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It’s been quite some time since the public saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 that he would cease to pursue acting, just before the release of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis withdrew from the spotlight. However, during his hiatus, his legend expanded further.

The Legend Surrounding His Method

Primarily, this reputation revolves around his preferred style of working. Being an actor known for immerses himself in the roles he plays – for instance, during Lincoln, he had Steven Spielberg address him as “Mr President” for the entire production – audiences has grown more fascinated with his process. Did he really send messages to co-star Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely animals he’d killed for Last of the Mohicans? And did he demand being spoon-fed while filming My Left Foot?

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Currently, Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, promoting his latest movie Anemone. He is using this to vocalise his anger at how the Method technique is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed these days to hear various individuals talking carelessly and saying things like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think suggests that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he stated to the New York Times. “People often concentrate on superficial details of the work, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-flagellation or a situation that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or psychological strain. However, in the life of an actor, it must principally be about the internal work.”

A World of Imitators

Frankly, it appears like the actor has emerged from seclusion only to discover shocked by the world that has developed mirroring his methods. When you are widely considered one of the greatest actors to ever work, and your process involves striking a prop to the point of injury (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 emulate that example by trying to mimic your hero.

In other words, we exist in a landscape full of imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the extensive degree of effort they put into a character. At the shallow end of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign trying to convince everyone that she became an Italian native for a year and a half as preparation.

Then we have Jared Leto, who chose to deeply embed himself into the role of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” gifts to fellow cast members. These items, depending on who you ask, included dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, although the actor refuted the most extreme claims. And then, naturally, there is Jim Carrey, who went so deep into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that filmmakers succeeded in creating a feature-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for his colleagues.

Contemporary Followers of the Method

The foremost practitioner of the Method at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (formerly an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it formed the subject of a critical magazine feature, including statements from people who were either concerned for his behaviour (“The toll on himself concerns me,” remarked Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall him causing everyone else to react with exasperation,” said an anonymous cast member).

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We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal for The Revenant. It’s quite possible 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 with which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.

A Noble But Uphill Fight

Moreover, while his fightback to critics of the Method might be noble, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to alter perceptions, let alone their behaviour. Maybe if he wants to make audiences recall the true essence of the Method, or to show them its potential results, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to simply begin producing additional movies. Surely everyone would support that idea.