It has been a long while since the public caught a glimpse of the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 declaring he would cease to pursue acting, prior to the release of The Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. However, in his absence, his reputation expanded further.
The Legend Surrounding His Acting Method
Largely, this reputation revolves around his favored approach to roles. As someone known for disappears into the roles he plays – for instance, during the Lincoln biopic, he had Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr President” throughout the shoot – the world has become more fascinated with how he works. Did he actually sent messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat game he hunted during Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: has the public fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis is back to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. And he is using this to express his anger at how method acting is perceived. “I’m a little cross these days when I hear various individuals talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which seems suggests that a person’s acting insane in a drastic way,” he told the New York Times. “People tends to focus on the less important aspects of acting, and these elements always seem to involve some sort of self-punishment or a situation that causes a severe discomfort or mental instability. However, in the career of an actor, it has to mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
A World of Imitators
Frankly, this sounds as if the actor has emerged from his retreat only to discover aghast at the acting community that has been created in his image. When you are widely considered among the best actors in history, and your process involves striking a prop to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or enduring 48 hours in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will attempt to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.
In other words, we exist in a landscape full of half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who want nothing more than to demonstrate the extensive degree of effort they put into their roles. At the shallow end 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 dedicated the whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she transformed into an Italian native over 18 months in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself into the role as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” presents to fellow cast members. These items, depending on who you ask, range from deceased animals to anal beads and used condoms, though Leto denied those worst excesses. And then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed to get a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
The foremost Method Guy at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the basis of a critical magazine feature, including statements from people who were either concerned about his conduct (“It’s the cost to himself concerns me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by it (“I recall him causing others to react with exasperation,” stated an anonymous cast member).
Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘never intended to retire, really’
There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler continues to talk in the style of Elvis, years following the movie’s release. Each of these instances, in part, is meant to invoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis takes his work.
An Admirable But Uphill Fight
And, while his fightback against method detractors might be noble, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Perhaps if he wishes to remind people what method acting is, or to show them its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply start making additional movies. Surely we could all support that idea.
