Maybe if he wants to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to show them what it can achieve, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to simply start making more films. Certainly everyone would support that idea.
