It’s been a long while since anyone saw or heard from 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. Yet, during his hiatus, his reputation has only grown.
The Mythos of His Method
Largely, this legend centers on his favored style of working. Being an actor known for immerses himself in his characters – for instance, while filming the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked Steven Spielberg call him “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – the world has grown more fascinated with how he works. Did he actually sent messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he only eat animals he’d killed during Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?
Now, Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. He is using this to express his anger regarding how the Method technique is perceived. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays to hear all kinds of people gobbling off and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that someone is acting insane in a drastic way,” he told the New York Times. “People often concentrate on the less important aspects of acting, and these elements typically include some form of self-flagellation or a situation that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or mental instability. However, in the life of an actor, it has to mainly focus on the internal work.”
A World Full of Followers
Frankly, it appears like Day-Lewis has come out from seclusion and found himself aghast at the world that has been created in his image. If you’re regarded as one of the greatest actors to ever work, and your approach involves headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that fellow performers will attempt to emulate that example by imitating your hero.
In other words, we now live in a landscape populated by half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to demonstrate the sheer amount of effort they put into a character. On the milder side of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign 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 in the character of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” gifts to fellow cast members. These, depending on who you ask, included dead pigs and rats to anal beads and personal hygiene products, though Leto denied those worst excesses. And then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that they succeeded to get a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties to the utmost for everyone around him.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
The foremost practitioner of the Method currently would appear to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach during Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the basis of a critical magazine feature, full of quotes from people who were worried about his conduct (“The toll on himself that worries me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by it (“I recall [him] making others to react with exasperation,” said an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘never intended to stop acting, truly’
There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, years following the movie’s release. Each of these instances, in part, aims to evoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.
A Noble Yet Challenging Fight
And, although his rebuttal against method detractors could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to alter perceptions, 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.
