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It has been a long while since the public caught a glimpse of the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 that he would cease to pursue acting, prior to the debut of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. However, in his absence, his reputation has only grown.

The Legend Surrounding His Method

Primarily, this reputation centers on his favored style of working. Being an actor who famously disappears into his characters – for instance, while filming the Lincoln biopic, he had Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – audiences has become increasingly obsessed with his process. Did he really send texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely game he hunted for Last of the Mohicans? And did he demand receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?

Extreme acting methods: has the public fallen out of love with over-the-top performances?

Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. He is using this to vocalise his anger at how method acting is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed these days when I hear various individuals talking carelessly and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which I think suggests that a person’s acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he told the New York Times. “People tends to focus on the less important details of the work, and those details typically include some sort of self-punishment or a situation that causes a severe discomfort or mental instability. But of course, in the career for a performer, it must principally be about the internal work.”

An Industry of Imitators

To be honest, it appears like Day-Lewis has emerged from his retreat only to discover aghast at the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. When you are regarded as among the best 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 solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (during In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will want to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.

In other words, we now live in an environment populated by half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis who want nothing more than to show the world the extensive degree of dedication they invest in a character. At the shallow end of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award for House of Gucci that she spent 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 of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” gifts to his castmates. These, according to various accounts, range from deceased animals to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, though Leto denied the most extreme claims. Then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded to get a feature-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for his colleagues.

Contemporary Method Practitioners

The main practitioner of the Method currently would appear to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it formed the subject of a derisive New Yorker profile, full of quotes from people who were either concerned about his conduct (“It’s the cost on himself concerns me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember him causing others roll their eyes,” stated an anonymous cast member).

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

We have so many other examples. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, three years after that film came out. Each of these instances, in part, aims to evoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis takes his work.

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 wants to remind people what method acting is, or to demonstrate its potential results, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to just begin producing more films. Certainly everyone would get behind that.