It’s been a long while since the public saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to work as an actor, just before the debut of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. However, during his hiatus, his reputation expanded further.
The Legend Surrounding His Acting Method
Largely, this legend revolves around his preferred approach to roles. As someone who famously immerses himself in the roles he plays – for example, while filming the Lincoln biopic, he had Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – the world has become increasingly obsessed with his process. Is it true he actually sent messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that 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: have we fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?
Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. And he is using this to vocalise his frustration regarding how the Method technique is viewed. “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 an extreme fashion,” he told the New York Times. “People often concentrate on superficial aspects of acting, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-flagellation or a situation that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or psychological strain. But of course, in the career of an actor, it must mainly focus on the internal work.”
An Industry Full of Followers
To be honest, it appears as if Day-Lewis has come out from his retreat and found himself aghast at the acting community that has developed in his image. If you’re widely considered among the best performers in history, and your process includes striking a prop to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or spending two days in solitary confinement without food or water (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that fellow performers will want to emulate that example by trying to mimic their idol.
In other words, we exist in a landscape full of half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to show the world the sheer amount of effort they put into a character. On the milder side of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she became functionally Italian for a year and a half as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself into the role as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” presents to fellow cast members. These, depending on who you ask, range from dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and used condoms, though the actor refuted the most extreme claims. Then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed in creating a full-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The main practitioner of the Method currently would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the basis of a derisive magazine feature, full of quotes from people who were either concerned about his conduct (“The toll to himself concerns me,” remarked Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember him causing everyone else to react with exasperation,” said an unnamed co-star).
The actor says he ‘did not plan to stop acting, truly’
We have so many other examples. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, three years after that film came out. Each of these instances, in part, is meant to invoke the dedication with which Day-Lewis takes his craft.
A Noble But Uphill Battle
And, while his fightback to critics of the Method might be noble, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Perhaps if he wishes to remind people what method acting is, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to simply start making additional movies. Certainly everyone would support that idea.
