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It’s been a long while since anyone saw or heard from Daniel Day-Lewis. After he announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to work as an actor, prior to the release of Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis quietly faded from view. Yet, during his hiatus, his legend has only grown.

The Legend Surrounding His Acting Method

Primarily, this reputation revolves around his favored approach to roles. As someone who famously disappears into the roles he plays – for example, during Lincoln, he had Steven Spielberg call him “Mr President” for the entire production – the world has grown increasingly obsessed with how he works. Did he really send messages to co-star Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Did he only eat game he hunted during The Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on receiving food via spoon while filming My Left Foot?

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Currently, Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, with some hesitation, promoting his latest movie Anemone. And he is using this to vocalise his frustration at how method acting is perceived. “I’m a little cross these days to hear various individuals gobbling off and using phrases like ‘gone full method’, which seems is meant to imply that a person’s acting insane in an extreme fashion,” he stated to a major publication. “Everyone often concentrate on superficial aspects of acting, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-punishment or an experience that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or psychological strain. However, in the career of an actor, it must mainly focus on the internal work.”

A World Full of Followers

Frankly, it appears as if Day-Lewis has emerged from seclusion only to discover aghast at the world that has been created mirroring his methods. If you’re widely considered among the best actors in history, and your process includes headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or enduring 48 hours in isolation without food or water (during In the Name of the Father), it’s natural that other actors will want to fill that vacuum by imitating their idol.

In other words, we exist in a landscape full of imperfect imitators of Day-Lewis who strive only to show the world the sheer amount of effort they invest in a character. On the milder side of this trend there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was so desperate to earn an Academy Award for House of Gucci that she dedicated the entire promotion attempting to persuade people that she transformed into functionally Italian for a year and a half in preparation.

Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who chose to deeply embed himself into the role as the Joker (in Suicide Squad) through sending “disturbing” presents to his castmates. These items, according to various accounts, included dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, although Leto denied those worst excesses. And then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into 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.

Contemporary Followers of the Method

The main practitioner of the Method at the moment would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once Day-Lewis’s assistant), whose approach during Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the subject of a derisive New Yorker profile, including statements from people who were either concerned about his conduct (“It’s the cost to himself concerns me,” remarked Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I recall [him] making others to react with exasperation,” said an unnamed co-star).

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We have so many other examples. Andrew Garfield abstained from sex over half a year while preparing for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio slept in a dead animal during The Revenant. There’s a fighting chance that actor Austin Butler continues to talk in the style of Elvis, three years after that film came out. Each of these instances, in part, aims to evoke the dedication in which Day-Lewis takes his craft.

A Noble But Uphill Fight

And, although his rebuttal against method detractors could be commendable, a short publicity tour may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, not to mention their behaviour. Maybe 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 start making additional movies. Certainly we could all support that idea.