It has been quite some time since anyone saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 declaring he would no longer pursue acting, prior to the release of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. However, in his absence, his reputation has only grown.
The Legend Surrounding His Method
Primarily, this reputation revolves around his favored style of working. As someone who famously immerses himself in his characters – for instance, during the Lincoln biopic, he had the director call him “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – audiences has become more fascinated with how he works. Is it true he actually sent texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he consumed solely animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we lost interest with actorly excess?
Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. He is using this to vocalise his anger at how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays when I hear various individuals talking carelessly and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which seems is meant to imply that someone is acting insane in a drastic way,” 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-punishment or an experience that causes a severe discomfort or mental instability. However, in the career for a performer, it has to principally be about the internal work.”
A World Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds as if Day-Lewis has emerged from seclusion and found himself shocked by the world that has been created in his image. When you are regarded as one of the greatest actors to ever work, and your approach includes headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in solitary confinement 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 their idol.
Essentially, we now live in an environment full of half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who want nothing more than to demonstrate the sheer amount of dedication they invest in a character. On the milder side of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar for 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.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself in the character as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” presents to his castmates. These, depending on who you ask, included dead pigs and rats to anal beads and personal hygiene products, although Leto denied the most extreme claims. And then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they literally managed in creating a full-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties to the utmost for everyone around him.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The main practitioner of the Method currently seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the subject of a derisive magazine feature, including statements from individuals who were either concerned about his conduct (“It’s the cost on himself concerns me,” remarked Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall [him] making others to react with exasperation,” stated an unnamed co-star).
The actor says he ‘never intended to retire, really’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass during The Revenant. It’s quite possible that actor Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, three years after that film came out. Each of these instances, in part, aims to evoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis takes his work.
An Admirable But Uphill Battle
And, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method could be commendable, 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 its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply start making more films. Certainly we could all support that idea.
