It has been quite some time since the public caught a glimpse of 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 The Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, in his absence, his legend has only grown.
The Mythos of His Acting Method
Primarily, this legend centers on his favored approach to roles. As someone who famously disappears into the roles he plays – for example, while filming the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked the director call him “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – the world has become more fascinated with how he works. Did he actually sent texts to Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely game he hunted during The Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Currently, Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. And he is taking this chance to vocalise his anger at how method acting is perceived. “I’m a little cross nowadays to hear various individuals talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems suggests that someone is behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he stated to the New York Times. “People tends to focus on the less important aspects of acting, and these elements always seem to involve some form of self-flagellation or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or psychological strain. However, in the life for a performer, it has to mainly focus on the internal work.”
A World of Imitators
To be honest, this sounds as if Day-Lewis has come out from seclusion only to discover aghast at the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. When you are regarded as among the best performers in history, and your approach includes headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in solitary confinement without food or water (during In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that fellow performers will want to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic their idol.
In other words, we now live in an environment full of half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to show the world the extensive degree of effort they put into their roles. On the milder side of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she transformed into functionally Italian for a year and a half in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself in the character as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” gifts to fellow cast members. These, depending on who you ask, range from dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and used condoms, although the actor refuted the most extreme claims. Then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they literally managed to get a feature-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 practitioner of the Method currently seems to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the basis of a derisive magazine feature, including statements from people who were worried about his conduct (“The toll on himself that worries me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall [him] making everyone else to react with exasperation,” said an anonymous cast member).
The actor says he ‘never intended to retire, truly’
There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass 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, to some extent, is meant to invoke the dedication with which Day-Lewis takes his work.
A Noble But Uphill Battle
And, while his fightback to critics of the Method might be noble, a short publicity tour might not be enough to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their behaviour. Maybe if he wishes to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just begin producing additional movies. Certainly everyone would get behind that.
