It has been quite some time since anyone caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 that he would no longer work as an actor, just before the debut of The Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. However, in his absence, his legend has only grown.
The Legend of His Acting Method
Largely, this reputation centers on his preferred approach to roles. Being an actor known for immerses himself in the roles he plays – for instance, 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. Did he really send 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?
Extreme acting methods: 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 express his frustration at how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross these days when I hear all kinds of people gobbling off and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that a person’s acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he stated to a major publication. “Everyone often concentrate on superficial aspects of acting, and those details typically include some form of self-flagellation or a situation that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or mental instability. But of course, in the career of an actor, it has to principally be about the internal work.”
An Industry of Imitators
Frankly, this sounds as if the actor has come out from his retreat only to discover shocked by the world that has been created in his image. When you are regarded as among the best performers to ever work, and your process includes headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (for 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 attempt to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic their idol.
Essentially, we now live in a landscape populated by half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who want nothing more than to demonstrate the sheer amount of effort they invest in a character. On the milder side of this trend we have people like Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to earn an Academy Award with House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she transformed into an Italian native for a year and a half as preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who chose to deeply embed himself in the character of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” gifts to his castmates. These, according to various accounts, included deceased animals to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, although the actor refuted the most extreme claims. Then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that they succeeded in creating a full-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life as impossible as he could for his colleagues.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The main Method Guy at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it formed the basis of a critical magazine feature, full of quotes from people who were worried for his behaviour (“The toll to himself that worries me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall [him] making others to react with exasperation,” stated an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘never intended to stop acting, truly’
There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, years following the movie’s release. Each of these instances, to some extent, is meant to invoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
An Admirable But Uphill Fight
And, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method might be noble, a short publicity tour might not be enough to change anyone’s mind, let alone their behaviour. Perhaps if he wants to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to show them its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just start making more films. Surely everyone would get behind that.
