It’s been a long while since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 that he would cease to work as an actor, just before the release of The Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, during his hiatus, his reputation expanded further.
The Mythos Surrounding His Acting Method
Primarily, this reputation revolves around his preferred approach to roles. Being an actor known for disappears into the roles he plays – for example, while filming the Lincoln biopic, he had the director address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has grown more fascinated with how he works. Did he actually sent messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he only eat animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?
Now, Day-Lewis is back to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is taking this chance to express his anger regarding how method acting is perceived. “I’m a little cross nowadays to hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which I think is meant to imply that a person’s acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he stated to the New York Times. “People tends to focus on the less important details of the work, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-flagellation or a situation that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or mental instability. However, in the career for a performer, it must mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
An Industry Full of Followers
Frankly, it appears like the actor has emerged from his retreat and found himself shocked by the world that has been created mirroring his methods. When you are regarded as one of the greatest actors to ever work, and your approach includes striking a prop until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (during In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that fellow performers will attempt to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic their idol.
In other words, we exist in a landscape populated by imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to demonstrate the extensive degree of dedication they put into a character. On the milder side of this trend we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award with House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she transformed into functionally Italian over 18 months in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself in the character of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” gifts to fellow cast members. These, according to various accounts, range from deceased animals to anal beads and used condoms, although Leto denied the most extreme claims. Then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed to get a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
The main Method Guy currently would appear to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the subject of a derisive New Yorker profile, including statements from individuals who were either concerned for his behaviour (“It’s the cost to himself concerns me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by his actions (“I recall him causing everyone else roll their eyes,” stated an anonymous cast member).
The actor says he ‘never intended to retire, truly’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, years following the movie’s release. All of this, to some extent, aims to evoke the dedication with which Day-Lewis takes his work.
An Admirable But Uphill Battle
Moreover, while his fightback to critics of the Method might be noble, a short publicity tour might not be enough to alter perceptions, not to mention their practices. Perhaps if he wants to make audiences recall the true essence of the Method, or to show them what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply begin producing additional movies. Surely everyone would support that idea.
