Daniel Day-Lewis’ comeback: That’s why he’s celebrated as an acting giant

At an age when most people are finally able to start their well-deserved retirement, a retired global star is choosing the exact opposite path. Hollywood giant Daniel Day-Lewis (67), who announced his decision to turn his back on the dream factory in 2017, has now changed his mind. At the retirement age of 67, he is celebrating his comeback in front of the camera and will play the leading role in his son Ronan Day-Lewis’ (26) directorial debut called “Anemone”. But why is the star, who is so introverted in real life, considered one of the best, if not the best, actors of our time?

A man with method

Daniel Day-Lewis is still the unrivaled master of “method acting” seven years after his temporary retirement. If he was supposed to portray a butcher, he first learned how to professionally cut up a pig. As Hawkeye in “The Last of the Mohicans,” he first mastered building a canoe. And for “My Left Foot” he spent almost the entire shoot and also private hours in a wheelchair. In short, Daniel Day-Lewis is a madman in the most positive sense of the word. Someone who has patented complete self-sacrifice for a role. And who was the only man to date to win three Oscars for a leading role.

It was no surprise that Daniel Day-Lewis would have a good chance of a career in the film industry, given the professions of his family members. His mother, Jill Balcon, earned her living as an actress, and her husband, Cecil Day-Lewis, as a writer. His grandfather Michael Balcon was now allowed to call himself head of the Ealing Studio, a renowned British film studio.

A (too) tender soul?

When you see and hear Day-Lewis in old interviews or especially in his various acceptance speeches, you sometimes don’t believe your senses. The 1.87 meter tall mime speaks shyly and in a delicate voice, looking more at the ground than proudly forward. Can this really be the same man who, foaming at the mouth, saw himself as the third revelation of God in “There Will Be Blood”? Who, as William “The Butcher” Cutting, played the madman so convincingly off camera that people on the set of “Gangs of New York” preferred to avoid him?

There have been many “method actors” in the history of cinema. But regardless of whether it was Marlon Brando (1924-2004) or Robert De Niro (81), compared to Day-Lewis, even they lacked the consistency to really push themselves to the limit for each individual role. Or the consequence of not even taking on some parts. The story persists that Day-Lewis turned down the role of Aragorn in “The Lord of the Rings” because such a fantasy character would not have been compatible with his “method acting”.

But perhaps this ability to give up every fiber of one’s existence for a film and transform into another person is also his curse. “I remember Paul and I laughed a lot together before we made the film. And then we stopped laughing because we were both overcome by a feeling of sadness. That surprised us both: we hadn’t realized What we brought into the world was hard to live with and it still is.” That’s what he had about his , which came out in theaters in 2018. At the age of 60, Day-Lewis apparently no longer had the strength for this 100 percent self-sacrifice – and he doesn’t do it any lower than that. This is of course promising for the new film “Anemone”: his son Ronan certainly won’t be able to complain about the lack of commitment of his leading actor.

Not a man for the supporting role

It could already be assumed at the time that his farewell in 2017 did not necessarily have to be final. Back in the 90s, Day-Lewis took a five-year break to learn the art of shoemaking in Florence. What activity he spent the past seven years on is not documented.

So far, Daniel Day-Lewis has taken on the personality of another person on the big screen 20 times. His career in Hollywood started in 1982 with a small role in the film “Gandhi”, shortly afterwards he appeared in “Bounty” with Mel Gibson (68) and Anthony Hopkins (86). In 1990, what would become a unique career began. At that time he received the Oscar for his incredible performance as the paralyzed writer and painter Christy Brown (1932-1981) in “My Left Foot”. Two more lead actor Oscars followed for “There Will Be Blood” and “Lincoln.” He was also nominated in this category three more times – for “In the Name of the Father”, “Gangs of New York” and most recently “The Silk Thread”.

In short: Daniel Day-Lewis was never a man for the supporting role. Even with his comeback in “Anemone,” which has not yet been exactly scheduled, nothing will change. A question that has not yet been clarified, but should be of great interest to fans of the exceptional talent: Is his comeback a one-off thing for the love of his son (and his career as a filmmaker)? Or can Daniel Day-Lewis’ actual regular director Paul Thomas Anderson have legitimate hopes for further collaboration?