Daniel Day-Lewis’s Final Film Left Him With An Overwhelming ‘Sense of Sadness’

Apr 13, 2022 by apost team

Legendary English actor, Daniel Day-Lewis, has entertained fans with his talent since 1970. However, the beloved star decided to retire from acting in 2017. He still remains the only performer to win the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role three times. In 2014, Day-Lewis was knighted for his contributions to drama. He is also considered to be one of the more selective actors, having only appeared in 6 films since 1998. 

Day-Lewis received critical acclaim for his performances in “My Beautiful Laundrette” and “A Room with a View.” The star then established himself as a leading man with the films “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” “My Left Foot” and “The Last of the Mohicans.” He has also starred in, “In the Name of the Father,” “The Age of Innocence,” “The Boxer” and “Gangs of New York.” Day-Lewis’s most recent works include “There Will Be Blood,” “Lincoln” and “Phantom Thread.” The actor decided to retire after the release of “Phantom Thread” in 2017.

Day-Lewis showed talent on stage at the National Youth Theatre when he was young and went on to study at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He is also known for executing the method style of acting. This means he is intensely devoted to the role, does extensive research and typically remains in character throughout filming. 

In his personal life, Day-Lewis remains very private and doesn’t make many public appearances. He rarely grants interviews but we do know some details. The actor married Arthur Miller’s daughter, Rebecca, in 1996 and they have two children. Their eldest son Ronan was born in 1998 and their younger son Cashel was born in 2002. Keep reading to learn about Day-Lewis’s thoughts on acting and why he decided to retire.

Daniel Day-Lewis is a phenomenal actor and has a unique perspective on the craft due to his method style of acting. He shared:

“Well, part of my job is to be drained. You absorb and you nourish yourself. You feed yourself for whatever period of time, in this case a year, and then your job is to more or less to drain yourself for whatever it is that you have to offer.”

The star added: ‘It's misleading to give the impression that that, therefore, is a kind of voluntary flagellation of some kind because, for me, it's really important to make the distinction that this work is a joyful thing. Even when you're exploring areas that could involve great conflict, could involve emotions that are not easy to live with necessarily, nonetheless the underlying sense is the joy of the work. And it's always been a joyful thing. It's a game that I enjoy playing.”

Day-Lewis doesn’t see his extreme dedication to his roles as a problem. “And just to go one further with your question, what would drain me much more, in my case, is jumping in and out of that world that we've gone to such an inordinate length to create for ourselves. You're not discovering anything when you're having a cup of tea and laugh with the grips, as tempting as that would be. There are lots of great people on a film set. And I wore myself out, the first couple of movies I got involved with - the thing that really drained me was the socializing on the set,” he said with a laugh.

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In June 2017, Day-Lewis released a statement announcing his retirement from acting. It 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, he did comment further on the subject. Day-Lewis said, “I knew it was uncharacteristic to put out a statement, but I did want to draw a line. I didn’t want to get sucked back into another project.”

The star began to feel like it was the right time to let go of his acting career. Day-Lewis continued, “All my life, I’ve mouthed off about how I should stop acting, and I don’t know why it was different this time, but the impulse to quit took root in me, and that became a compulsion. It was something I had to do.”

He explained the desire to quit came from a need “to explore the world in a different way.” Day-Lewis also said, “I need to believe in the value of what I’m doing. The work can seem vital. Irresistible, even. And if an audience believes it, that should be good enough for me. But, lately, it isn’t.”

It was his experience filming “Phantom Thread” that helped Day-Lewis decide to retire. “Before making the film, I didn’t know I was going to stop acting,” he said. “I do know that Paul (Anderson) and I laughed a lot before we made the movie. And then we stopped laughing because we were both overwhelmed by a sense of sadness. That took us by surprise: We didn’t realize what we had given birth to. It was hard to live with. And still is.”

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