2024-10-02 19:32:36
Seven years after he retired, 67-year-old British actor Daniel Day-Lewis is returning to film. The winner of three Oscars will star in the directorial debut of his son Ronan Day-Lewis. Filming has already started in Manchester.
As the Guardian writes, father and son also wrote the script together. Titled Anemone, the film “explores the complex relationships between fathers, sons and brothers, as well as the dynamics of family relationships,” according to production company Focus Features. International distribution of the film, which also stars Sean Bean and actress Samantha Morton, will be provided by Universal.
Twenty-six-year-old Ronan Day-Lewis is a filmmaker and painter. He lives in New York, so far he has directed short films and music videos, The Hollywood Reporter adds.
Daniel Day-Lewis and Juliette Binoche in The Unbearable Lightness of Being. | Photo: The Saul Zaentz Company
Czech audiences know Daniel Day-Lewis, whom Time magazine named the best actor in the world in 2012, thanks to the film adaptation of Milan Kundera’s novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being. He appeared in it in 1988 alongside Juliette Binoche. But the film received an embarrassed reception, the writer rejected it and banned further adaptations of his works.
The actor won his first Oscar shortly after for the role of a paralyzed Irish writer and painter who can only communicate through one leg in the 1989 film My Left Leg. Because of it, Day-Lewis stopped walking for many weeks and was confined to a wheelchair. He also interacted intensively with paralyzed people in an institution for the handicapped.
During filming, he allegedly refused to step out of the role, so he didn’t talk to anyone. Crew members had to carry him in a wheelchair via cables, position him in front of the camera or feed him. It was all part of Day-Lewis’ acting method. Thanks to her, he said, he saw how unpleasant situations paralyzed people face and what they normally experience.
Daniel Day-Lewis as Butcher Bill in Gangs of New York. | Photo: Miramax Films
The London native became widely known for his role as the white hunter and brave friend of the Indians, Falcon Eye, in the narrative epic The Last of the Mohicans. For this project as well, he underwent demanding training, among other things, he learned to live in nature, where he hunted animals and fish. It is said that he did not take off his rifle at the time of filming, was a brilliant master of the tomahawk, knew how to build a canoe and skinned the game himself.
In the 1990s, director Martin Scorsese cast him in the film The Age of Innocence, set in the 19th century. Before filming, Day-Lewis spent two months walking around New York in period clothing with a top hat and cane. Day-Lewis collaborated with the same artist once more, at the beginning of the millennium on the title Gangs of New York. In order to convincingly portray the violent leader of a criminal gang, he reportedly sharpened knives and listened to rapper Eminem’s tracks while filming. They helped him to arouse anger in himself.
He won his second Oscar in 2008 for his portrayal of a greedy oil tycoon from the early 20th century in the drama Up to Blood. He received his last statuette five years later, when the American Academy honored his title character in the film Lincoln. It took him a year to prepare for the role. He reportedly read over a hundred books during that time, worked on his Kentucky native accent, and worked closely with makeup artists.
One of the most in-demand actors of his generation, he always chose his roles carefully and turned down many offers, which led to several years of filming breaks during his career. In 2017, when he turned 60 and played a fashion designer in the period drama Ghost Thread, he ended his career for personal reasons. “Daniel Day-Lewis will no longer play,” his spokeswoman said at the time. “For all these years, he is infinitely grateful to all collaborators and viewers,” she added without further details.
Since then, Daniel Day-Lewis has kept mostly to himself. Today, alongside Jack Nicholson, he is the only living actor who has ever won three Oscars. Of the still active actresses, Frances McDormand and Meryl Streep achieved the same success.
Video: The actuality of 1968 is scary and sad. It’s happening again, says the star of the film Waves (September 10, 2024)
“Especially now, the film could resonate because of what is happening in Ukraine,” says actor Vojtěch Vodochodský, who plays the main role in the film Waves. | Video: Team Spotlight