It has been a long while since the public saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 that he would no longer work as an actor, just before the release of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. Yet, during his hiatus, his legend expanded further.
The Mythos Surrounding His Method
Largely, this legend centers on his preferred approach to roles. Being an actor known for disappears into the roles he plays – for example, while filming the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked the director call him “Mr. President” for the entire production – the world has grown more fascinated with how he works. Is it true he really send messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely game he hunted for Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Madness in their method: has the public fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?
Now, Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, with some hesitation, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is taking this chance to express his frustration at how the Method technique is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays when I hear various individuals gobbling off and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which seems is meant to imply that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he told the New York Times. “People often concentrate on the less important details of the work, and those details typically include some sort of self-punishment or a situation that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or mental instability. However, in the career of an actor, it has to principally be about the inner transformation.”
An Industry Full of Followers
To be honest, it appears like the actor has come out from seclusion only to discover aghast at the acting community that has been created mirroring his methods. When you are widely considered among the best actors in history, and your process involves striking a prop to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in isolation without food or water (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that fellow performers will attempt to emulate that example by imitating your hero.
Essentially, we now live in an environment populated by half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who want nothing more than to show the world the extensive degree of effort they invest in their roles. On the milder side of the pool we have people like Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she transformed into functionally Italian over 18 months as preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself into the role as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” gifts to fellow cast members. These items, according to various accounts, range from dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, although the actor refuted those worst excesses. Then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that they literally managed in creating a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties to the utmost for everyone around him.
Contemporary Method Practitioners
The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it formed the subject of a derisive New Yorker profile, full of quotes from individuals who were worried for his behaviour (“It’s the cost on himself concerns me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by it (“I recall [him] making everyone else roll their eyes,” stated an anonymous cast member).
The actor says he ‘did not plan to retire, truly’
There are numerous additional cases. 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 actor Austin Butler continues to talk in the style of Elvis, three years after the movie’s release. All of this, in part, aims to evoke the dedication with which Day-Lewis approaches his work.
An Admirable Yet Challenging Fight
And, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method might be noble, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to alter perceptions, let alone their practices. Perhaps if he wants to make audiences recall the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply begin producing additional movies. Certainly we could all get behind that.
