Daniel Day-Lewis Breaks Silence on Ending Retirement

Daniel Day-Lewis is sharing more insight into his decision to end his retirement from acting after eight years.

The three-time Oscar winner spoke to Rolling Stone on Wednesday, Sept. 10, about his return to acting to star in his son Roman’s new film, Anemone. The actor shares Ronan, 27, Gabriel-Kane, 29, and Cashel Blake, 22, with wife Rebecca Miller.

Day-Lewis, who last appeared on the big screen in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2017 drama Phantom Thread, told the outlet that he had “certain reservations about being back in the public world again” about the decision to star in Anemone. But he explained that Ronan “made it pretty clear that he wasn’t going to do it if [his father] didn’t do it.”

The new movie was written by Day-Lewis and Rowan, drawing inspiration from their real-life father-son relationship. “Family bonds between fathers, sons and brothers are explored as complex relationships unfold through personal journeys and generational conflicts,” per the synopsis. 

The 68-year-old actor confessed that after retiring, he “had some residual sadness.”

“Because I knew Ronan was going to go on to make films, and I was walking away from that,” he told Rolling Stone. “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.”

“It was just kind of a low-level fear, [an] anxiety about re-engaging with the business of filmmaking,” Day-Lewis said. “The work was always something I loved. I never, ever stopped loving the work.”

The Lincoln actor explained there are aspects of filmmaking that make him feel “hollowed out.” However, he was “well acquainted with it” and “understood that it was all part of the process, and that there would be a regeneration eventually.” 

While making Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis began to think that “maybe there wouldn’t be that regeneration anymore,” adding, “That I just probably should just keep away from it, because I didn’t have anything else to offer.”

“But looking back on it now — I would have done well to just keep my mouth shut, for sure,” he admitted. “It just seems like such grandiose gibberish to talk about. I never intended to retire, really. I just stopped doing that particular type of work so I could do some other work.”

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“Apparently, I’ve been accused of retiring twice now. I never meant to retire from anything! I just wanted to work on something else for a while,” Day-Lewis said.

The first time Day-Lewis announced plans to retire was in 1997 after making The Boxer. He returned in 2002 for Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, a film that earned him his third Best Actor Oscar nomination. Day-Lewis holds the record with three Best Actor Oscar wins, thanks to his performances in My Left Foot (1989), There Will Be Blood (2007) and Lincoln (2012).

“As I get older, it just takes me longer and longer to find my way back to the place where the furnace is burning again,” he said. “But working with Ro, that furnace just lit up. And it was, from beginning to end, just pure joy to spend that time together with him.”

Anemone premieres in select theaters Oct. 3, expanding wide Oct. 10.