Daniel Day-Lewis has revealed why he quit acting in 2017, and what drew him back into the field.
The actor who is renowned for starring in Gangs of New York, My Left Foot, and There Will Be Blood, had announced that he would be stepping away from the world of acting following the release of Phantom Threat in 2017.
At the time, a spokesperson said: “Daniel Day-Lewis will no longer be working as an actor. He is immensely grateful to all of his collaborators and audiences over the many years. This is a private decision and neither he nor his representatives will make any further comment on this subject".
However, eight years on, and Daniel Day-Lewis has returned to acting, starring in Anemore, a project directed by his son, Ronan Day-Lewis.
The movie sees Daniel star as a reclusive former soldier living in the woods, who is forced to face up to his past when his brother, who is played by Sean Bean, seeks him out.
Explaining why he had initially retired, Day-Lewis said: “The work was always something I loved. I never, ever stopped loving the work. But there were aspects of the way of life that went with it that I’d never come to terms with — from the day I started out to today. There’s something about that process that left me feeling hollowed out at the end of it".
“I was well acquainted with it. I understood that it was all part of the process, and that there would be a regeneration eventually. And it was only really in the last experience [making Phantom Thread] that I began to feel quite strongly that maybe there wouldn’t be that regeneration anymore. That I just probably should just keep away from it, because I didn’t have anything else to offer".
The actor also went onto say that watching his son's filmmaking career take off was another pull factor in his return.
“I had some residual sadness because I knew Ronan was going to go on to make films, and I was walking away from that”, He stated. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could do something together and find a way of maybe containing it, so that it didn’t necessarily have to be something that required all the paraphernalia of a big production?".
Despite this, Day-Lewis did feel a certain level of trepidation about returning.
“It was just kind of a low-level fear” he said, “[an] anxiety about re-engaging with the business of filmmaking".
Anemone will receive its world premiere at the New York Film Festival, ahead of its cinema release in the US on October 3, before arriving in the UK on November 7.
