It has been a long while since anyone caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 that he would no longer work as an actor, just before the debut of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. However, during his hiatus, his reputation has only grown.
The Mythos of His Method
Largely, this reputation revolves around his preferred approach to roles. As someone known for disappears into the roles he plays – for example, while filming Lincoln, he had Steven Spielberg call him “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has become more fascinated with his process. Is it true he actually sent texts to Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat animals he’d killed for The Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Now, Day-Lewis is back to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. He is using this to vocalise his anger regarding how the Method technique is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays to hear all kinds of people gobbling off and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which seems suggests that a person’s acting insane in a drastic way,” he told a major publication. “People often concentrate on the less important details of the work, and those details always seem to involve some sort of self-punishment or a situation that causes a severe discomfort or mental instability. However, in the life for a performer, it has to principally be about the inner transformation.”
An Industry Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds like Day-Lewis has come out from seclusion and found himself aghast at the world that has been created mirroring his methods. When you are widely considered among the best performers in history, and your approach includes headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or spending two days in solitary confinement without food or water (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will want to fill that vacuum by imitating your hero.
Essentially, we exist in a landscape populated by imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to show the world the extensive degree of effort they put into a character. On the milder side of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she spent the entire promotion trying to convince everyone that she became an Italian native for a year and a half as 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 fellow cast members. These items, depending on who you ask, range from dead pigs and rats to anal beads and used condoms, though the actor refuted those worst excesses. Then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they succeeded in creating a feature-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the subject of a derisive New Yorker profile, including statements from people who were worried about his conduct (“It’s the cost to himself concerns me,” said Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I remember [him] making others roll their eyes,” said an anonymous cast member).
The actor claims he ‘never intended to stop acting, truly’
There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass for The Revenant. It’s quite possible that actor Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, years following that film came out. All of this, in part, aims to evoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis takes his work.
An Admirable But Uphill Fight
Moreover, while his fightback 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 wishes to make audiences recall the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate its potential results, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to just begin producing more films. Certainly everyone would support that idea.
