Day-lewis ‘quitting film to make dresses’

THE reason for Daniel Daylewis’s sudden retirement from acting has apparently been discovered – he is to become a dressmaker, having become immersed in the craft while researching a film role.

Phantom Thread is set in the British fashion industry of the 1950s and reunites Day-lewis with Paul Thomas Anderson, the director of There Will Be Blood.

According to the New York Post, the English actor became enamoured of dressmaking while learning about the world of haute couture.

While the announcement last week that Day-lewis was retiring from acting was a surprise, his decision is not without some precedent. In the late-1990s he withdrew from the profession to become a shoemaker, working as an apprentice to Stefano Bemer, an Italian cobbler.

A source told the newspaper that Day-lewis had been planning to retire from acting for several years.

“He’s so method, it takes him three years to prepare for a role,” the source said. “He was telling friends he really wanted to go out with a bang.”

Day-lewis is famed for his dedication to method acting, which has involved immersing himself in the behaviours and skills of his characters and refusing to break character while on set.

He was spoon-fed on the set of My Left Foot while playing an artist with cerebral palsy and lived in a bush while preparing for The Last of the Mohicans.

Phantom Thread is due for release at Christmas.