It’s been a long while since the public saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 that he would cease to pursue acting, just before the release of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. Yet, in his absence, his legend has only grown.
The Legend Surrounding His Acting Method
Primarily, 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 the director call him “Mr President” for the entire production – audiences has grown more fascinated with his process. Is it true he really send texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he consumed solely game he hunted during Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: has the public lost interest with over-the-top performances?
Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, with some hesitation, promoting his latest movie Anemone. And he is using this to vocalise his frustration 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 seems suggests that someone is behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he stated to a major publication. “People tends to focus on the less important details of the work, and these elements always seem to involve some form of self-punishment or an experience that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or psychological strain. But of course, in the career for a performer, it has to principally be about the internal work.”
A World Full of Followers
To be honest, it appears as if the actor has come out from his retreat and found himself aghast at the acting community that has been created mirroring his methods. When you are widely considered among the best performers to ever work, and your process involves headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in isolation 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 trying to mimic their idol.
In other words, we now live in a landscape full of imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to demonstrate the sheer amount of effort they invest in a character. On the milder side of this trend we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she spent the entire promotion attempting to persuade people 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 as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” gifts to fellow cast members. These items, depending on who you ask, included dead pigs and rats to anal beads and used condoms, although Leto denied those worst excesses. Then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed in creating a full-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him making life to the utmost for his colleagues.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the basis of a critical New Yorker profile, including statements from individuals who were worried about his conduct (“The toll to himself that worries me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by it (“I remember [him] making others to react with exasperation,” stated an anonymous cast member).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘did not plan to stop acting, truly’
There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal 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, aims to evoke the dedication with which Day-Lewis approaches his work.
A Noble But Uphill Fight
Moreover, while his fightback to critics of the Method might be noble, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their behaviour. Maybe if he wishes to remind people what method acting is, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just start making additional movies. Certainly everyone would support that idea.
