It’s been a long while since the public caught a glimpse of the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 declaring he would cease to work as an actor, prior to the release of Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, in his absence, his legend expanded further.
The Mythos Surrounding His Acting Method
Primarily, this reputation revolves around his favored style of working. Being an actor who famously immerses himself in the roles he plays – for instance, during the Lincoln biopic, he had Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr President” throughout the shoot – the world has become increasingly obsessed with how he works. Did he actually sent texts to Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Did he only eat animals he’d killed during The Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we lost interest with over-the-top performances?
Currently, Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. He is using this to express his anger at how method acting is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed these days when I hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think suggests that a person’s acting insane in a drastic way,” he stated to a major publication. “People tends to focus on the less important aspects of acting, and those details always seem to involve some sort of self-punishment or a situation that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or mental instability. However, in the life of an actor, it has to principally be about the inner transformation.”
An Industry of Imitators
Frankly, this sounds as if the actor has emerged from seclusion only to discover shocked by the acting community that has developed in his image. If you’re regarded as among the best performers to ever work, and your process includes striking a prop until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or enduring 48 hours in solitary confinement without food or water (during In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will want to fill that vacuum by imitating your hero.
Essentially, we now live in an environment populated by imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who want nothing more than to show the world the extensive degree of dedication they put into their roles. At the shallow end of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she transformed into functionally Italian for a year and a half as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself in the character of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” presents to his castmates. These items, according to various accounts, range from deceased animals to anal beads and personal hygiene products, though the actor refuted those worst excesses. And then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully as Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded to get a feature-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for his colleagues.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The foremost practitioner of the Method currently would appear to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the subject of a derisive magazine feature, full of quotes from individuals who were either concerned about his conduct (“The toll to himself concerns me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by his actions (“I recall [him] making everyone else to react with exasperation,” said an unnamed co-star).
The actor says he ‘never intended to stop acting, truly’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, three years after that film came out. Each of these instances, to some extent, is meant to invoke the dedication with which Day-Lewis takes his work.
An Admirable Yet Challenging 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, let alone their behaviour. Perhaps if he wants to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to show them what it can achieve, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to just start making additional movies. Certainly we could all get behind that.
