It has been quite some time since anyone caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 that he would no longer pursue acting, just before the release of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. Yet, in his absence, his legend has only grown.
The Mythos Surrounding His Acting Method
Primarily, this reputation centers on his preferred style of working. Being an actor who famously immerses himself in the roles he plays – for example, while filming Lincoln, he had Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – audiences has grown more fascinated with his process. Did 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 demand receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: has the public lost interest with actorly excess?
Now, Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is taking this chance to express his anger regarding how the Method technique is perceived. “I’m a little cross these days when I hear various individuals talking carelessly and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that someone is acting insane in a drastic way,” he stated to a major publication. “Everyone tends to focus on the less important details of the work, and those details typically include some form of self-punishment or a situation that causes a severe discomfort or mental instability. However, in the life of an actor, it has to mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
A World Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds as if the actor has come out from seclusion only to discover aghast at the world that has developed in his image. If you’re widely considered among the best actors in history, and your approach involves striking a prop until you break your nose (for Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in solitary confinement without food or water (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that fellow performers will want to emulate that example by trying to mimic their idol.
In other words, we now live in an environment full of imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to demonstrate the sheer amount of dedication they put into a character. At the shallow end of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she became an Italian native for a year and a half in preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself into the role as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by 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 the most extreme claims. And then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded 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 Method Guy currently would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose process during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the subject of a derisive New Yorker profile, including statements from people who were either concerned about his conduct (“The toll to himself that worries me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I recall [him] making everyone else to react with exasperation,” said an anonymous cast member).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘did not plan to stop acting, really’
We have so many other examples. 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 continues to talk like Elvis Presley, years following the movie’s release. All of this, in part, is meant to invoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis takes his work.
A Noble But Uphill Fight
Moreover, although his rebuttal against method detractors might be noble, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Maybe if he wishes to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just start making more films. Surely everyone would get behind that.
