It has been a long while since anyone caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 that he would no longer work as an actor, just before the release of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. However, during his hiatus, his reputation has only grown.
The Mythos of His Method
Largely, this reputation revolves around his favored approach to roles. As someone who famously disappears into his characters – for example, during Lincoln, reportedly asked Steven Spielberg call him “Mr President” for the entire production – audiences has grown more fascinated with his process. Did he really send messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: have we fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?
Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. And he is using this to vocalise his anger at how the Method technique is perceived. “I’m a little cross these days to hear all kinds of people gobbling off and using phrases 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. “Everyone tends to focus on superficial details of the work, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-flagellation or an experience that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or psychological strain. But of course, in the career for a performer, it must principally be about the inner transformation.”
An Industry Full of Followers
To be honest, it appears like Day-Lewis has come out from his retreat and found himself shocked by the acting community that has been created mirroring his methods. If you’re regarded as among the best actors in history, and your process involves headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in isolation deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that fellow performers will attempt to emulate that example by trying to mimic their idol.
In other words, we now live in a landscape populated by half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to demonstrate the extensive degree of dedication they put into a character. On the milder side of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she became functionally Italian for a year and a half as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself into the role of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” presents to fellow cast members. These items, according to various accounts, range from dead pigs and rats to anal beads and used condoms, though Leto denied those worst excesses. And then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed in creating a full-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties to the utmost for everyone around him.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The main Method Guy currently seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the subject of a critical New Yorker profile, full of quotes from individuals who were either concerned for his behaviour (“The toll on himself that worries me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by his actions (“I recall [him] making everyone else to react with exasperation,” stated an unnamed co-star).
The actor says he ‘never intended to retire, really’
There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, three years after the movie’s release. Each of these instances, in part, is meant to invoke the dedication with which Day-Lewis approaches his work.
A Noble But Uphill Battle
And, although his rebuttal against method detractors might be noble, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Maybe if he wants to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to show them its potential results, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to simply begin producing more films. Surely we could all get behind that.
