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It has been quite some time since anyone caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his statement in 2017 declaring he would cease to pursue acting, prior to the debut of Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, during his hiatus, his legend expanded further.

The Legend of His Acting Method

Primarily, this legend centers on his favored style of working. As someone known for immerses himself in his characters – for example, during the Lincoln biopic, reportedly asked the director call him “Mr. President” for the entire production – audiences has grown increasingly obsessed with how he works. Is it true he really send messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he only eat animals he’d killed during The Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?

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

Now, Daniel Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. And he is using this to vocalise his anger regarding how the Method technique is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays to hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think is meant to imply that someone is acting insane in a drastic way,” he told a major publication. “People often concentrate on superficial aspects of acting, and these elements always seem to involve some sort of self-flagellation or an experience that causes extreme unease or mental instability. But of course, in the career of an actor, it must principally be about the inner transformation.”

An Industry Full of Followers

Frankly, it appears like the actor has come out from his retreat only to discover shocked by the world that has developed in his image. If you’re widely considered one of the greatest performers in history, and your approach involves headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or enduring 48 hours in isolation deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that fellow performers will attempt to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.

Essentially, we exist in an environment populated by half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to show the world the sheer amount of dedication they put into a character. At the shallow end of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award with House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she became functionally Italian for a year and a half in preparation.

Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who chose to deeply embed himself into the role as the Joker (for Suicide Squad) by sending “disturbing” presents to his castmates. These, depending on who you ask, included dead pigs and rats to anal beads and personal hygiene products, although Leto denied the most extreme claims. And then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they succeeded to get a feature-length documentary out of B-roll of him making life as impossible as he could for everyone around him.

The Modern Method Practitioners

The main practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the basis of a derisive New Yorker profile, full of quotes from people who were either concerned for his behaviour (“The toll to himself that worries me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember him causing others roll their eyes,” said an anonymous cast member).

Daniel Day-Lewis 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 rested inside a dead animal for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, years following the movie’s release. Each of these instances, in part, is meant to invoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis takes his work.

An Admirable But Uphill Battle

Moreover, while his fightback against method detractors might be noble, a short publicity tour might not be enough to alter perceptions, not to mention their practices. Maybe if he wishes to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to demonstrate what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just begin producing additional movies. Certainly we could all support that idea.