The role that pushed Daniel Day-Lewis’ method acting to the edge: “You can go to incredible lengths”
Throughout his career, Daniel Day-Lewis developed a notoriety for method acting and an insistence on staying in character throughout the production of most of his films. He famously refused to leave his wheelchair whilst playing Christy Brown in My Left Room, leaving crew members to carry him across the set.
Day-Lewis’ commitment to his profession and his method acting in particular have led to some of the most extraordinary performances the screen has ever seen, whether from his true embodiment of a United States president in Lincoln or as a bloodthirsty oil tycoon in Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood.
However, method acting itself can tend to take its toll on those who subscribe to it, and Day-Lewis discovered this when he was playing Nathaniel ‘Hawkeye’ Poe in Michael Mann’s The Last of the Mohicans. The actor had already taken himself away into the wilderness to get used to a survivalist frame of mind.
“I liked the idea of a man who had not been touched by 20th-century neurosis,” he said in an interview with The New York Times. “A life that isn’t drawn inwards.” The Last of the Mohicans saw the frontiersman Hawkeye join the Native American Mohicans and explored the themes of love, war, honour and sacrifice.
Compared to his efforts as Daniel Plainview and Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York, perhaps The Last of the Mohicans pales in comparison, but Russell Means, the Native American activist who plays Chingachgook, said that he was impressed by the actor’s commitment to his profession and his desire to play his character with authenticity.
He called Day-Lewis “one of the most considerable human beings I ever met… Daniel is the embodiment of someone I would adopt as a non-Indian”. Director Michael Mann noted, “He is immensely concentrated, and he’s fearless. He will do and try anything.”
The climax of the movie sees Day-Lewis charge across a craggy mountainous peak whilst shooting a rifle clip into an enemy, dropping his weapon and then picking up another, all without breaking stride. The shoot was a difficult one for the actor, though, and his efforts brought about claustrophobia and mild hallucinations, having run his mental capacity to its limit.
Still, the performance was a worthwhile one for the actor, and he noted: “You can go to incredible lengths, on an enormously circuitous, serpentine journey to arrive at an understanding of someone else’s life. You can do that. You can also look at someone and, in a moment, understand what it feels like to look through that face.”
