The Method of Madness

Late last night, I turned on 'Parkinson'. I was very pleasantly surprised to see Daniel Day-Lewis come gangling down the studio stairs as Parki's last guest and settled in for what I imagined would be a good 10 minutes of drooling and sighing over Mr Day-Lewi's extraordinary talents on screen.
What I saw was actually quite distressing, as I realised that if I ever had met the man (and believe me, I thought alot about the possibility as a teenager!), we would have fought like cat and dog.
Parki asked him about 'the incident'. For non Day-Lewis fans this refers to a 1989 production of 'Hamlet' in the Olivier theatre when Daniel played the title role. According to reports and the words of the actor himself, he walked off stage during Hamlet's scene with the ghost (his father) because he believed he was actually having a conversation with his own dead father (Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis). He never returned to the stage.
-I can only imagine that his cast mates were quite understanding types, because I would have been as mad as a hornet at such self-indulgent behaviour, however...
Day-Lewis went on to explain that sometimes the line between fantasy and reality become very blurred, especially in his process of 'trying to fool himself' that his situation is real.

It should be mentioned from the outset, that I am quite vocally 'anti-method', and situations like this are one of the reasons for my stance. Day-Lewis went on to comment on the famous Olivier/Hoffman incident; 'Why don't you try acting dear boy?' and opined that in this comment Olivier betrayed how little he knew about screen acting.

At the end of the interview, I was certain of two things;
(1) Day-Lewis came across as quite 'damaged'. His responses and manner were disjointed and defensive and his analyses and anecdotes poorly worded and understood. In short, he had the fragility that is most often seen in people who have had a nervous breakdown.
(2) His attitude toward acting embodied everything I hate about the industry. In his world (and unfortunately, many others) acting is a selfish, inward-looking process that says 'screw everyone else, -I'm searching for truth'.

On the flip-side, he was there to promote his new film (written and directed by wife, Rebecca Miller) 'The Ballad of Jack and Rose', and despite everything I've said above, I'm very keen to see it! I only hope that his performance is not too tainted by what I saw of him on late-night television. the problem with actually listening to actors off-screen is that is does affect how you see them on screen. I doubt it will make our cinemas (maybe Dendy), but I will make every attempt to suspend my disbelief and watch 'Jack' rather than 'Daniel'.

Man, I hate it when my teenaged fantasies get smashed. Now I'm in quite a tetchy state.