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It’s been a long while since anyone caught a glimpse of the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 that he would no longer work as an actor, prior to the debut of Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. However, during his hiatus, his reputation expanded further.

The Mythos of His Acting Method

Largely, this reputation centers on his preferred approach to roles. As someone who famously disappears into the roles he plays – for example, while filming the Lincoln biopic, he had Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr President” throughout the shoot – audiences has become more fascinated with how he works. Did he really send texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he consumed solely game he hunted for Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?

Extreme acting methods: have we fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?

Currently, Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. And he is using this to express his anger regarding how the Method technique is perceived. “I am somewhat annoyed these days when I hear all kinds of people gobbling off and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that someone is acting insane in a drastic way,” he stated to 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 a situation that causes a severe discomfort or mental instability. However, in the career of an actor, it must principally be about the inner transformation.”

An Industry of Imitators

Frankly, this sounds as if the actor has come out from his retreat only to discover shocked by the world that has developed mirroring his methods. If you’re regarded as among the best performers in history, and your approach involves striking a prop until you break your nose (for Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in isolation deprived of sustenance (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that fellow performers will attempt to fill that vacuum by imitating their idol.

In other words, we now live in an environment full of imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to demonstrate the sheer amount of dedication they put into a character. On the milder side of the pool there are performers such as 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 became an Italian native for a year and a half in preparation.

Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself into the role as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” presents to his castmates. These, depending on who you ask, range from dead pigs and rats to anal beads and personal hygiene products, although the actor refuted those worst excesses. Then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman for 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 everyone around him.

Contemporary Method Practitioners

The foremost Method Guy at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach during 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 extremely irritated by it (“I recall [him] making everyone else to react with exasperation,” said an anonymous cast member).

Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘did not plan to stop acting, really’

We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass for The Revenant. It’s quite possible that actor Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, years following that film came out. All of this, to some extent, is meant to invoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis takes his craft.

A Noble But Uphill Fight

Moreover, although his rebuttal against method detractors might be noble, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their behaviour. Perhaps if he wishes to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply begin producing additional movies. Surely we could all support that idea.