It has been a long while since the public saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 that he would no longer work as an actor, prior to the release of Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. However, during his hiatus, his reputation has only grown.
The Legend of His Acting Method
Largely, this legend revolves around his preferred approach to roles. Being an actor known for disappears into his characters – for example, during the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked Steven Spielberg call him “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – audiences 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 for Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?
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Currently, Day-Lewis is back to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. And he is using this to vocalise his anger at how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays when I hear all kinds of people gobbling off and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems suggests 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 always seem to involve some sort of self-punishment or an experience that causes extreme unease or mental instability. But of course, in the life of an actor, it must mainly focus on the internal work.”
An Industry of Imitators
To be honest, this sounds like Day-Lewis has emerged from seclusion only to discover shocked by the acting community that has been created mirroring his methods. When you are regarded as among the best performers in history, and your approach includes striking a prop to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in isolation without food or water (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will want to fill that vacuum by imitating your hero.
In other words, we exist in a landscape full of half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to show the world the sheer amount of effort they put into their roles. At the shallow end of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion trying to convince everyone 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 into the role of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” presents to his castmates. These items, depending on who you ask, included dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and used condoms, although the actor refuted those worst excesses. And then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed to get 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 main practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process during Succession was so rigorously detailed that it formed the basis of a derisive magazine feature, including statements from individuals who were worried about his conduct (“The toll to himself that worries me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by his actions (“I recall him causing everyone else roll their eyes,” said an unnamed co-star).
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There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, years following that film came out. All of this, in part, is meant to invoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis approaches his work.
A Noble But Uphill Fight
Moreover, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their practices. Perhaps if he wishes to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to show them its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply start making more films. Certainly everyone would get behind that.
