It’s been a long while since the public saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to work as an actor, just before the release of The Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. However, in his absence, his legend has only grown.
The Legend Surrounding His Acting Method
Largely, this reputation revolves around his favored approach to roles. Being an actor who famously immerses himself in his characters – for instance, during Lincoln, he had the director address him as “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – the world has become increasingly obsessed with how he works. Did he actually sent texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he only eat animals he’d killed during The Last of the Mohicans? And did he demand being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: have we fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?
Now, Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. He is taking this chance to vocalise his frustration regarding how method acting is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed these days when I hear various individuals talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which seems 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 superficial aspects of acting, and these elements typically include some form of self-punishment or an experience that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or psychological strain. However, in the career for a performer, it has to principally be about the internal work.”
An Industry Full of Followers
To be honest, this sounds as if the actor has come out from seclusion and found himself aghast at the acting community that has developed in his image. If you’re regarded as one of the greatest actors to ever work, and your process involves striking a prop until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in isolation deprived of sustenance (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will want to emulate that example by imitating your hero.
Essentially, we now live in a landscape full of half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators 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 win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she spent the entire promotion trying to convince everyone that she became functionally Italian over 18 months as preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself in the character of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” presents to his castmates. These items, according to various accounts, included dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and used condoms, though Leto denied those worst excesses. And then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they succeeded to get a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties to the utmost for his colleagues.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The foremost Method Guy at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose process during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the basis of a critical New Yorker profile, including statements from people who were either concerned about his conduct (“The toll on himself that worries me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember [him] making others to react with exasperation,” stated an anonymous cast member).
Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘never intended to stop acting, really’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, years following that film came out. Each of these instances, to some extent, aims to evoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis takes his work.
An Admirable Yet Challenging Battle
Moreover, although his rebuttal against method detractors might be noble, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to alter perceptions, not to mention their behaviour. Maybe if he wants to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to demonstrate its potential results, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to just start making more films. Surely everyone would get behind that.
