Steven Spielberg is busy shooting Lincoln in Virginia, and while I thought the guy from Bill and Ted made an excellent Abraham Lincoln, I guess Oscar-winning super actor Daniel Day-Lewis is an okay choice too. In the mid 90s, Lewis trained with boxing champ Barry McGuigan twice a day, seven days a week for three years before starring in The Boxer. For The Crucible, he built his character’s house himself using 17th century tools. While it’s highly likely that he’s completely batsh*t insane, you can’t say his process isn’t effective (Bill the Butcher tapping a knife against his metal eye melts my face off every time, as do half the scenes in There Will Be Blood). So, how method is he going with this one? (Also, dude. You know this character eventually gets shot in the head, right?)
Variety‘s Jeff Sneider recently revealed that Day-Lewis “hasn’t broken his Lincoln accent since March” and his “real name doesn’t even appear on the call sheet.” I’ve heard from other sources that it is indeed the high-pitched tone Lincoln is infamous for. [TheFilmStage]
That must be fun to live with. Meanwhile, Day-Lewis’s wife has promised that if he calls her “Mary Todd” one more time, she’s going to cram all four score and seven pieces of his “supper fixins” up his ass one by one.
[picture via Richmond.com]