“It might start to pull him off”: When Daniel Day-Lewis banned the English accent on set
Method acting has plenty of pros and cons, with many actors speaking out in both support and opposition to the technique. However, what can’t be argued is that when it works, it really works, with Daniel Day-Lewis just one of the all-time greats who dedicate themselves completely to their characters.
Marlon Brando is treated almost like a deity by the generations who followed in his wake, and he’s the most famous method man of them all. Robert De Niro and Al Pacino took their cues from the transformative On the Waterfront star, and they each secured legendary status a long time ago.
Jared Leto might have become the butt of many jokes, but he still won an Academy Award for going method in Dallas Buyers Club. With three ‘Best Actor’ Oscars to his name, Day-Lewis is undoubtedly one of the finest talents ever to grace the silver screen, and he was so selective about his roles because he knew better than anyone that every part would necessitate extreme preparation.
Method actors regularly work with co-stars who don’t adopt the same approach, and having two drastically opposed styles rarely causes any issues. However, on one occasion, Day-Lewis was so committed to realism and authenticity that he wouldn’t allow anyone in his orbit to speak in their natural brogue in case it disrupted his mindset.
Of course, the anti-method crowd had a field day when word filtered out that a British performer had banned any of his cohorts from the United Kingdom from conversing with him in their local tongue, but considering the leading man added another Oscar to his collection for Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, it’s hard to argue with the results.
The ensemble cast featured several British names, including David Oyelowo and Jared Harris. The latter confirmed that not only did Day-Lewis refuse to break character for the duration of the three-month shoot and have everyone on the cast and crew—including Spielberg—refer only to him as ‘Mr Lincoln’ or ‘Mr President’, but he forbade the UK-born talent from dropping their on-camera accents.
“He stays in character in terms of the accent,” Harris told The Telegraph. “The English people on the film were asked not to use their English accents on the set because it might start to pull him off.” The conversations didn’t have to relate to Abraham Lincoln, though, but it would only be acknowledged, indulged, or reciprocated if Day-Lewis was approached with American accents.
One positive to take from the star outlawing British accents in his vicinity was that the percentage of actors working on Lincoln who hailed from outside the United States was tiny, and it’s easy to imagine there could have been many raised eyebrows had Day-Lewis issued a similar edict on a production packing a heavy volume of Brits.
