Daniel Day-Lewis has spoken out after being drawn into comments made by fellow actor Brian Cox about the debate surrounding method acting.
The three-time Oscar winner said he was surprised to find himself mentioned in the dispute between Cox and “Succession” star Jeremy Strong and dismissed suggestions that he had influenced Strong’s acting process.
In an interview with the Big Issue published this week, Day-Lewis said his name had been brought into the discussion without his involvement.
“Listen, I worked with Brian Cox once and got somehow drawn into this handbags-at-dawn conflict inadvertently,” he said, referring to their 1997 collaboration on “The Boxer.”
“Brian is a very fine actor who’s done extraordinary work,” he continued. “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.”
Cox had previously criticized Strong’s intense preparation for his role as Kendall Roy in HBO’s “Succession,” telling The Guardian that the actor’s commitment to method acting was “not good for the ensemble” and “creates hostility” on set.
He also claimed that Strong’s approach had been influenced by his earlier work with Day-Lewis on “The Ballad of Jack and Rose” and “Lincoln,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Day-Lewis rejected the notion that his working style had affected Cox or Strong.
“If I thought during our work together I’d interfered with his working process, I’d be appalled,” he said. “But I don’t think it was like that. So I don’t know where the [expletive] that came from.”
The retired actor went on to defend Strong, calling him “a very fine actor” and adding, “I don’t know how he goes about things, but I don’t feel responsible in any way for that.”
Day-Lewis, known for throwing himself entirely into his characters, has often spoken up for method acting as a way to bring honesty to a performance.
Speaking at the 69th BFI London Film Festival earlier this month, he described the practice as “a way of freeing yourself [for] the spontaneity when you are working with your colleagues in front of the camera, so that you are free to respond in any way that you’re moved to in that moment,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
He criticized how the technique has been characterized in popular culture, saying, “They focus on, ‘Oh, he lived in a jail cell for six months.’ Those are the least important details. In all the performing arts, people find their methods as a means to an end. It’s with the intention of freeing yourself so you present your colleagues with a living, breathing human being they can interact with. It’s very simple.”
Day-Lewis said it was upsetting when people say, “Oh, he went full method.”
“Because it’s invariably attached to the idea of some kind of lunacy,” he said. “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.”
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