Daniel Day-Lewis Says Method Acting Criticism Is From ‘People Who Have Little or No Understanding of What It Actually Involves

Time for him to just go retire and be quiet.

He's bald now but had great hair in The Last of the Mohicans.

Are there any other methods?

[quote]‘It’s Almost as if’ We’re in a ‘Cult’

You're getting warmer!

Looking rough.

Brooke Shields has those tinted glasses, too.

He came out of retirement and nobody cared. Anemone is DOA.

Is he cosplaying as Bono?

The man’s talent is undeniable but Lord does he seem insufferable.

He's been playing himself a lot (Gangs of New York, There will Be Blood); he can't distinguish between The Method and any other technique.

In general actors discussing their craft are a pretty tedious lot.

For fun, interrupt one and say “isn’t it just ‘PRETENDING’, like children do?”

You’re likely to enjoy a free performance, maybe a meltdown about how no one has ever understood the work of actors, how much of their soul goes into it, how our country doesn’t support the arts, in Europe actors are paid when they’re unemployed and never have to become waiters, etc, etc.

That film titled For Your Consideration directed by Christopher Guest and that ensemble that appeared in his mocumentaries was very funny and so effective at portraying “actors acting”. Parker Posy’s tearful, defiant, hypocritical Callie Webb was probably the funniest part.

Also, Rachael Harris playing the humorless actress playing a dour humorless lesbian, optimized each second of her screen time. And Eugene Levy as the evasive agent with foot fungus. It’s all so good and mean. Catherine O’Hara as Marilyn Hack was amazing, as always.

Go cobble shoes Danny.

Daniel Day Lewis's son made a film to make the world think his father is still coherent. His father has been suffering from early onset dementia for the last year.

[quote] He's bald now but had great hair in The Last of the Mohicans.

And that film was released a full 33 years ago.

That is how balding works, hon. Most men bald as they age.

The son knew this was his last chance to make money off drooling daddy.

Unless an actor cures cancer or makes some other major contribution to humankind, I don't want to hear about how hard they work, or how what they do is important.

He’s not a method actor!

Method acting is when you think about your dead dog to cry in a scene.

What Daniel Day Lewis does is pretend he’s the character throughout the entire shoot.

That’s mental illness.

It clearly works for him. He's about as good as it gets.

I actually do like hearing how actors come to their respective performances. I don't have that performer gene, but I love movies and TV shows. So it's fascinating to me how it all works.

So terribly important

R19 I don’t think so. I think he’s overrated.

12 movies in 30 years and half of them were good.

R21 he might be overrated - since he's considered the greatest living male actor - but he's a very good actor. I think that the vast majority of people who watch movies would agree with that.

Isn’t deciding what a character would do in a situation the writer’s job? Or the director’s?

He dresses so ridiculously.

Acting is a talent, but not a very significant one.

He’s not a politician.

He’s an actor.

If it works for him?

Fantastic.

No harm, no foul.

He’s currently one of the best actors on this planet, so I don’t really give a fuck that he can successfully play the part of an American president in a film, yet isn’t one.

I used to think that Christian Bale was haughty and obsessed with The Method, but DDL makes Christian look apathetic by comparison. A tanorexic little diva who likes to wear mismatched clothing. I wish I could unsee it. Actors should give very limited interviews with the press. Too much talking tends to ruin their mystique.

DDL is the only man to have three Best Actor oscars. Had Adrian Brody not been so riveting in The Pianist, I think he would have won for his performance in Gangs of New York.

Does this mean he really ate poisoned mushroom omelet to act it in Phanton Thread?

I want actors to follow the script as written and to do what the director tells them to do.

[quote] He’s not a method actor! Method acting is when you think about your dead dog to cry in a scene. What Daniel Day Lewis does is pretend he’s the character throughout the entire shoot. That’s mental illness.

The various teachers who apply method techniques don’t all follow the same rules. Staying in character all the time is a “method acting” technique. Not something that is generally advised, but consistent.

R22 Not too many people though. It’s not like his movies are well known or popular.

... or as Laurence Olivier famously said to a strung-out Dustin Hoffman on the set of Marathon Man (after he'd stayed awake for 48 hours straight to simulate the torment of his character): "Why not try acting dear boy?"

.......

AI offers this up:

Marlon Brando stayed in a hospital bed for an entire month as a way to prepare for the injured veteran character he'd be playing in The Men.

Robert De Niro worked as a real taxi driver, picking up passengers around New York City during breaks from shooting Taxi Driver. He worked multiple 12-hour shifts!

Hilary Swank lived as a boy for an entire month to prepare for her role in Boys Don't Cry. She lost a lot of weight to make her cheeks look hollow, stuffed socks in her pants, and even wrapped her chest.

Adrian Brody dropped weight, learned the piano, gave up his life, disconnected from society, gave up his apartment, disconnected his phone, left Europe, and even lost his girlfriend, all as a way to prepare for his Oscar-winning role in The Pianist.

Heath Ledger locked himself in his apartment for an entire month, practiced his laugh, and scribbled Joker-like ramblings into a notebook to prepare for his role of the Joker in The Dark Knight. He then proceeded to die right after the shoot from an overdose of prescription drugs.

Daniel Day-Lewis refused to wear an insulated coat when shooting Gangs of New York because it would take him out of character, and he subsequently caught pneumonia.

Kate Winslet only spoke with a German accent for an entire month before playing a Nazi concentration camp guard in The Reader. She said it took her months to recover and begin speaking normally again.

Leonardo DiCaprio, a vegetarian, ate raw bison, slept in an animal carcass, and withstood freezing temperatures when shooting The Revenant. Later, in Django Unchained, he slammed his hand into glass during a take and cut himself badly. He continued to perform his scene and stunned everyone on set.

See?

I never did any of that shit, R33.

Guess what?

I still won 2 of those little gold statues.

I always get the impression that these actors (with the help of their publicists) go on about their “preparation” as if that in itself makes them better actors (and it’s another kind of Oscar bait).

A mediocre actor could do all these same things and would still give a mediocre performance.

Actors like DDL who go to extremes strike me as having a strong masochistic streak.

Any good actor is going to prepare for a role but I have more respect for the ones who don’t feel the need to go on about it. The performance itself is the proof of talent.

He trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, so the Method isn't the only tool in his box. As it were.

[quote]He's been playing himself a lot (Gangs of New York, There will Be Blood)

I wasn't aware that Day-Lewis was a maniacal murderer in real life.

"He always plays himself" is such a dumb criticism most of the time, and it's almost always wrong. Even if you think that Daniel Day-Lewis plays a lot of over-the-top monsters (and that's only two of his last nine roles), he doesn't behave that way in real life. He is definitely pretentious and over-committed to his craft, but doesn't act like a crazed megalomaniac like Bill the Butcher or Daniel Day-Lewis off-screen. He's soft-spoken and intensely private.

I still would.

R9, from the title i was much prepared to come here and say the same, but just from the quotes in the article i must say it was quite nice, an option on his part.

It is the nepo thing that i find quite eye-rolling.

His son is a Nepod Actor.

I’m in the minuscule minority but I don’t like him onscreen. I feel like I’m always seeing him… “acting.” And it’s exhausting. I much prefer Gary Oldman, Christian Bale, Ralph Fiennes, Jeremy Irons, who all show equal commitment to transforming into their characters while remaining a pleasure to watch.

I'm with you, R41... but I do like the way he comes off in video interviews. And I think he's humble. I recall him, years ago, replying to yet another jab about other actors being good without using the Method. Something along the lines of "I guess they're better actors than I. If I didn't do the prep, I couldn't play the character."

Imagine being so insufferable!

I've enjoyed his performances. But he seems like such a self-important blowhard. Take a tip from Tom Ford. Leave your current industry like a gentleman and pursue other things. And shut the fuck up.

In that OP photo, he looks gayer than a lemon-yellow 8” tall 1960s spiked, pointed-toe shoe on a June Taylor dancer.

[quote]Take a tip from Tom Ford. Leave your current industry like a gentleman and pursue other things.

You mean such "other things" as exploiting Russian oligarchs' love of brand names for expensive trashy clothing and overpriced perfumes?

R45 , he is method or what he interprets as method and starred in My Beautiful Landrette…

I’m okay with straight actors in gay roles, if they do method and experience all the sexual aspects of it in preparation for the role.

Are the earrings on purpose? How embarrassing.