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It’s been quite some time since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 declaring he would cease to work as an actor, prior to the debut of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. Yet, during his hiatus, his legend expanded further.

The Legend Surrounding His Acting Method

Largely, this reputation revolves around his preferred style of working. As someone known for disappears into his characters – for instance, during the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked the director address him as “Mr President” throughout the shoot – the world has become more fascinated with his process. Did he actually sent messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?

Extreme acting methods: have we lost interest with over-the-top performances?

Now, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. He is using this to vocalise his frustration at how the Method technique is perceived. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays to hear various individuals gobbling off and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he stated to the New York Times. “Everyone tends to focus on the less important aspects of acting, and these elements typically include some form of self-punishment or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or psychological strain. But of course, in the life for a performer, it must mainly focus on the internal work.”

A World Full of Followers

To be honest, this sounds as if the actor has come out from his retreat only to discover shocked by the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. If you’re widely considered among the best performers to ever work, and your approach includes headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (for Gangs of New York) or spending two days 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 trying to mimic your hero.

In other words, we now live in a landscape populated by imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the extensive degree of effort they put into a character. At the shallow end of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion trying to convince everyone that she transformed into functionally Italian for a year and a half as preparation.

Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself into the role of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” presents to his castmates. These, depending on who you ask, included deceased animals to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, though the actor refuted those worst excesses. And then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed in creating a feature-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him making life as impossible as he could for everyone around him.

Contemporary Followers of the Method

The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose process during Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the basis of a critical magazine feature, including statements from people who were either concerned for his behaviour (“The toll to himself concerns me,” remarked Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall him causing others roll their eyes,” said an anonymous cast member).

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There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass during The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler continues to talk in the style of Elvis, years following that film came out. All of this, to some extent, is meant to invoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.

An Admirable But Uphill Battle

And, while his fightback against method detractors could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Maybe if he wishes to remind people what method acting is, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply begin producing more films. Surely we could all get behind that.