It has been quite some time since the public caught a glimpse of the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 that he would no longer pursue acting, prior to the debut of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. Yet, in his absence, his reputation has only grown.
The Mythos of His Method
Primarily, this legend centers on his preferred approach to roles. Being an actor who famously disappears into his characters – for instance, while filming the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked Steven Spielberg call him “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has grown increasingly obsessed with his process. Is it true he really send texts to Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Did he only eat animals he’d killed during The Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on being spoon-fed while filming 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. He is taking this chance to vocalise his anger regarding how method acting is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed these days when I hear all kinds of people gobbling off and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which I think is meant to imply that someone is behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he stated to the New York Times. “People tends to focus on the less important details of the work, and these elements typically include some form of self-punishment or a situation that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or psychological strain. But of course, in the career for a performer, it must mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
An Industry Full of Followers
Frankly, it appears like Day-Lewis has emerged from his retreat and found himself aghast at the acting community that has developed in his image. When you are widely considered among the best performers in history, and your approach includes headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or spending two days in solitary confinement without food or water (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that fellow performers will attempt to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.
In other words, we now live in an environment populated by half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the sheer amount of effort they invest in their roles. On the milder side of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she transformed into functionally Italian for a year and a half as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself into the role of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” gifts to his castmates. These, depending on who you ask, included deceased animals to intimate objects and used condoms, though the actor refuted those worst excesses. Then, of course, we have 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 as impossible as he could for his colleagues.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the basis of a derisive magazine feature, including statements from individuals who were worried for his behaviour (“The toll to himself that worries me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember [him] making everyone else roll their eyes,” stated an unnamed co-star).
The actor claims he ‘did not plan to stop acting, really’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, years following the movie’s release. All of this, to some extent, is meant to invoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis approaches his work.
A Noble But Uphill Fight
Moreover, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method might be noble, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to alter perceptions, not to mention their practices. Perhaps if he wants to make audiences recall the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just begin producing additional movies. Surely we could all support that idea.
