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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 statement in 2017 declaring he would cease to pursue acting, just before the release of The Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. However, during his hiatus, his reputation has only grown.

The Legend of His Acting Method

Largely, this reputation revolves around his favored approach to roles. As someone who famously immerses himself in the roles he plays – for example, during Lincoln, he had the director call him “Mr. President” for the entire production – audiences has become increasingly obsessed with his process. Did he really send messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he consumed solely animals he’d killed for The Last of the Mohicans? And did he demand receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?

Madness in their method: has the public lost interest with actorly excess?

Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis is back to public attention, with some hesitation, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is using this to express his anger at how the Method technique is perceived. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays to hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which I think is meant to imply that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he stated to the New York Times. “Everyone often concentrate on superficial details of the work, and these elements typically include some form of self-flagellation or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or mental instability. But of course, in the life of an actor, it has to mainly focus on the internal work.”

An Industry of Imitators

Frankly, it appears as if the actor has come out from his retreat only to discover shocked by the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. When you are regarded as one of the greatest performers to ever work, and your process includes striking a prop until you break your nose (in Gangs of New York) or enduring two days in isolation deprived of sustenance (for In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will want to emulate that example by imitating their idol.

In other words, we now live in a landscape full of half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to demonstrate the extensive degree of dedication they put into a character. On the milder side of the pool we have people like 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 transformed into functionally Italian for a year and a half as preparation.

Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who chose to deeply embed himself in the character of the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” gifts to fellow cast members. These, according to various accounts, included deceased animals to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, though Leto denied the most extreme claims. And then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded in creating a feature-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties to the utmost for his colleagues.

The Modern Followers of the Method

The main Method Guy at the moment would appear 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 critical magazine feature, full of quotes from individuals who were either concerned about his conduct (“It’s the cost to himself that worries me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall him causing everyone else roll their eyes,” stated an unnamed co-star).

The actor claims he ‘never intended to stop acting, truly’

We have so many other examples. Andrew Garfield went celibate for six months while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal during The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, years following that film came out. Each of these instances, to some extent, aims to evoke the dedication with which Day-Lewis takes his work.

An Admirable But Uphill Battle

And, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method could be commendable, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their practices. Perhaps if he wants 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 additional movies. Surely everyone would get behind that.