We’ve heard a heap from Brian Cox‘s displeasure/annoyance with the Method acting technique (among other performances and cultural landmarks) often used by his “Succession” co-star Jeremy Strong, leading to all sorts of spats and Cox sharing plenty of negative thoughts on Method. Now, those criticisms of Method have made their way to living legend and technique enthusiast Daniel Day-Lewis (easily the face of modern Method, why so many actors embrace it to begin with, and someone that Cox has blamed for its popularity), who had some choice words not only for Cox but for anyone who has a misunderstanding of Method.
When Day-Lewis was asked about Cox’s inferences about Method while recently speaking with the U.K.’s The Big Issue (via Variety) as part of a press tour to help promote his latest feature performance in “Anemone,” the drama directed by his son Ronan Day-Lewis and sees him brought out of what many believed to be his self-retirement, the beloved actor didn’t hold his tongue on Cox’s account.
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“I worked with Brian Cox once and got somehow drawn into this handbags-at-dawn conflict inadvertently. Brian is a very fine actor who’s done extraordinary work. As a result, he’s been given a soapbox…which he shows no sign of climbing down from. Any time he wants to talk about it, I’m easy to find…I just don’t like [Method acting] being misrepresented to the extent it has been. I can’t think of a single commentator who’s gobbed off about the Method that has any understanding of how it works and the intention behind it,” Day-Lewis told the U.K.’s Big Issue when the subject of Method acting and the backlash came up. “They focus on, ‘Oh, he lived in a jail cell for six months.’ Those are the least important details…it pisses me off this whole ‘Oh, he went full Method’ thing. What the f***, you know? Because it’s invariably attached to the idea of some kind of lunacy. I choose to stay and splash around, rather than jump in and out or play practical jokes with whoopee cushions between takes or whatever people think is how you should behave as an actor.”
Notably, the stories from the set with Day-Lewis (many from people who worked directly with him in scenes) when he’s in-character haven’t been as head-scratching as you might imagine, given the perception surrounding Method acting and Cox’s comments (comically portrayed and lampooned in Ben Stiller‘s “Tropic Thunder” with a dopey Aussie actor played by Robert Downey Jr. putting on blackface for a role meant for a black actor).
More or less, it’s been simply keeping the voice, mannerisms, and trying to stay in character for as long as possible. Strong, Jared Leto, and other younger actors, however, might have taken things a little overboard, leading to plenty of wacky stories from cast and crew concerning Leto’s “Method antics” (sending gross gifts, including used condoms and dead animals to cast members during the shoot of “The Suicide Squad,” being some of the more publicly reported nonsense as Leto tried to keep up his Joker persona on and off-set).
How exactly Daniel Day-Lewis is meant to answer for the behaviors of childish antics (done under the guise of Method acting) is beyond us. But he’s now said his peace, shared his own frustrations with the misconceptions and derogatory comments, alongside that olive branch and invitation to Cox to feel free to speak with him further, if need be. We don’t often see Cox put in his place by peers, so, at the very least, the grumpy actor might consider that he might be taking an overblown position here, as some reasonable points are being made.
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