The Renowned Actor Voices Frustration Over Method Acting Being Equated to ‘Acting Insanely’ – Which Is Precisely the Reason We Love It

It’s been quite some time since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 declaring he would no longer pursue acting, just before the debut of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. However, during his hiatus, his legend has only grown.

The Legend of His Acting Method

Primarily, this legend revolves around his favored style of working. As someone known for disappears into the roles he plays – for example, during the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked the director address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has become more fascinated with his process. Did he really send messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely game he hunted during The Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?

Extreme acting methods: have we lost interest with actorly excess?

Currently, Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. And he is taking this chance to vocalise his anger regarding how the Method technique is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed these days to hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which I think is meant to imply that a person’s acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he told the New York Times. “People tends to focus on superficial details of the work, and these elements always seem to involve some form of self-flagellation or a situation that causes extreme unease or mental instability. But of course, in the life of an actor, it must principally be about the inner transformation.”

A World of Imitators

Frankly, it appears as if Day-Lewis has come out from his retreat only to discover shocked by the world that has been created in his image. When you are regarded as one of the greatest performers in history, and your process includes headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or spending two days in isolation deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will attempt to emulate that example by trying to mimic their idol.

In other words, we now live in a landscape populated by half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the extensive degree 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 earn an Academy Award with House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she transformed into an Italian native for a year and a half as preparation.

Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to deeply embed himself in the character of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” gifts to his castmates. These, according to various accounts, included deceased animals to intimate objects and used condoms, though Leto denied those worst excesses. And then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed to get a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for everyone around him.

Contemporary Followers of the Method

The foremost Method Guy currently seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the subject of a derisive magazine feature, full of quotes from people who were either concerned for his behaviour (“It’s the cost to himself concerns me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by it (“I recall him causing others to react with exasperation,” stated an anonymous cast member).

Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘did not plan to stop acting, truly’

There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal for The Revenant. It’s quite possible that actor Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, three years after the movie’s release. All of this, in part, is meant to invoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis approaches his work.

A Noble But Uphill Battle

And, while his fightback to critics of the Method might be noble, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to alter perceptions, not to mention their practices. Perhaps if he wants to remind people what method acting is, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to simply begin producing additional movies. Certainly everyone would get behind that.