It has been quite some time since anyone caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 that he would cease to work as an actor, just before the release of The Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, during his hiatus, his legend has only grown.
The Legend Surrounding His Acting Method
Largely, this reputation revolves around his preferred style of working. As someone who famously disappears into his characters – for example, while filming the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr. President” for the entire production – audiences has grown increasingly obsessed with how he works. Did he really send messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he consumed solely animals he’d killed for The Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand receiving food via spoon 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. He is taking this chance to express his anger at how method acting is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays when I hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which seems suggests that someone is behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he told the New York Times. “People often concentrate on the less important details of the work, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-punishment or an experience that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or mental instability. But of course, in the career for a performer, it must principally be about the inner transformation.”
An Industry Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds like the actor has emerged from his retreat and found himself aghast at the acting community that has been created in his image. When you are regarded as among the best performers in history, and your process includes headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will want to fill that vacuum by imitating your hero.
Essentially, we exist in an environment full of half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the sheer amount of effort they put into a character. On the milder side of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she spent the entire promotion trying to convince everyone that she became an Italian native for a year and a half as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself into the role as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” gifts to his castmates. These items, according to various accounts, range from dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and used condoms, though the actor refuted those worst excesses. Then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed to get a full-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him making life as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The main Method Guy at the moment seems 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 magazine feature, full of quotes from people who were either concerned for his behaviour (“The toll to himself concerns me,” said Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I remember [him] making everyone else roll their eyes,” stated an anonymous cast member).
The actor says he ‘did not plan to stop acting, really’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass for The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, years following the movie’s release. All of this, to some extent, is meant to invoke the dedication with which Day-Lewis approaches his work.
An Admirable But Uphill Battle
Moreover, while his fightback against method detractors might be noble, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to alter perceptions, not to mention their behaviour. Perhaps if he wants to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just start making more films. Surely everyone would get behind that.
