Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Eight years after announcing his retirement, Daniel Day-Lewis is set to return to the screen in Anemone, directed by his son, Ronan Day-Lewis.
In an exclusive interview with Rolling Stone, prior to the film’s world premiere at the upcoming New York Film Festival, Day-Lewis expressed regret over his 2017 retirement announcement. “Looking back on it now— I would have done well to just keep my mouth shut, for sure,” he remarked. “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.”
Day-Lewis, who first took a break from acting in 1997 to become a shoemaker in Italy, returned to film in 2002 for Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. His announcement of a second major break followed his role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2017 film Phantom Thread.
Reflecting on his career, he said, “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.”
He added that he felt “some residual sadness” knowing his son would continue making films while he stepped away. “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 follows the journey of a middle-aged man, played by Sean Bean, as he reconnects with his estranged hermit brother, portrayed by Day-Lewis.
Despite initial apprehensions about re-entering the film industry, Day-Lewis noted that his son made it clear he would not pursue the project without him. “It was just kind of a low-level fear, [an] anxiety about re-engaging with the business of filmmaking. The work was always something I loved. 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,” he explained.
Day-Lewis continued, “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.”
Anemone is scheduled to open in select theaters on October 3, followed by a nationwide release on October 10 from Focus Features.
Based on reporting by Hollywood Reporter. Read the full story at Hollywood Reporter.