{"id":501874,"date":"2025-10-15T16:10:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T16:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/501874\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T16:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T16:10:11","slug":"daniel-day-lewis-rejects-method-acting-criticism-cult-misconception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/501874\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Day-Lewis Rejects Method Acting Criticism, ‘Cult’ Misconception"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDaniel Day-Lewis<\/a> rejected misconceptions about Method acting during a wide-ranging conversation at the BFI London Film Festival<\/a> on Wednesday, saying that criticism surrounding it comes from those who simply don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe accomplished actor \u2014 a three-time best actor Oscar winner for \u201cMy Left Foot\u201d (1989), \u201cThere Will Be Blood\u201d (2007) and \u201cLincoln\u201d (2012) \u2014 is known for his immersive process, devoting himself to staying in character throughout filming. Despite how it\u2019s worked out for him, going Method has received a fair amount of pushback in recent years from those who believe it to be unhealthy \u2014 or just plain silly. <\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, Day-Lewis pushed back against these notions after an audience member asked about his acting process, saying: \u201cAll 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\u2019s almost as if it\u2019s some specious science that we\u2019re involved in, or a cult. But it\u2019s 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\u2019ll move to in that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDay-Lewis went on to explain that going Method doesn\u2019t mean \u201cyou\u2019re sealed off from experiencing\u201d your own real life, but rather that \u201cyou\u2019re in a self-contained experience of your own.\u201d He continued: \u201cBut really, if you\u2019ve done your work, you should be free to accept whatever passes through you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDay-Lewis officially returned to acting last month after an eight-year break with \u201cAnemone,\u201d a psychological drama directed by his son, Ronan Day-Lewis. \u201cAnemone\u201d marks his first role since his Oscar-nominated turn in Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s \u201cPhantom Thread\u201d in 2017, before the release of which he announced his retirement. <\/p>\n

\n\tBefore discussing both \u201cAnemone\u201d and \u201cPhantom Thread,\u201d Day-Lewis reflected on Jim Sheridan\u2019s \u201cMy Left Foot,\u201d which marked a pivotal moment in both his career and acting process. The film saw Day-Lewis play celebrated Irish writer and painter Christy Brown, whose cerebral palsy meant he could only work with the toes of one foot. Day-Lewis acknowledged that changing attitudes regarding the portrayal of people with disabilities on screen meant it would not be a role he could accept in today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cQuite obviously, I would not be able to make that now \u2014 at the time it was already questionable,\u201d he noted, adding that there had been criticism from members of the disabled community in Ireland. \u201cA couple of the kids that helped me so much at the Sandymount Clinic made it clear to me that they didn\u2019t think I should be doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Day-Lewis also claimed that \u201cMy Left Foot,\u201d and the months of preparation he was afforded as finances were put together, actually gave birth to his style of acting. He spent that time immersing himself in the world of his character, getting used to living in a wheelchair and writing and painting solely with his foot.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBecause there was no money when I signed up for it, I moved over to Dublin on this wing and a prayer,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd there was all the time in the world. I started to work with these wonderful people, I had a little house and I had my paints and my wheelchair and everything I needed. I guess I had a couple of months before we finally scraped enough money to do the first few scenes and I thought: I\u2019m never not going to work like this again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tExplaining why he takes his research for roles to such extremes, Day-Lewis said: \u201cLook, it\u2019s very easy to describe what I do as if I\u2019m out of my mind. Plenty of people have been happy to do that, but it just makes sense to me \u2026 You have an obligation to try to understand as far as you\u2019re humanly able to what it feels like to be inside of that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel Day-Lewis rejected misconceptions about Method acting during a wide-ranging conversation at the BFI London Film Festival on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[68473,77,127517,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-501874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-daniel-day-lewis","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-london-film-festival","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115379059041405301","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}