It has been a long while since the public saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 declaring he would cease to work as an actor, just before the debut of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. Yet, in his absence, his reputation expanded further.
The Legend Surrounding His Acting Method
Primarily, this legend revolves around his favored style of working. Being an actor who famously immerses himself in the roles he plays – for instance, while filming the Lincoln biopic, he had the director address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has become increasingly obsessed with his process. Did he really send messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely game he hunted during Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: have we lost interest with actorly excess?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is using this to vocalise his anger at how method acting is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed these days when I hear all kinds of people gobbling off and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which seems is meant to imply that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he stated to the New York Times. “Everyone tends to focus on the less important aspects of acting, and those details typically include some sort of self-flagellation or a situation that causes extreme unease or psychological strain. However, in the career of an actor, it has to principally be about the internal work.”
An Industry Full of Followers
To be honest, this sounds like the actor has emerged from seclusion only to discover shocked by the acting community that has been created in his image. When you are widely considered one of the greatest performers in history, and your process involves striking a prop to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in solitary confinement without food or water (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will attempt to emulate that example by imitating your hero.
Essentially, we exist in a landscape full of imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to demonstrate the extensive degree of effort they invest in a character. On the milder side of this trend there are performers such as 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 for a year and a half as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself into the role as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” presents to fellow cast members. These items, 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, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that they literally managed in creating a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties to the utmost for his colleagues.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The foremost Method Guy at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose process during Succession was so rigorously detailed that it formed the basis of a derisive New Yorker profile, full of quotes from people who were either concerned about his conduct (“It’s the cost to himself concerns me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall [him] making everyone else to react with exasperation,” stated an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘never intended to retire, truly’
There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal for The Revenant. It’s quite possible that actor Austin Butler continues to talk in the style of Elvis, years following that film came out. Each of these instances, to some extent, is meant to invoke the dedication with which Day-Lewis approaches his work.
A Noble Yet Challenging Fight
Moreover, although his rebuttal against method detractors could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Maybe if he wants to remind people what method acting is, or to demonstrate its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just start making more films. Surely we could all get behind that.
