It has been a long while since the public saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 that he would no longer work as an actor, just before the debut of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. Yet, during his hiatus, his legend expanded further.
The Mythos of His Method
Largely, this legend revolves around his favored approach to roles. Being an actor known for immerses himself in his characters – for example, during Lincoln, he had the director address him as “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – audiences has grown more fascinated with how he works. Did he actually sent messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he consumed solely animals he’d killed during Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: has the public lost interest 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 express his frustration regarding how the Method technique is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed these days when I hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which I think suggests that someone is behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he told the New York Times. “People tends to focus on superficial details of the work, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-punishment or a situation 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 internal work.”
A World of Imitators
Frankly, it appears as if Day-Lewis has come out from his retreat and found himself shocked by the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. When you are widely considered one of the greatest performers to ever work, and your process involves striking a prop until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or spending two days in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that fellow performers will want to emulate that example by imitating your hero.
Essentially, we exist in a landscape full of half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to show the world the sheer amount of dedication they put into their roles. On the milder side of this trend we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award with House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she transformed into an Italian native over 18 months in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to deeply embed himself in the character as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” 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. Then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that they succeeded in creating a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The main 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 became the basis of a derisive New Yorker profile, full of quotes from people who were worried about his conduct (“It’s the cost to himself that worries me,” remarked Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall [him] making others roll their eyes,” said an anonymous cast member).
The actor says he ‘never intended to retire, really’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex 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, years following that film came out. Each of these instances, to some extent, aims to evoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis approaches his work.
A Noble But Uphill Fight
And, while his fightback to critics of the Method might be noble, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to alter perceptions, not to mention their behaviour. Perhaps if he wants 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 begin producing additional movies. Surely everyone would support that idea.
