It has been quite some time since the public saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 that he would cease to work as an actor, just before the debut of The Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. Yet, in his absence, his legend has only grown.
The Mythos of His Acting Method
Largely, this reputation revolves around his preferred style of working. Being an actor who famously immerses himself in his characters – for example, while filming Lincoln, reportedly asked the director address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has become increasingly obsessed with his process. Is it true he actually sent texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat game he hunted during Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: has the public lost interest with actorly excess?
Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis is back to public attention, with some hesitation, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is using this to vocalise his frustration regarding how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays when I hear all kinds of people gobbling off and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which I think suggests that someone is behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he told the New York Times. “Everyone tends to focus on the less important details of the work, and those details typically include some form of self-flagellation or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or mental instability. However, in the life of an actor, it must mainly focus on the inner transformation.”
An Industry of Imitators
To be honest, this sounds as if the actor has emerged from his retreat only to discover aghast at the acting community that has developed in his image. If you’re regarded as among the best performers to ever work, and your approach includes headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or spending two days in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will attempt to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.
In other words, we now live in a landscape full of imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to demonstrate the extensive degree of effort they put into a character. At the shallow end of the pool there are performers such as 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 transformed into functionally Italian for a year and a half as preparation.
Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself in the character as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” gifts to fellow cast members. These, depending on who you ask, included dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, though Leto denied those worst excesses. And then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully as Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that they succeeded in creating a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life to the utmost for his colleagues.
The Modern Followers of the Method
The main practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach during Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the subject of a derisive magazine feature, including statements from people who were worried for his behaviour (“The toll to himself that worries me,” remarked Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember [him] making everyone else roll their eyes,” said an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘never intended to retire, really’
There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal for The Revenant. It’s quite possible that actor Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, years following the movie’s release. All of this, to some extent, aims to evoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis approaches his work.
A Noble But Uphill Battle
And, although his rebuttal against method detractors might be noble, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to change anyone’s mind, let alone their behaviour. Perhaps if he wishes to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to demonstrate its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just start making additional movies. Certainly everyone would get behind that.
