Daniel Day Lewis is a good example of this kind of method actor. I think one would have to respect his M.O. if one were a fellow actor on the set.
Mr. Lewis is one the few to whom I would accord such a pass (not praising it, but tolerating it). I would not, however, blame anyone for smacking the **** out of Jared Leto for sending them a dead rat as "the Joker."
Method bull**** is largely bull****. Kurt Russell rustled more than a few jimmies a few years back when he said that acting isn't as hard as everyone makes it out to me -- You memorize your lines and you hit your marks.
This Passion-of-the-Christ body transformation nonsense that actors have embraced so as clutch at dangling Oscars (e.g., Deniro
Raging Bull, Bale
The Mechanic, Matthew McConaughey
Dallas Buyer's Club) is a downstream consequence of the cult of authenticity and fully inhabiting a role. It's dangerous, but the cult persists. The actor must magically transcend pretending and really "become" the subject in order for it to be true acting. It's nonsense, it's self-indulgent, it's dangerous.
And with respect to Mr. Lewis, he sounds a bit crazy, sending Sally Field text messages as Abraham Lincoln and leaving the stage (as in stage acting entirely) after collapsing back stage at a production of Hamlet where he hallucinated seeing his father.
But we want the mythology. We want the Oracle at Delphi to inhale the fumes and to convulse and chatter as we seek substance outside of our everyday experience. If they can be conveyed by the spirits, then maybe so can we? Well, no we can't. It's nonsense and actors should not be encouraged to embrace insanity as a badge of authenticity and talent. Say your lines and hit your marks.