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It has been a long while since the public saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 that he would no longer pursue acting, just before the release of The Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. Yet, in his absence, his reputation expanded further.

The Legend Surrounding His Method

Largely, this reputation revolves around his preferred approach to roles. As someone known for disappears into his characters – for instance, during Lincoln, reportedly asked the director address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has grown increasingly obsessed with how he works. Is it true he actually sent texts to Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Did he only eat game he hunted during The 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?

Now, Daniel Day-Lewis has returned to public attention, with some hesitation, 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 talking carelessly and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which seems is meant to imply that someone is behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he told the New York Times. “Everyone often concentrate on superficial aspects of acting, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-punishment or a situation that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or mental instability. But of course, in the career of an actor, it must mainly focus on the inner transformation.”

A World Full of Followers

To be honest, this sounds as if Day-Lewis has come out from his retreat and found himself 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 involves striking a prop until you break your nose (for Gangs of New York) or spending two days in solitary confinement without food or water (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that fellow performers will attempt to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.

Essentially, we exist in a landscape populated by imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to show the world the extensive degree of effort they invest in a character. On the milder side of this trend we have people like Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award for House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she became functionally Italian for a year and a half as preparation.

Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself in the character of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” presents to his castmates. These, according to various accounts, included deceased animals to intimate objects and used condoms, though the actor refuted those worst excesses. Then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers literally managed to get a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life as impossible as he could for his colleagues.

The Modern Followers of the Method

The main Method Guy currently would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process during Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the basis of a derisive New Yorker profile, including statements from individuals who were either concerned about his conduct (“The toll on himself concerns me,” said Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall [him] making others roll their eyes,” said an unnamed co-star).

Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘did not plan to retire, really’

We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, three years after that film came out. All of this, to some extent, is meant to invoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis takes his work.

A Noble Yet Challenging Fight

And, while his fightback to critics of the Method might be noble, a short publicity tour might not be enough to alter perceptions, not to mention their behaviour. Perhaps if he wants to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to demonstrate its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just start making additional movies. Surely we could all get behind that.