Daniel Day-Lewis Explains His Infamous Acting Technique

Turns out, there’s more to Method acting than just mailing rat poop to your co-stars. The infamous performance technique, in which actors get so deep into the role that they continue to stay in character after shooting has stopped, has become something of a joke recently, thanks to dumb tricks like Jared Leto harassing his Suicide Squad co-stars while playing the Joker or Jared Leto walking around in crutches while making Morbius.

However, the Method has recently been defended by the actor who made it famous—and who just might be the greatest actor of all time.

While promoting his new film Anemone, Daniel Day-Lewis was asked about the Method during an audience Q&A. “All the recent commentary in the last few years about Method acting is invariably from people who have little or no understanding of what it actually involves. It’s almost as if it’s some specious science that we’re involved in or a cult,” he responded (via Variety), not mentioning any Tron: Ares stars by name but, come one, we’re all thinking it.

Day-Lewis is right to say that the process is neither a science nor a cult. Method acting, or just the Method, has its roots in the work of Russian theatrical actor and producer Konstantin Stanislavski, whose system emphasized experiential performance instead of representational performance. Stanislavski’s system came to the United States via a trio of teachers at the Actors Studio, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, and Sanford Meisner. There, it became a favorite of Marlon Brando, whose mumbling, realistic approach broke from the bigger styles established during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Stars such as Robert De Niro and Gene Hackman picked up from Brando, as the Method suited the grittier stylings of the New Hollywood movement.

However, modern viewers wonder if Method acting doesn’t have the opposite effect of what it was intended to do. For Stanislavski and his followers, the Method brought more immediacy to a part, allowing actors to play the emotional truth of a moment instead of having to worry about technicalities or mechanical operations. Today, Leto’s stunts or the extreme body changes that Christian Bale puts himself through demand attention to themselves, taking away from the emotion itself.

According to Day-Lewis, these actors have missed the point. During the Q&A following Anemone, he described the Method as, “just a way of freeing yourself so that the spontaneity, when you are working with your colleagues in front of the camera, that you are free to respond in any way that you’ll move to in that moment.” Obviously, that’s worked well for Day-Lewis, whose turns in My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood, and Lincoln earned him Best Actor Oscar wins, on top of the praise and award nominations he’s garnered for other roles.

But just imagine how many more he could have won if he only sent Leonardo DiCaprio meat while shooting Gangs of New York. Maybe Day-Lewis is the one who needs to learn about real acting!

Anemone is now playing in theaters across the U.S.