It’s been quite some time since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 declaring he would cease to work as an actor, prior to the release of Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. Yet, in his absence, his reputation expanded further.
The Legend of His Method
Primarily, this legend centers on his preferred approach to roles. Being an actor known for disappears into the roles he plays – for example, while filming the Lincoln biopic, he had the director call him “Mr. President” for the entire production – audiences has grown more fascinated with how he works. Did he really send texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely animals he’d killed for The Last of the Mohicans? And did he demand receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: has the public lost interest 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 am somewhat annoyed nowadays when I hear various individuals gobbling off and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which seems is meant to imply that someone is behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he stated to a major publication. “People tends to focus on superficial aspects of acting, and these elements always seem to involve some sort of self-flagellation or a situation that causes extreme unease or mental instability. But of course, in the life of an actor, it has to mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
A World of Imitators
Frankly, it appears like Day-Lewis has emerged from seclusion and found himself shocked by the world that has been created mirroring his methods. When you are regarded as one of the greatest performers in history, and your approach involves striking a prop to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will attempt to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.
In other words, we now live in an environment full of imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to demonstrate the extensive degree of dedication they put into a character. At the shallow end 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 whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she became an Italian native over 18 months as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself into the role as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” gifts to his castmates. These items, according to various accounts, included deceased animals to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, though the actor refuted the most extreme claims. And then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they succeeded to get a full-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
The Modern Method Practitioners
The main practitioner of the Method currently would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the basis of a critical New Yorker profile, full of quotes from people who were worried about his conduct (“It’s the cost on himself that worries me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I remember him causing everyone else roll their eyes,” stated an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘never intended to stop acting, truly’
We have so many other examples. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal for The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler continues to talk in the style of Elvis, years following that film came out. All of this, in part, aims to evoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis takes his work.
A Noble But Uphill Battle
Moreover, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method might be noble, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to alter perceptions, not to mention their behaviour. Maybe if he wishes to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to just start making more films. Surely we could all support that idea.
