It has been quite some time since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to work as an actor, just before the release of Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, in his absence, his legend has only grown.
The Mythos Surrounding His Method
Primarily, this legend revolves around his favored approach to roles. As someone known for immerses himself in the roles he plays – for example, during the Lincoln biopic, he had the director call him “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has become more fascinated with how he works. Is it true he actually sent messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? And did he demand being spoon-fed while filming 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 taking this chance to express his anger regarding how the Method technique is perceived. “I am somewhat annoyed these days when I hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which seems suggests that a person’s acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he told a major publication. “Everyone often concentrate on superficial details of the work, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-punishment or a situation that causes extreme unease or psychological strain. However, in the career for a performer, it must principally be about the inner transformation.”
A World Full of Followers
To be honest, this sounds as if the actor has come out from seclusion only to discover shocked by the world that has been created in his image. If you’re regarded as one of the greatest performers to ever work, and your approach involves striking a prop to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (during 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 now live in an environment populated by half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who want nothing more than to show the world the sheer amount of effort they put into their roles. On the milder side of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to earn an Academy Award for House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she became an Italian native for a year and a half in preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself into the role as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” gifts to his castmates. These, according to various accounts, included deceased animals to anal beads and used condoms, though Leto denied those worst excesses. And then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they succeeded to get a feature-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for his colleagues.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The main practitioner of the Method at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the basis of a derisive magazine feature, full of quotes from individuals who were worried for his behaviour (“The toll to himself that worries me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I remember him causing others to react with exasperation,” said an anonymous cast member).
The actor says he ‘did not plan to stop acting, truly’
There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, years following that film came out. All of this, in part, is meant to invoke the dedication with which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
A Noble Yet Challenging Fight
Moreover, although his rebuttal against method detractors could be commendable, a short publicity tour might not be enough to alter perceptions, not to mention their behaviour. Maybe if he wants to remind people what method acting is, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just begin producing more films. Surely everyone would support that idea.
