It has been a long while since the public caught a glimpse of the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 that he would no longer pursue acting, prior to the release of Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, in his absence, his reputation has only grown.
The Legend Surrounding His Method
Primarily, this legend revolves around his favored style of working. Being an actor who famously immerses himself in the roles he plays – for instance, while filming the Lincoln biopic, he had the director address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has become more fascinated with his process. Is it true he really send texts to 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?
Madness in their method: have we lost interest with actorly excess?
Now, Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. And he is taking this chance to express his frustration at how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays when I hear various individuals gobbling off and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think suggests that someone is behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he stated to the New York Times. “People often concentrate on superficial details of the work, and those details typically include some sort of self-punishment or an experience that causes a severe discomfort or psychological strain. But of course, in the career of an actor, it must principally be about the inner transformation.”
An Industry Full of Followers
Frankly, this sounds as if the actor has emerged from seclusion only to discover aghast at the acting community that has developed in his image. If you’re regarded as among the best actors to ever work, and your process involves striking a prop until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in isolation deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will want to fill that vacuum by imitating their idol.
Essentially, we now live in a landscape full of imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who want nothing more than to demonstrate the extensive degree of dedication they put into a character. At the shallow end 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 entire promotion trying to convince everyone that she became functionally Italian for a year and a half as preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself into the role of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” gifts to his castmates. These items, depending on who you ask, range from dead pigs and rats to anal beads and used condoms, though the actor refuted the most extreme claims. Then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman for 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 his colleagues.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The foremost practitioner of the Method 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 formed the basis of a critical New Yorker profile, full of quotes from people who were worried about his conduct (“It’s the cost on himself concerns me,” said Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by his actions (“I recall him causing others to react with exasperation,” stated an anonymous cast member).
The actor claims he ‘never intended to stop acting, really’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass during The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, three years after that film came out. Each of these instances, in part, is meant to invoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
An Admirable Yet Challenging Battle
Moreover, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method might be noble, a short publicity tour might not be enough to alter perceptions, let alone their behaviour. Maybe if he wants to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to simply start making additional movies. Surely everyone would support that idea.
