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It has been quite some time since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 declaring he would no longer pursue acting, just before the release of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. Yet, in his absence, his reputation expanded further.

The Legend Surrounding His Method

Primarily, this reputation centers on his favored approach to roles. Being an actor known for disappears into his characters – for example, while filming Lincoln, reportedly asked Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr. President” throughout the shoot – audiences has become increasingly obsessed with his process. Is it true he really send texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he consumed solely animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? Did he demand receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?

Extreme acting methods: have we lost interest with actorly excess?

Now, Day-Lewis is back to public attention, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is taking this chance to express his frustration at how the Method technique is perceived. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays when I hear various individuals talking carelessly and saying things like ‘gone full method’, which I think suggests that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in an extreme fashion,” he told the New York Times. “Everyone often concentrate on the less important details of the work, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-punishment or a situation that causes extreme unease or mental instability. However, in the life for a performer, it must mainly focus on the inner transformation.”

An Industry of Imitators

To be honest, this sounds like Day-Lewis has come out from his retreat only to discover shocked by the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. When you are widely considered among the best actors in history, and your approach involves headbutting a dummy until you break your nose (for Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in solitary confinement without food or water (during In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will want to emulate that example by trying to mimic your hero.

In other words, we exist in an environment full of half-cocked imitators of Day-Lewis 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 determined to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she dedicated the whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she became an Italian native over 18 months as preparation.

Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to deeply embed himself in the character of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” presents to fellow cast members. These items, according to various accounts, range from dead pigs and rats to anal beads and personal hygiene products, though the actor refuted the most extreme claims. And then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded to get a full-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him making life to the utmost for everyone around him.

Contemporary Followers of the Method

The main Method Guy currently would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose process while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it formed the basis of a critical New Yorker profile, including statements from people who were worried about his conduct (“It’s the cost to himself that worries me,” remarked co-star Brian Cox) or annoyed beyond all measure by it (“I remember [him] making others roll their eyes,” said an anonymous cast member).

Daniel Day-Lewis claims he ‘never intended to stop acting, truly’

There are so many other examples. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside an animal carcass during The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler still speaks like Elvis Presley, three years after the movie’s release. All of this, to some extent, is meant to invoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis takes his craft.

A Noble But Uphill Fight

Moreover, although his rebuttal against method detractors might be noble, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone 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 more films. Surely we could all support that idea.