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It’s been a long while since the public caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 declaring he would cease to work as an actor, just before the release of The Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. However, during his hiatus, his legend expanded further.

The Mythos Surrounding His Method

Primarily, this reputation centers on his favored approach to roles. As someone known for disappears into the roles he plays – for instance, during Lincoln, he had the director address him as “Mr President” throughout the shoot – the world has become increasingly obsessed with his process. Is it true he actually sent texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? And did he demand receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?

Extreme acting methods: have we fallen out of love with actorly excess?

Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. And he is taking this chance to vocalise his anger at how the Method technique is perceived. “I’m a little cross nowadays to hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think suggests that a person’s acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he stated to the New York Times. “Everyone often concentrate on superficial details of the work, and those details typically include some form of self-punishment or a situation that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or psychological strain. However, in the career for a performer, it must principally be about the inner transformation.”

A World Full of Followers

Frankly, this sounds as if Day-Lewis has come out from his retreat and found himself shocked by the world that has developed in his image. If you’re regarded as one of the greatest performers to ever work, and your process includes headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will attempt to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.

In other words, we now live in a landscape full of half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the extensive degree of dedication they invest in a character. At the shallow end of this trend we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar for House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion trying to convince everyone that she transformed into an Italian native for a year and a half as preparation.

Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself into the role as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” presents to his castmates. These, according to various accounts, included deceased animals to anal beads and personal hygiene products, though the actor refuted those worst excesses. And then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded 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 main Method Guy at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose process while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the basis of a critical magazine feature, full of quotes from individuals who were either concerned for his behaviour (“It’s the cost on himself that worries me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall him causing others to react with exasperation,” stated an unnamed co-star).

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

We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler continues to talk in the style of Elvis, three years after the movie’s release. Each of these instances, to some extent, is meant to invoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis takes his craft.

A Noble But Uphill Fight

Moreover, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method might be noble, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Maybe if he wants to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply begin producing additional movies. Surely everyone would get behind that.