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It’s been a long while since the public caught a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis. After he statement in 2017 declaring he would no longer work as an actor, prior to the debut of The Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. Yet, in his absence, his legend has only grown.

The Legend Surrounding His Method

Primarily, this reputation centers on his favored style of working. Being an actor known for disappears into his characters – for example, while filming Lincoln, he had Steven Spielberg call him “Mr President” throughout the shoot – audiences has grown increasingly obsessed with his process. Did he actually sent texts to Sally Field as Abraham Lincoln? Did he consumed solely game he hunted during The Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on receiving food via spoon for My Left Foot?

Extreme acting methods: have we fallen out of love with actorly excess?

Currently, Day-Lewis is back to public attention, with some hesitation, for his new film Anemone. And he is using this to express his frustration regarding how method acting is viewed. “I’m a little cross nowadays when I hear all kinds of people 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 superficial aspects of acting, and those details typically include some sort of self-flagellation or an experience that imposes upon oneself extreme unease or psychological strain. But of course, in the career for a performer, it has to mainly focus on the inner transformation.”

An Industry of Imitators

Frankly, it appears like Day-Lewis has come out from his retreat and found himself aghast at the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. If you’re widely considered among the best performers to ever work, and your process involves striking a prop to the point of injury (for Gangs of New York) or spending 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 their idol.

Essentially, we exist in an environment full of imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who want nothing more than to show the world the sheer amount of dedication they invest in a character. On the milder side of this trend we have people like Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to win an Oscar with House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion trying to convince everyone that she became functionally Italian for a year and a half in preparation.

Then we have Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself into the role as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” gifts to fellow cast members. These items, depending on who you ask, included dead pigs and rats to anal beads and used condoms, although Leto denied the most extreme claims. And then, of course, we have Jim Carrey, who went so deep as Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that they literally managed to get a full-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for everyone around him.

The Modern Method Practitioners

The foremost Method Guy at the moment seems to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach during Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the basis of a derisive New Yorker profile, including statements from people who were either concerned about his conduct (“The toll to himself concerns me,” said Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by his actions (“I recall him causing others roll their eyes,” said an unnamed co-star).

The actor claims he ‘did not plan to retire, really’

We have so many other examples. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex for six months for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass during The Revenant. It’s quite possible that actor Austin Butler still speaks in the style of Elvis, three years after the movie’s release. All of this, to some extent, is meant to invoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.

A Noble Yet Challenging Fight

And, although his rebuttal to critics of the Method might be noble, a brief promotional cycle might not be enough to alter perceptions, let alone their behaviour. Perhaps if he wishes to make audiences recall what method acting is, or to show them what it can achieve, then the optimal strategy for Day-Lewis is to simply begin producing more films. Surely we could all get behind that.