The three-time Oscar-winning actor has been absent from movie screens for eight years, until a collaboration with his son, Ronan, brought him back for « Anemone, » the story of a man living in self-exile.
He has been called the greatest actor of his generation – a three-time Oscar-winner, and reluctant star. « The work itself has always been, has remained nothing but a source of fascination and pleasure to me, the work itself », said Daniel Day-Lewis. « The aftermath of the work has always been difficult for me. You know, you become to some extent a sales rep for that work. And I’m not good at that. I never was. And I’m still not. And that particular part of it, the public part of it, has always left me feeling emptied out. »
And eight years ago, he announced his retirement. But now, a clarification: « I think that was a mistake », he said. « I think it just created a kind of confusion. At the time, I never intended to retire from anything. I chose to stop doing one kind of work so that I could perhaps concentrate on a different kind of work. »
It was part musical interlude: « My youngest son, Cashel, is a fiddle player. And once the idea took root in my head, like, ‘I wonder if I could make him a fiddle’, that was the — you know, things tend to, yeah, it’s hard to let go of a thing. »
He made three, and he says he has the makings of a fourth, « but I just haven’t got down to it yet. »
Day-Lewis admits he was surprised to feel a strong impulse to return to acting: « And largely it was in response to the knowledge that Ronan would be making films. »
Twenty-seven-year-old middle son Ronan Day-Lewis brings credentials and expectations: His mother, filmmaker and author Rebecca Miller, and grandfather, playwright Arthur Miller.
I asked Ronan, « Was your move to film a surprise to your parents? »
« Not really, because I started making little movies with my friends when I was, like, seven », he replied. « When I was really young, I would always be the one kind of annoyingly trying to corral everyone into making a little movie on our dad’s, like, flip camera in the backyard or something. »
« Anemone » is his directorial debut, co-written with his father, who plays Ray Stoker.
