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It’s been a long while since the public saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 that he would no longer pursue acting, prior to the debut of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. However, in his absence, his legend has only grown.

The Legend of His Method

Primarily, this reputation centers on his favored approach to roles. As someone known for disappears into his characters – for instance, during the Lincoln biopic, he had the director address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – audiences has become increasingly obsessed with his process. Is it true he really send texts to Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Did he only eat animals he’d killed during The Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?

Madness in their method: have we fallen out of love with actorly excess?

Currently, Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is taking this chance to vocalise his frustration at how the Method technique is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays to hear various individuals gobbling off and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which seems suggests that a person’s acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he told the New York Times. “Everyone often concentrate on superficial aspects of acting, and these elements always seem to involve some sort of self-punishment or a situation that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or psychological strain. However, in the life for a performer, it has to mainly focus on the inner transformation.”

A World Full of Followers

To be honest, it appears as if Day-Lewis has emerged from seclusion and found himself aghast at the world that has developed in his image. If you’re widely considered among the best actors to ever work, and your approach involves headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that fellow performers will want to fill that vacuum by imitating their idol.

Essentially, we now live in a landscape full of half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the sheer amount of effort they put into a character. At the shallow end of this trend we have people like Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to earn an Academy Award for House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she transformed into an Italian native for a year and a half as preparation.

Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself in the character as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” gifts to fellow cast members. These, depending on who you ask, range from deceased animals to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, though Leto denied those worst excesses. Then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded in creating 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 practitioner of the Method at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process during Succession was so rigorously detailed that it formed the subject of a derisive magazine feature, full of quotes from individuals who were worried for his behaviour (“It’s the cost to himself concerns me,” said Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by his actions (“I remember [him] making everyone else roll their eyes,” said an unnamed co-star).

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

There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass during The Revenant. It’s quite possible that actor Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, three years after the movie’s release. Each of these instances, to some extent, aims to evoke the dedication with which Day-Lewis approaches his work.

An Admirable Yet Challenging Fight

Moreover, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to alter perceptions, not to mention their practices. Maybe if he wishes to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just begin producing additional movies. Certainly everyone would get behind that.