Daniel Day-Lewis spoke for the first time to Rolling Stone about his decision to end his retirement from acting after 8 years to star in “Anemone,” a new movie directed by his son Ronan. Day-Lewis, a three-time Oscar winner (“My Left Foot,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Lincoln”), co-wrote the “Anemone” script with Ronan based on an original idea they conceived together.
Back in June 2017, Day-Lewis announced his retirement from acting after making Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread.” A spokesperson for the actor announced at the time: “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. ”
The retirement announcement was not Day-Lewis’ first. He took an extended absence from the profession in 1997 to become a shoemaker in Italy after appearing in Jim Sheridan’s “The Boxer.” He returned in 2002 to play Bill the Butcher in Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York.”
Speaking to Rolling Stone ahead of “Anemone’s” world premiere at the New York Film Festival, Day-Lewis said he came out of retirement because “I had some residual sadness because I knew Ronan was going to go on to make films, and I was walking away from that. 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.”
“Anemone” stars Day-Lewis as a recluse living in the woods of Northern England. His life is upended when his brother (Sean Bean) shows up and forces him to confront his mysterious past. Samuel Bottomley, Safia Oakley-Green and Samantha Morton round out the cast.
Day-Lewis admitted he had “certain reservations about being back in the public world again” when he was considering whether or not to star in “Anemone” or just write it and hand off one of the roles to a different actor. Then son Ronan “made it pretty clear that he wasn’t going to do it if I didn’t do it.”
“It was just kind of a low-level fear, [an] anxiety about re-engaging with the business of filmmaking,” Day-Lewis said of his nerves about coming out of retirement. “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 mean, 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.”
“But looking back on it now — I would have done well to just keep my mouth shut, for sure,” he continued. “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. I never, you know… 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… 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. 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” will open in select theaters Oct. 3 before a nationwide expansion Oct. 10 from Focus Features. Head over to Rolling Stone’s website to read Day-Lewis’ interview in its entirety.
