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It has been quite some time since anyone saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 declaring he would no longer work as an actor, just before the debut of The Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. However, in his absence, his legend has only grown.

The Mythos Surrounding His Acting Method

Largely, this reputation centers on his favored approach to roles. Being an actor known for disappears into his characters – for instance, during the Lincoln biopic, he had Steven Spielberg call him “Mr President” for the entire production – audiences has grown more fascinated with his process. Is it true he actually sent texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he only eat game he hunted during The Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?

Extreme acting methods: has the public lost interest with actorly excess?

Now, Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is using this to express his anger regarding how method acting is perceived. “I am somewhat annoyed these days to hear all kinds of people gobbling off and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which seems is meant to imply that someone is acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he stated to the New York Times. “People often concentrate on superficial details of the work, and those details typically include some sort of self-punishment or a situation that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or psychological strain. But of course, in the career of an actor, it has to principally be about the internal work.”

A World of Imitators

To be honest, this sounds like the actor has come out from his retreat only to discover aghast at the acting community that has developed in his image. If you’re widely considered one of the greatest performers in history, and your process involves striking a prop to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or enduring 48 hours in isolation deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will want to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.

In other words, we exist in a landscape full of imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to demonstrate the extensive degree of dedication they put into a character. At the shallow end of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to earn an Academy Award with House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she became an Italian native over 18 months in preparation.

Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to deeply embed himself into the role of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” presents to his castmates. These items, depending on who you ask, range from dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, though Leto denied 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 from behind-the-scenes footage of him making life to the utmost for his colleagues.

Contemporary Followers of the Method

The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process while filming Succession was so laboriously intensive that it formed the subject of a derisive New Yorker profile, full of quotes from individuals who were either concerned about his conduct (“The toll on himself concerns me,” remarked Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by it (“I recall [him] making others to react with exasperation,” said an unnamed co-star).

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

There are so many other examples. 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 Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, years following that film came out. All of this, to some extent, aims to evoke the seriousness in which Day-Lewis approaches his work.

A Noble But Uphill Fight

And, while his fightback to critics of the Method could be commendable, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Perhaps if he wishes to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate its potential results, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to simply start making additional movies. Certainly we could all get behind that.