It’s been a long while since anyone caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 that he would cease to pursue acting, prior to the debut of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. Yet, in his absence, his legend expanded further.
The Mythos of His Method
Primarily, this reputation revolves around his favored approach to roles. Being an actor who famously immerses himself in his characters – for instance, while filming the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked the director call him “Mr. President” for the entire production – the world has grown more fascinated with his process. Is it true he actually sent messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he only eat animals he’d killed for The Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: have we fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, with some hesitation, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is using this to express his frustration regarding how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross these days to hear all kinds of people gobbling off and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which I think is meant to imply that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he stated to a major publication. “People often concentrate on the less important aspects of acting, and those details always seem to involve some sort of self-flagellation or an experience that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or mental instability. However, in the life of an actor, it has to mainly focus on the internal work.”
A World of Imitators
Frankly, it appears like Day-Lewis has emerged from his retreat only to discover aghast at the world that has developed in his image. If you’re regarded as among the best performers in history, and your process includes headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (for Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in isolation without food or water (during In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will want to emulate that example by trying to mimic their idol.
Essentially, we exist in a landscape populated by half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to demonstrate the extensive degree of dedication they invest in their roles. At the shallow end of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she became functionally Italian for a year and a half in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself into the role of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” presents to his castmates. These, according to various accounts, included deceased animals to anal beads and used condoms, although Leto denied those worst excesses. And then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep into 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 everyone around him.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
The foremost Method Guy at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose process during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the subject of a derisive New Yorker profile, including statements from individuals who were worried for his behaviour (“The toll to himself that worries me,” remarked Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember [him] making everyone else roll their eyes,” stated an anonymous cast member).
The actor says he ‘did not plan to retire, really’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal for 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, in part, is meant to invoke the dedication with which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.
An Admirable Yet Challenging Battle
Moreover, while his fightback against method detractors might be noble, a short publicity tour might not be enough to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their behaviour. Perhaps if he wants to remind people what method acting is, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply begin producing more films. Certainly everyone would get behind that.
