The Renowned Actor Expresses Annoyance Over The Method Approach Being Equated to ‘Behaving Like a Lunatic’ – And That’s Exactly Why We Love It

It’s been quite some time since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 that he would no longer pursue acting, prior to the release of Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. Yet, in his absence, his legend expanded further.

The Mythos Surrounding His Acting Method

Largely, this legend centers on his favored approach to roles. Being an actor who famously immerses himself in his characters – for instance, during Lincoln, reportedly asked the director call him “Mr. President” for the entire production – audiences has become more fascinated with his process. Did he really send texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat animals he’d killed during The Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?

Madness in their method: has the public lost interest with over-the-top performances?

Now, Daniel Day-Lewis is back to public attention, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. And he is using this to express his frustration at how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross these days when I hear various individuals talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which I think suggests that someone is behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he stated to a major publication. “Everyone tends to focus on the less important details of the work, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-punishment or an experience that causes a severe discomfort or mental instability. But of course, in the career for a performer, it has to mainly focus on the internal work.”

An Industry of Imitators

To be honest, this sounds as if Day-Lewis has come out from seclusion only to discover shocked by the acting community that has been created mirroring his methods. If you’re widely considered one of the greatest performers to ever work, and your approach involves striking a prop until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or enduring 48 hours in isolation without food or water (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that fellow performers will attempt to emulate that example by trying to mimic your hero.

In other words, we exist in a landscape populated by half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to demonstrate the extensive degree of dedication they put into a character. At the shallow end of this trend we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award for House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she became functionally Italian for a year and a half in preparation.

Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to immerse himself into the role of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” presents to fellow cast members. These items, according to various accounts, range from deceased animals to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, though Leto denied those worst excesses. And then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they literally managed to get a full-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him making life as impossible as he could for everyone around him.

The Modern Followers of the Method

The main Method Guy at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose process during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the subject of a critical New Yorker profile, full of quotes from individuals who were either concerned for his behaviour (“The toll to himself concerns me,” remarked Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember him causing others to react with exasperation,” stated an unnamed co-star).

The actor says he ‘did not plan to stop acting, really’

There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, years following the movie’s release. 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, while his fightback to critics of the Method might be noble, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their behaviour. Maybe 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. Surely we could all get behind that.