He left and didn’t come back… Daniel Day-Lewis, Oscar and retirement hero
The last time Daniel Day-Lewis was seen, he was walking down a New York street two months ago with the help of crutches. With loose white hair and sportswear, Day-Lewis appeared smiling in front of the paparazzi lens, who took his pictures.
It’s not uncommon for the press to come after celebrities, but Daniel Day-Lewis is no ordinary celebrity. He chose to retire from acting 6 years ago, when he was at the peak of his success and popularity.
Daniel Day-Lewis in his most recent photo two months ago (X)
For Day-Lewis to appear to people after this absence, even if through an image he did not intend, is a reassurance to his longing audience, even if that does not mean that he is returning to the cinema soon. He seems comfortable in his isolation and detachment; It is a “personal decision” that he took in 2017 and announced it through a brief statement without explaining the reasons that prompted him to do so.
The reactions of critics and the public to the decision to retire at the time ranged from absorption to shock. The shocked were surprised by a decision that came after the remarkable success of Day-Lewis for his role in the movie “Phantom Thread”, and he was nominated for an Oscar. As for those who understood the decision, remember that it is not the first time that the British international actor has retired and hidden from the cameras.
Poster for the movie “Phantom Thread”, after which Day-Lewis retired from acting (Facebook)
Long retirement list
Today, 66 years old, Day-Lewis is classified as one of the most important actors in the history of cinema. Some critics go so far as to describe him as the most important of all, the winner of the largest number of Academy Awards among male actors, but all that glory did not prevent a complex relationship between him and acting. A love-hate relationship whose first features appeared when he left the stage while he was in the middle of the scene. He was playing the role of “Hamlet” in Shakespeare’s famous play in 1989, and during the confrontation scene with the ghost of “Hamlet’s” father, Day-Lewis completely collapsed. He left the stage crying hysterically and decided from that moment on never to return. It is said that he then saw the ghost of his father, who died while Day-Lewis was a teenager, which left him with many scars.
Day-Lewis and Judi Dench in a scene from the play “Hamlet” (“Facebook” British National Theatre)
Day-Lewis plays in his roles, it drains him a lot, and this perhaps explains his long retirement list. After the theater, the actor found his way to the cinema, but on the big screen as well, breaks and breaks returned to chart the rhythm of his artistic career.
Between 1993 and 1996, Day-Lewis was absent from the movie scene. This happened between the films “The Age of Innocence” and “The Crucible”. In a semi-retirement, Day-Lewis turned his back on cinema in 1997 after the movie “The Boxer” spoiled him, for which he entered the details of the boxing world.
He filled the void after him with a craft of another kind, so he went to Florence in Italy, and there he learned shoemaking. Day-Lewis has always been home to a small craftsman, since he studied carpentry and mastered cabinetmaking during his early youth. Only director Martin Scorsese was able to extract him from his voluntary isolation, which lasted 5 years. He made him say goodbye to the cobbler’s kit and took him to his masterpiece, “Gangs of New York – Gangs of New York”.
After 5 years of semi-retirement, Day-Lewis returned in the movie “Gangs of New York” in 2002 (Instagram)
All these temptations did not prevent Day-Lewis from getting rid of his habit. In 2013, after winning an Oscar for starring in the movie “Lincoln – Lincoln”, he announced that he would take a long break from acting. He spent 5 years in isolation in Ireland, before returning in 2017 to the big screen in the movie “Phantom Thread”.
Grinding roles
Day-Lewis does not disappear due to moods, as he is known to be very selective in his roles, and that he does not mind moving away if the scenarios presented to him do not convince him. He is also known to drown in his characters to the point of addiction. Despite the traditional training he received in London theaters, he adopts the method of systematic acting. That is, he lives in the character’s skin, inside and outside photography.
While portraying the role of Christy Brown, who has cerebral palsy, in the 1989 movie, “My Left Foot,” Day-Lewis visited clinics for people with special needs, where he formed friendships with some of them. On set, he was confined to a wheelchair, and the crew had to feed him himself.
Daniel Day-Lewis in a scene from “My Left Foot” (Instagram)
In preparation for his role in “The Last of the Mohicans” (1992), Day-Lewis trained as a weightlifter, hunted for animals, and learned to build boats and use weapons. He also spent a month in the forests of North Carolina to test the lives of American Indians, but after completing filming, he had to take sedatives to recover from the role and the difficulty of filming.
“The Last of the Mohicans” movie poster (Facebook)
For his role in the movie “In the Name of the Father”, Day-Lewis lost 14 kilograms and maintained an Irish accent throughout the filming. He also spent a long time in a prison cell, insisting that the work team throw cold water at him and verbally abuse him.
In preparation for the movie “Gangs of New York”, where he played the role of “Bill the Butcher”, Day-Lewis was trained by players in the circus who taught him to throw daggers. He was also listening to “Eminem” songs to keep the mood of anger during filming.
As for the movie “Lincoln – Lincoln”, for which he won an Oscar in 2013, it took a whole year to prepare for it. Day-Lewis has read more than a hundred books about the former US president, and he adopted his voice and accent both on and off the set throughout the filming period.
Thread break
In his last film before retirement in 2017, Day-Lewis played the role of tailor Reynolds Woodcock. Once again, he sank into the personality and learned to sew. He even sewed a dress himself, which his wife later wore. In an interview with “W” magazine, the actor said at the time: “Before filming the movie, I did not know that I would stop acting after that.” He added, “The director and I laughed a lot before filming this movie, but as soon as we started filming, we stopped laughing; Because we drowned in a wave of grief.
“Phantom Thread” tells the story of a man obsessed with the process of creativity and innovation, and this is also one of the features of Day-Lewis’ personality. So maybe the shock happened. When he was asked about the points inherent in the “Woodcock” character that prompted him to grieve and make such a decision, the answer was not clear, except that Day-Lewis summed up the matter by saying that what he discovered through that character is that the artist’s responsibility is great, and this has weighed heavily on his shoulders.
He further said, “If the public believes in the value of what I do, that should be enough for me, but at last it is not like this anymore… I must believe as well.” Perhaps this Day-Lewis sentence answers many questions about his retirement, with the possibility that his failure to win an Oscar for his last role frustrated him, especially since it took a lot of physical and psychological fatigue from him.
