DANIEL’S DEPARTURE FROM HOLLYWOOD
AND so farewell then Daniel Day-Lewis. The actor known for his almost chameleon-like ability to submerge himself into the characters he plays is now taking on quite a different role: that of retiree.
The 60-year-old Day-Lewis has announced that the film Phantom Thread, to be released later this year, will be his last: “Daniel DayLewis will no longer be working as an actor,” his spokeswoman Leslee Dart said in a statement.
“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.”
Film buffs will grieve as DayLewis, the only man ever to win an Oscar for Best Actor three times, is undoubtedly a master of his trade. But perhaps they should hold back before weeping too vociferously for this is not the first time Day-Lewis has abandoned the profession that made his name.
There was a five-year gap after starring in The Boxer in 1997, which looked as if it might have turned permanent until Martin Scorsese tempted him back to the screen in Gangs Of New York.
And as one wag put it, in 1989 he retired from the London stage when he was actually on stage, after breaking down when he thought he’d seen the ghost of his own father when playing Hamlet. He left the stage, never to return.
There was in fact some bemusement in the wake of the announcement on the grounds that there was no need to make it: Daniel Day-Lewis has long been adept at vanishing off the face of the earth and returning only as and when it suited him. Why go to the trouble of drawing attention to his retirement? Only DayLewis knows and it’s a fair bet he won’t tell.
The great irony is that the man considered by many to be the greatest thespian of his generation never actually planned on joining the profession in the first place.
Born on April 29, 1957, to poet Cecil Day-Lewis and actress Jill Balcon, and educated at Bedales, Day-Lewis made his screen debut at the age of 14 in Sunday Bloody Sunday, in an uncredited role as a vandal.
He also appeared with the National Youth Theatre but on leaving school in 1975 applied for an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker. He was turned down and so ended up at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School where began a brilliant career.
A series of roles on stage and film followed but it was My Beautiful Laundrette in 1985 that proved to be his breakthrough, quickly followed by A Room With A View. His ability to move from playing a gay ex-extremist in the former to the quintessentially buttoned-up Brit in the latter was an indication of the glories to come: Daniel was a method actor, so much so that he stayed in character even after filming stopped.
And so, during the making of My Left Foot, for which he won his first Oscar playing the artist Christy Brown who suffered from cerebral palsy, he spent eight weeks in a cerebral palsy clinic in Dublin, learned to paint with his left foot, didn’t leave his wheelchair throughout, was lifted in and out of the car that brought him to the set and was fed by the rest of the cast. When tempted out of his first bout of semi-retirement by Scorsese for Gangs Of New York, in which he played a gang leader in the 1860s, he apprenticed as a butcher and hired circus performers to teach him how to throw knives.
“As an actor you learn, you learn; you shoot and shoot for a long time; and then you’re dog meat,” he said in 2002 in a newspaper article which, incidentally, was entitled Actor Daniel Day-Lewis Quits Film Business.
He continued: “And then you realise that you learned nothing. And that’s a difficult thing to live with.”
He is also well aware of how this comes across elsewhere: “In England they thought I was unhinged,” he said on another occasion.
Day-Lewis has been married for 21 years to actress Rebecca Miller, daughter of the playwright Arthur, with whom he has two children. The couple met when he visited Arthur in 1996 while working on the film version of Miller’s The Crucible. The wedding was extremely low key and it was only after the event that Daniel’s elder sister Tamasin confirmed it had taken place. What Deya Pichardo thought about this is unknown.
Deya was Daniel’s girlfriend at the time and only discovered her beau had married someone else when Isabelle Adjani, the mother of Daniel’s oldest child and herself in a relationship with him for six years, rang to congratulate Deya after he sent her a note to tell her about his nuptials. Unfortunately he didn’t specify the name of the bride. But then his behaviour would have come as no surprise to Isabelle herself: Daniel ended the relationship while she was pregnant and afterwards she spoke of his numerous infidelities. Conquests included Julia Roberts and Winona Ryder plus rumoured liaisons with actresses Greta Scacchi and Juliette Binoche. He has also been linked to singers Madonna and Sinead O’Connor.
His marriage appears to have brought a halt to his wandering eye but where his next stage in life will take him is anyone’s guess.
That early interest in crafting materials with his hands never left him. During his previous five-year sabbatical he ended up in Florence, learning the trade with renowned shoemaker Stefano Bemer.
HE ALSO took up woodworking and in 2013 announced he would be retreating to his farm in County Wicklow to learn “rural skills” such as stonemasonry.
It has also been said that for years his children were not aware of the true nature of their father’s job. But with two more Oscars for There Will Be Blood and Lincoln, Daniel was never going to keep his career a secret for long.
Day-Lewis received a knighthood in 2014, emulating his father’s achievement, but there are many who believe that his toughest role of all has been that of his father’s son. He was only 15 when Poet Laureate Sir Cecil died and he has spoken of his sadness at not having known his father better.
But what now? Is this really it? Daniel has retired from the scene before only to change his mind and make a comeback. There may well be a place for him on the stage yet.
He’s the only performer to have won three Best Actor Oscars and is famous for going to extreme lengths for each role but Daniel Day-Lewis has decided to quit acting