🔗 Share this article

It has been a long while since anyone caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 that he would cease to work as an actor, prior to the debut of Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. Yet, during his hiatus, his reputation expanded further.

The Mythos of His Acting Method

Largely, this legend centers on his preferred style of working. As someone who famously disappears into his characters – for instance, during Lincoln, reportedly asked Steven Spielberg call him “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has grown increasingly obsessed with how he works. Is it true he actually sent messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Did he consumed solely animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?

Extreme acting methods: has the public fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?

Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. And he is using this to express his frustration regarding how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays to hear various individuals gobbling off and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which seems suggests that someone is behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he told a major publication. “People often concentrate on superficial details of the work, and those details always seem to involve some sort of self-flagellation or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or psychological strain. But of course, in the career for a performer, it must mainly focus on the internal work.”

A World of Imitators

To be honest, this sounds as if Day-Lewis has come out from his retreat and found himself aghast at the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. When you are widely considered among the best performers in history, and your approach includes headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or spending two days in isolation deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will want to fill that vacuum by imitating your hero.

Essentially, we now live in an environment full of half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to demonstrate the extensive degree of dedication they put into their roles. At the shallow end of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to earn an Academy Award with House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she transformed into an Italian native over 18 months in preparation.

Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself in the character of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” presents to fellow cast members. These, according to various accounts, range from dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and used condoms, although Leto denied those worst excesses. And then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded to get a feature-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties to the utmost for everyone around him.

The Modern Followers of the Method

The foremost practitioner of the Method currently would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it formed the basis of a critical New Yorker profile, including statements from individuals who were worried about his conduct (“The toll to himself concerns me,” said Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by it (“I remember him causing others to react with exasperation,” said an anonymous cast member).

Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘did not plan to stop acting, 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 continues to talk in the style of Elvis, three years after the movie’s release. All of this, to some extent, aims to evoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis takes his work.

A Noble Yet Challenging Fight

And, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method could be commendable, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to alter perceptions, let alone their behaviour. Perhaps if he wishes to remind people what method acting is, or to show them what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just start making additional movies. Certainly everyone would get behind that.