It has been quite some time since the public saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 that 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 Legend of His Method
Primarily, this legend revolves around his favored approach to roles. As someone who famously immerses himself in his characters – for example, while filming the Lincoln biopic, he had the director call him “Mr President” throughout the shoot – audiences has become more fascinated with how he works. Is it true he actually sent messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?
Now, Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, with some hesitation, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is using this to express his frustration at how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays when I hear various individuals gobbling off and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think is meant to imply that a person’s acting insane in a drastic way,” he stated to a major publication. “People often concentrate on superficial details of the work, and those details always seem to involve some sort of self-flagellation or an experience that causes a severe discomfort or psychological strain. But of course, in the career of an actor, it must mainly focus on the internal work.”
A World Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds like Day-Lewis has emerged from his retreat and found himself shocked by the acting community that has been created mirroring his methods. When you are regarded as one of the greatest actors in history, and your process involves headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or spending two days in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will want to fill that vacuum by imitating your hero.
Essentially, we exist in an environment populated by half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who want nothing more than to demonstrate the extensive degree of dedication they invest in a character. At the shallow end of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to earn an Academy Award with House of Gucci that she spent the entire promotion trying to convince everyone that she became an Italian native over 18 months as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself into the role of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” gifts to his castmates. These items, depending on who you ask, included deceased animals to anal beads and used condoms, though 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 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 Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the subject of a derisive magazine feature, including statements from people who were worried for his behaviour (“It’s the cost on himself concerns me,” said Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by his actions (“I recall [him] making others roll their eyes,” said an anonymous cast member).
The actor claims he ‘never intended to retire, truly’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, three years after the movie’s release. Each of these instances, in part, is meant to invoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.
A Noble But Uphill Battle
And, while his fightback to critics of the Method might be noble, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to alter perceptions, let alone their behaviour. Maybe if he wants to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to show them what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just start making more films. Certainly we could all support that idea.
