Daniel Day-Lewis Responds to Brian Cox Over Method Acting Debate
Daniel Day-Lewis has rejected Brian Cox’s claims that linked him to Jeremy Strong’s style of Method acting. Speaking to the U.K.’s Big Issue, the Oscar-winning actor said Cox partly drew him into a debate he never wanted to join.
“Listen, I worked with Brian Cox once and got somehow drawn into this handbags-at-dawn conflict inadvertently,” Day-Lewis said. “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.”
Over the past few years, Cox has openly criticized Method acting in interviews, often using his “Succession” co-star Jeremy Strong as a prime example of why he finds the approach “fucking annoying.” Cox once suggested that Day-Lewis stepped back from acting at 55 due to the exhaustion that comes with full immersion into roles.
In a separate interview with Variety, Cox also drew a connection between Strong and Day-Lewis, implying that Strong learned his acting methods from him, saying that Strong was once Day-Lewis’s assistant. Day-Lewis disputed this view, dismissing any suggestion that he had influenced Strong’s acting style.
“If I thought during our work together I’d interfered with his working process, I’d be appalled,” Day-Lewis said. “But I don’t think it was like that. So I don’t know where the fuck that came from.”
Author’s Summary
Daniel Day-Lewis clarified he never mentored Jeremy Strong in Method acting and expressed frustration at being pulled into Brian Cox’s ongoing critique of the technique.