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It has been a long while since anyone caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 declaring he would no longer pursue acting, just before the debut of Phantom Thread, the actor withdrew from the spotlight. Yet, in his absence, his reputation expanded further.

The Mythos of His Acting Method

Primarily, this reputation revolves around his preferred style of working. As someone who famously immerses himself in the roles he plays – for instance, while filming Lincoln, he had the director address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – audiences has grown more fascinated with his process. Is it true he actually sent texts to Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he only eat animals he’d killed for The Last of the Mohicans? Did he insist on being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?

Madness in their method: have we fallen out of love with actorly excess?

Currently, Daniel Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. He is using this to vocalise his anger at how method acting is perceived. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays when I hear all kinds of people talking carelessly and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which seems is meant to imply that a person’s acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he told a major publication. “People tends to focus on superficial aspects of acting, and those details typically include some sort of self-punishment or a situation that causes extreme unease or psychological strain. However, in the career of an actor, it has to mainly focus on the internal work.”

An Industry of Imitators

To be honest, this sounds as if the actor has emerged from his retreat only to discover shocked by the acting community that has been created in his image. When you are regarded as among the best performers to ever work, and your approach 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), it’s natural that other actors will want to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.

Essentially, we exist in an environment full of half-cocked Day-Lewis impersonators who strive only to demonstrate the extensive degree of dedication they put into their roles. At the shallow end 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 entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she transformed into an Italian native over 18 months as preparation.

Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to deeply embed himself in the character as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) by sending “horrifying” presents to fellow cast members. These, depending on who you ask, included dead pigs and rats to anal beads and personal hygiene products, although the actor refuted those worst excesses. And then, of course, there is Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully as Andy Kaufman for Man on the Moon that they literally managed to get a full-length documentary out of B-roll of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for everyone around him.

The Modern Followers of the Method

The main Method Guy currently seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process during Succession was so laboriously intensive that it became the basis of a critical New Yorker profile, including statements from individuals who were worried for his behaviour (“It’s the cost on himself concerns me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I remember [him] making others roll their eyes,” said an anonymous cast member).

The actor says he ‘never intended to retire, really’

There are numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal for The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, years following the movie’s release. All of this, to some extent, is meant to invoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis takes his work.

An Admirable But Uphill Fight

And, while his fightback against method detractors might be noble, 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 show them its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just start making more films. Certainly everyone would get behind that.