It’s been a long while since the public caught a glimpse of the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 that he would no longer pursue acting, just before the release of The Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, in his absence, his legend has only grown.
The Legend of His Method
Primarily, this reputation revolves around his favored approach to roles. Being an actor known for disappears into the roles he plays – for instance, during the Lincoln biopic, he had Steven Spielberg call him “Mr. President” for the entire production – the world has grown increasingly obsessed with his process. Did he really send messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he only eat game he hunted during Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: have we lost interest with over-the-top performances?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis is back to public attention, with some hesitation, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is taking this chance to vocalise his frustration regarding how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross these days when I hear various individuals gobbling off and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he stated to the New York Times. “People tends to focus on the less important details of the work, and those details typically include some sort of self-flagellation or a situation that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or psychological strain. But of course, in the life of an actor, it has to principally be about the inner transformation.”
A World of Imitators
To be honest, it appears as if the actor has come out from his retreat only to discover aghast at the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. When you are regarded as among the best actors in history, and your approach includes striking a prop until you break your nose (for Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in isolation deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will want to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic their idol.
In other words, we now live in an environment populated by half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the sheer amount 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 win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she spent the entire promotion trying to convince everyone that she became functionally Italian over 18 months in preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself in the character as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” gifts to his castmates. These items, depending on who you ask, range from dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and used condoms, though Leto denied those worst excesses. Then, naturally, there is 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 to the utmost for everyone around him.
Contemporary Followers of the Method
The foremost Method Guy currently would appear to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it formed the basis of a derisive magazine feature, full of quotes from individuals who were either concerned about his conduct (“It’s the cost to himself that worries me,” said Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember him causing everyone else to react with exasperation,” stated an anonymous cast member).
The actor claims he ‘did not plan to stop acting, truly’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, three years after the movie’s release. All of this, to some extent, is meant to invoke the dedication with which Day-Lewis takes his work.
A Noble Yet Challenging Fight
And, although his rebuttal against method detractors could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their behaviour. Maybe if he wishes to remind people what method acting is, or to demonstrate its potential results, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to just begin producing additional movies. Surely everyone would get behind that.
