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 cease to work as an actor, just before the debut of The Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. However, in his absence, his legend expanded further.
The Mythos Surrounding His Method
Primarily, this reputation revolves around his preferred approach to roles. Being an actor known for disappears into his characters – for instance, during Lincoln, he had Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – audiences has become more fascinated with how he works. Is it true he actually sent messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Did he only eat animals he’d killed during Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public fallen out of love with actorly excess?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. And he is taking this chance to express his anger regarding how the Method technique is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed these days when I hear various individuals gobbling off and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which I think suggests that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he told the New York Times. “Everyone often concentrate on superficial details of the work, and these elements always seem to involve some sort of self-punishment or an experience that causes a severe discomfort or mental instability. However, in the career for a performer, it must mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
An Industry Full of Followers
To be honest, this sounds like Day-Lewis has come out from his retreat only to discover shocked by the world that has developed in his image. When you are widely considered one of the greatest performers to ever work, and your approach includes headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or spending two days in solitary confinement without food or water (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that fellow performers will attempt to fill that vacuum by imitating your hero.
In other words, we exist in an environment populated by half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to demonstrate the sheer amount of effort they put into a character. At the shallow end of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she became an Italian native for a year and a half in preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself in the character as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” gifts to his castmates. These items, depending on who you ask, included deceased animals to intimate objects and used condoms, although Leto denied those worst excesses. And then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed in creating a full-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for his colleagues.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The main practitioner of the Method at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the subject of a critical magazine feature, full of quotes from individuals who were worried about his conduct (“It’s the cost on himself that worries me,” remarked Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall him causing others roll their eyes,” said an anonymous cast member).
The actor says he ‘never intended to retire, really’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler continues to talk in the style of Elvis, years following that film came out. All of this, to some extent, aims to evoke the dedication with which Day-Lewis takes his work.
A Noble But Uphill Battle
Moreover, although his rebuttal against method detractors might be noble, a short publicity tour might not be enough to alter perceptions, let alone their behaviour. 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 just begin producing more films. Certainly everyone would get behind that.
