The answer is: yes, but only after much detailed work. On the My Left Foot set, he refused to leave his wheelchair and asked crew members to feed him and push him around. To authentically portray the fearsome Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York, Day-Lewis perfected the craft of sharpening knives between takes. Before playing Hawkeye, he survived by his own wits for days, alone in acres of wilderness. As a falsely accused IRA man in In the Name of the Father, he went without sleep for three nights before a gruelling interrogation scene.