It has been quite some time since the public caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 declaring he would no longer pursue acting, prior to the release of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. Yet, during his hiatus, his legend has only grown.
The Legend of His Acting Method
Largely, 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, reportedly asked Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr. President” for the entire production – audiences has become increasingly obsessed with how he works. Is it true he really send messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Did he consumed solely animals he’d killed for The Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: has the public fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Currently, Day-Lewis is back to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. And he is using this to vocalise his frustration regarding how the Method technique is viewed. “I’m a little cross these days when I hear various individuals talking carelessly and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think is meant to imply that someone is acting insane in a drastic way,” he told a major publication. “Everyone 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 causes extreme unease or psychological strain. However, in the life of an actor, it must mainly focus on the internal work.”
A World of Imitators
Frankly, it appears as if Day-Lewis has emerged from his retreat and found himself shocked by the world that has developed in his image. When you are widely considered one of the greatest actors in history, and your process includes headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (for Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in solitary confinement without food or water (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will attempt to emulate that example by imitating your hero.
Essentially, we exist in an environment populated by 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 we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she spent the entire promotion trying to convince everyone that she transformed into an Italian native for a year and a half as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself into the role as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” presents to his castmates. These, according to various accounts, included dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and used condoms, though Leto denied the most extreme claims. And then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that they literally managed to get a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for his colleagues.
The Modern Method Practitioners
The foremost Method Guy at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose process while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the subject of a critical magazine feature, including statements from individuals who were either concerned about his conduct (“The toll on himself concerns me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by it (“I recall [him] making everyone else to react with exasperation,” said an anonymous cast member).
Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘never intended to stop acting, truly’
There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler continues to talk in the style of Elvis, three years after that film came out. Each of these instances, in part, aims to evoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis approaches his work.
An Admirable But Uphill Fight
Moreover, although his rebuttal against method detractors could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Perhaps if he wants to remind people what method acting is, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to simply begin producing more films. Surely we could all support that idea.
