It’s been quite some time since the public caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 that he would no longer pursue acting, just before the debut of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. However, in his absence, his legend has only grown.
The Mythos of His Method
Largely, this legend revolves around his favored approach to roles. Being an actor who famously disappears into the roles he plays – for instance, during Lincoln, reportedly asked the director call him “Mr. President” for the entire production – the world has grown more fascinated with how he works. Did he actually sent texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat animals he’d killed for The Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: have we fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Currently, Day-Lewis is back to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is using this to express his frustration regarding how method acting is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays to hear various individuals talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he told a major publication. “People tends to focus on superficial details of the work, and those details always seem to involve some sort of self-flagellation or an experience that causes a severe discomfort or psychological strain. However, in the career for a performer, it has to principally be about the internal work.”
An Industry Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds like Day-Lewis has emerged from seclusion and found himself shocked by the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. If you’re regarded as one of the greatest performers in history, and your process includes headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in isolation without food or water (during In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will attempt to fill that vacuum by imitating their idol.
In other words, we exist in an environment populated by imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to show the world the extensive degree of dedication they put into their roles. On the milder side of this trend there are performers such as 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 an Italian native for a year and a half in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself into the role of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” presents to his castmates. These, depending on who you ask, range from dead pigs and rats to anal beads and used condoms, though Leto denied the most extreme claims. Then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed in creating a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life to the utmost for everyone around him.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The foremost practitioner of the Method currently seems to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the subject of a critical New Yorker profile, including statements from people who were either concerned for his behaviour (“It’s the cost to himself that worries me,” said Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by his actions (“I recall [him] making others to react with exasperation,” stated an anonymous cast member).
The actor says he ‘never intended to retire, truly’
We have so many other examples. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, years following that film came out. Each of these instances, in part, aims to evoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
An Admirable Yet Challenging Fight
Moreover, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to alter perceptions, let alone their behaviour. Maybe if he wishes to remind people what method acting is, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just start making additional movies. Certainly everyone would get behind that.
