Daniel Day-Lewis: Cinematic Enigma | Full Biography (Lincoln, Gangs of New York)

He is an enigmatic actor, legendary actor, the  only one in the history of the existence of   the main award of the American Academy  of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,   who received three Oscars as the Best Actor. He  was knighted for outstanding services to drama,   and is now called Sir Daniel Day-Lewis  [ˈdænjəl deɪ-ˈluɪs]. At the same time,   you will not find loud headlines with him,  and his name is familiar only to moviegoers.   In order to better get into the role,  he voluntarily put himself in prison,   lived in the woods for months, eating only what  he could find, confined himself to a wheelchair   and learned to use only one leg, imagining  that the rest of his body was paralyzed.   So who is Daniel Day-Lewis really? What was his  childhood like? How did he become the person we   all know and respect? What made him make a loud  announcement that he was leaving the movies   forever at the very peak of his amazingly  successful acting career? Stay with us on   the Biographer channel, and we will dive into the  life story of this extraordinary actor with you.   SON OF THE FAMOUS CECIL Inset quote: “Welcome to earth, my child!   Joybells of blossom swing, Lambs and lovers have their fling,   The streets run wild With April airs and rumors of the sun.   We time-worn folk renew Ourselves at your enchanted spring,   As though mankind's begun Again in you.   This is your birthday and our thanksgiving.” Cecil Day Lewis / ”The Newborn”   For someone, parents give a baby carriage or a  cradle, for someone - a lot of wonderful toys.   In April 1957, the baby Daniel Michael Blake  Day-Lewis was given a whole poem by his father,   in addition to the usual children's stuff. And maybe there would be nothing special in this,   if that poem had not been written by Cecil  Day-Lewis himself, CBE/ Commander of the Most   Excellent Order of the British Empire - a famous  Anglo-Irish poet of such scale that a few years   later, in 1968, he was elected Poet Laureate. Daniel's mother, Jill, was also a creative person.   The beautiful Jill Balcon [ˈbælkən],  who was Polish on her mother's side,   and had Jewish roots on her father's  side. She was an actress. In addition,   she was the daughter of Sir Michael Elias Balcon  himself, a famous film producer who from 1938   to 1955 headed the most famous film studio in  Britain at that time, Ealing Studios, which was   also called British Hollywood. It was in his honor  that later, in 1979, one of the most prestigious   film awards - BAFTA - the British Academy  of Film and Television Arts, was founded.   Perhaps Jill's acting career could have turned  out differently but she focused on her family   quite early, becoming the wife of Cecil  Day-Lewis and the mother of his children.   At the time of her acquaintance with the famous  poet, the talented and promising beauty was just   beginning her creative career as an actress on the  stage of the theater, in the movies and on TV.   In 1948, in the BBC studio, when she voiced a  radio program, the young woman met Cecil. He   was an imposing, famous, charismatic Professor of  Poetry at Oxford, 21 years older than her and...   married. In addition, he was not just married,  but had been married for 20 years, had a wife,   two children and a mistress. That dark-haired  brunette with a deep expressive voice, for which   the listeners of BBC programs loved her so much,  did not become for the poet another victim of   the frivolous affair for which he was known. That  time he fell in love for real, divorced his wife,   and in 1951 he and Jill officially married. Jill's father, Sir Michael Balcon, was strongly   against this marriage but nothing could come  between Cecil and Jill. They were real soul mates,   both madly in love with poetry and each other.  When in September 1953, the couple had a daughter,   Tamasin, and four years later, on April  29, 1957, a son, Daniel, it did not greatly   affect their immersion in their own love. The children were entrusted with the care of   nannies, while their parents continued to live  the usual life of a poet and his muse. That is   why Tamasin and Daniel became the closest friends,  partners in games and partners in crime from the   very childhood and it has remained so to this  day. The emotional detachment of the parents   brought the brother and sister closer, making them  literally one whole in those years. It's not that   their parents didn’t love them. It's just that the  famous dad spent a lot of time in his office at   work, where children were strictly forbidden  to wander, and mom was more concerned with   creating a favorable atmosphere for their father. Inset quote: “We were mostly left alone. And Papa   was older than most of our contemporaries’ fathers  as we were his second family. He was perhaps more   distant than many of his generation because of  the nature of being a poet and writer. He was,   however, ruthlessly fair, gentle until driven to  fever pitch, with a childlike sense of humor and   natural grace”. - Tamasin Day-Lewis When Daniel was two years old,   the family moved to Greenwich [ˈɡrinˌwɪʧ], to  an old house on Crooms Hill Street, most of   the buildings on which date from the 17th and 18th  centuries. They lived in a building of dark brick,   with white shutters and dark red doors, in  the very attic of which, under the same roof,   two children spent most of their time. They had a  nursery and an attic at their disposal, and there   they were completely separated from their parents,  who occupied the four lower floors. The children   went downstairs only for the official dinner. Inset quote: “We didn’t come down for dinner, we   had tea in the nursery with Nanny, and were thrown  together into a solitary world but for each other,   which led us straight to the landscape  of the imagination.” - Tamasin Day-Lewis   There was another dramatic circumstance that  distanced the parents from Daniel and Tamasin   and filled the whole atmosphere of the house  with a gloomy sense of inevitability - Cecil's   illness. Since the beginning of the 60s,  the poet was ill almost all the time,   and the whole home life of the family revolved  around not bothering Dad, not only because of   his work, but also because of his health. But there were pleasant moments in life in   this creative house on Crooms Hill. There was  a theater right across the street. Even then,   Daniel was fascinated by the special  magic associated with acting.   But the most vivid childhood memories for the  children were trips with their parents to the   coast in County Mayo [ˈkaʊnti ˈmeɪoʊ]. From  Tamasin's recollections, they never took a   vacation with their parents until she was nine  and Daniel was six. It was then that they went   to the West Coast of Ireland for the first time  together as a real family. And from that time,   until his father's death, they spent summer  vacations together, in Ireland, in the   country where Cecil Day-Lewis was born. These  indescribably beautiful and boundless wastelands   of the Atlantic coast, the feeling of being at the  very edge of the world, unity with parents, made   an unforgettable impression on the children. Inset quote: “different way of life that had a   profound influence over our lives. In showing  us the heritage we came from, our father,   without imposing it, allowed it to bed down  and settle like sediment, layer after layer,   year after year. - (Tamasin Day-Lewis) Especially important in these travels   for Daniel was the closeness with  Cecil, which he had not felt before,   although he definitely adored and respected him  from early childhood. Ireland gave the boy a   real dad. Not a great Poet Laureate, but a father  who shared his childhood memories, told about his   favorite places, his childhood friends. But in addition to the summer vacation,   there was also such a routine necessity as school.  Parents sent Daniel to an ordinary school in   South London. Since Cecil Day-Lewis was actively  interested in the ideas of communism in the 1930s,   he was very close to the idea of class equality.  Therefore, the decision to send the children to   an ordinary school, where children from  the ordinary strata of society studied,   seemed right to him. Daniel, raised by nannies  and governesses, a descendant of an artistic   family from high society, unexpectedly found  himself among the tough kids of South London.   These were Sherington [‘ʃɪrɪŋtʌn] Primary School  in Charlton [ˈʧɑrltən] and Invicta Primary School   in Blackheath [ˈblækˌhiθ]. Daniel was mercilessly  bullied in both of them, because there were   several reasons for that - his background  and the fact that he was considered posh.   Inset quote: ”In my case they could have  chosen any one of a number of insults,   since I was Irish and Jewish, and from a different  class to most of the kids. They knew that because   of my voice. But children are very adaptable.  They're great performers: they perform for their   parents all the time, to find out how to get what  they want. To me, it was absolutely unconscious.   It was raw survival." - (Daniel Day-Lewis) So the boy had to play on the life stage for   the first time, using his innate acting skills.  In order to stand out as little as possible,   he mastered the local accent and began to  imitate the manner of behavior of local boys,   in which he achieved such success that he  even became his own among juvenile hooligans.   A few years later, in 1968, when the parents  noticed disappointing changes in Daniel,   the fact that he had become more wild and  undisciplined, they decided that democratic   education should be put an end to. The boy was  sent to Sevenoaks [ˈsɛvənoʊks] - a boarding school   for boys in Kent County, whose strict discipline  was supposed to turn Daniel on the right path.   He hated this school from the very beginning. Inset quote: "The place was alien and unattractive   in every single one of its millions of details. A  feeling of nausea stayed with me from the moment   I got there until the moment I left. And  there was the code of honor, so you never   talk about your suffering. So you have to do it  in silence. Or find a place where you can be on   your own and scream." - (Daniel Day-Lewis) But it was this school that revealed two   important things for him, which would play a  significant role in his later life. One would   become a favorite hobby, and the other would  be a lifelong calling. Those two things were   woodworking, namely cabinetmaking, and acting. When Daniel was 12 years old, he single-handedly   took on a school project - Ping-Pong table and,  despite the ambitious nature of the project,   he succeeded. He took this table home and they  used it for many years. Later, as an adult,   he did not abandon his passion and enjoyed making  exquisite furniture and objects, especially for   gifts to his relatives and friends. So there was  a beautiful round dining table and chairs in his   mother's cottage in Hampshire [ˈhæmpʃər] for  many years, which he made especially for her.   How about the theater? Why did he choose acting,  and even in such a strict school as Sevenoaks?   He made his stage debut as a black boy in the  play "Cry, The Beloved Country". For this role,   he wore all black make-up and later happily  stained the snow-white school sheets with   this paint, which did not completely wash off. In  this way, he did at least some damage to the hated   school. Being in this place was so terrifying  for Daniel that his mother even forbade him   and Tamasin to correspond while he was there. Inset quote: “I had been forbidden to write to   him by our mother as my school tales  were pure joy and he was suffering   pure hell”. - (Tamasin Day-Lewis) After two years in the hated Sevenoaks,   the parents took pity on the boy and transferred  him to the more progressive Bedales School in   Petersfield [bi’deɪlz skul ɪn ˈpitərzfild], where  Tamasin was already studying at that time.   Not to say that this happened only because of  the parents' own decision. The decision was   preceded by Daniel's dramatic escape from  school. According to his sister, Daniel,   together with two friends, got together and  roamed the country, having only pocket money   and a pack of cigarettes without a filter. But before that, another thing happened to   Daniel in the summer, during the holidays, between  the transfer from Sevenoaks to Bedales. Although   it seemed to him just an interesting adventure,  it would later be interpreted by biographers as   the beginning of an actor's career on the big  screen. In 1970, when the boy was 13 years old,   while playing football with friends in Greenwich  Park, Daniel, completely unexpectedly for himself,   got his first role in a real movie. The director of the drama "Sunday Bloody   Sunday", John Schlesinger [ˈʃlɛsɪnʤər], was  just looking for boys on location who could   play in episodes as juvenile hooligans. And  then a local seller recommended Daniel and   his friends to him. Later, the actor with  a smile recalled this role as heavenly,   because for the exciting vandal experience of  scratching the shiny sides of parked cars with   keys and coins, he was also paid as much as £2. Bedales, a liberal and student-oriented school   where relationships with teachers were more  open, left Daniel with only pleasant memories.   There he continued to play on stage and it was in  Bedales that the only time the father saw his son   participate in a play. It was the role of Florizel  in the Shakespeare play "The Winter's Tale".   But even in this school, Daniel  did not stop doing bad stuff,   although Tamasin was usually the initiator. Inset quote: “Though we both did rebel most of   the time. Drinking, smoking, stealing, organizing  a hunger strike, escaping late at night to the   opposite sex’s dorms, we led by bad example…  I egged Dan on and, he has told me since,   was an evil influence! He insists I made him  steal for me. My defense: it was his choice. We   were partners in crime.”- Tamasin Day-Lewis Besides his sister Tamasin, Daniel had two   more half-brothers - Cecil's sons from  his first marriage, Sean and Nicholas,   with whom the children hardly communicated  due to the significant age difference. Later,   Nicholas went to live in Australia. But with  Sean, who became a journalist, the brother and   sister subsequently maintained a relationship  for quite a long time. However, in 1994,   communication between Daniel and Sean finally  broke off, after Sean helped a journalist write   his version of Daniel's biography, which contained  a lot of incorrect dates and twisted facts.   BETWEEN THE STAGE AND THE SCREEN Cecil died in 1972, after a long illness,   from pancreatic cancer, when Daniel was  only 15 years old. When dad was dying,   Daniel held his hand. Shocked to the core, the  teenager returned to school and immersed himself   in woodwork to at least somehow escape  from the grief that was consuming him.   Due to stress, Daniel developed constant  migraines, and in 1973, when he was prescribed   painkillers because of this, he became addicted  to them for a while. One day he drank too much   and the school management had to lock him  in a room under the nurse's supervision,   so that he would come to his senses. But over time, everything got better in the   teenager's life. Even then, a bright dark-haired  handsome athlete with a penetrating look and a   seductive smile broke the hearts of many girls.  He even had the nickname Daniel Day-Pinup,   which was awarded by his female fans. But, despite  the wide choice, Daniel at that time remained   faithful to his only chosen Sarah Campbell, with  whom they were together for almost a decade,   until his filming in "The Unbearable  Lightness of Being" in the late 80s.   A stable and permanent school life in  Bedales ended in 1975 and the young man   faced the choice of a further life path. And he  had a lot to choose from, because in the future   he saw two options for himself, following his  two constant passions - to become an actor or   to study furniture making. For about a year, he  was simply in limbo, not knowing what to choose.   Inset quote: “I just didn’t know what to do. I did  laboring jobs, working in the docks, doing psychic   reading, construction sites.” - Daniel Day-Lewis At first, his choice leaned toward an   apprenticeship as a cabinet-maker, and he  applied for a five-year apprenticeship with   one of the most famous masters of this business.  That application was rejected due to Daniel’s lack   of necessary experience. So the young man entered  the Bristol Old Vic Theater School. By that time,   he had already managed to achieve some success  on the stage, in addition to school productions   in Bedales, taking part in performances  of the National Youth Theater in London.   Daniel studied at this institution for three  years. One of his teachers, John Hartoch   [`hɑrtɑk], who taught acting, recalling Daniel's  student years, noted that even then the young man   stood out from other students with his skill: Inset quote: “There was something about him   even then. He was quiet and polite, but he was  clearly focused on his acting... He seemed to   have something burning beneath the surface…  There was one performance in particular…   when he really seemed to shine and it became  obvious to us, the staff, that we had someone   rather special on our hands” - John Hartoch Immediately after studying at the theater school,   Daniel began to perform on the stage of the  Bristol Old Vic theater. On this same stage,   where his mother played during one season. At  the beginning, he had only secondary roles,   as was normal for novice actors. But in 1980,  Daniel began to appear on the stage in more   significant roles. In 1981, Day-Lewis got  the main roles in two productions: Jimmy   Porter [ˈpɔrtər] in the play "Look Back In Anger"  and Count Dracula in the play of the same name.   It was at this time that the first roles  on television and cinema began to appear.   Daniel's screen debut took place in 1980 in an  episode of the detective series "Shoestring",   followed by a small secondary role in the sci-fi  drama "Artemis 81". The year 1982 brought Daniel   his first big movie role - a small role in  Richard Attenborough's [ˈæˌtʌnbəroʊz] epic   biopic “Gandhi”. In the same year, the actor  got his first main role on TV in the TV movie   of the BBC studio "How Many Miles to Babylon?" Probably, it was then that he first fully felt   the difference between acting in the cinema  and acting in the theater and started to   decide which acting was more suitable for him. Inset quote: “Theater invites a nuts and bolts   process to rehearsing in which all the actors are  transparent to each other. For me,...I still need   to believe in a kernel of truth. And I find  it hard to do in a rehearsal situation where   everyone is saying, "Are you going to do it like  that?" It is distracting and deadly in the end to   any discovery you might make.”- Daniel Day-Lewis Furthermore, Daniel stopped enjoying performances   at the Old Vic. He was not a fan of the classics,  although he was brought up on it and believed   that any actor must necessarily go through it.  He was more attracted to modern expressive and   sharp works. In addition, once, in 1976, when he  was still at the beginning of his acting career,   he was incredibly impressed by Robert  De Niro's performance in Martin   Scorsese's [ˌskɔrˈseɪziz] film, how the actor  completely transformed into his character. Daniel   set himself the goal of mastering such an art. Rumor has it, it was then that Daniel became   interested in studying Stanislavsky's  method, which he later used to play,   conquering the audience with the  realism of the images embodied by him.   But his acting teacher at the Bristol Old Vic,  John Hartoch, has a slightly different opinion   on this, as he was able to observe the formation  of Daniel's acting talent at its very beginning.   The teacher claimed that although Daniel was  always and everywhere called a method actor,   he would rather call Daniel's acting  style authorial, based on the Method.   Inset quote: "But when we talk about method acting  we tend to be specifically talking about the   school of acting developed by Lee Strasberg,  developing the theories of Stanislavski.   What Danny does isn't quite that – he just  completely immerses himself in a character,   but that comes as a result of the incredible  attention for detail he was already demonstrating   when he was here in Bristol." - John Hartoch In 1982, the long-awaited changes in Daniel's   theatrical life finally took place. He was  cast in the main role in the play "Another   Country" by the modern playwright Julian Mitchell  [ˈmɪʧəl], which was shown on the stage of the   Queen's Theater in London. It was then that  the actor began to be invited to his first   interviews for the press and TV, because his  performance of the role was a great success.   Although he himself said that at the beginning  it was not easy to enter the stage in a role   that Rupert Everett [ˈɛvərət] brilliantly played  before him in the previous theater season, Daniel   managed to find his voice in this performance.  And to find it, paradoxically, he used memories   of his studies in the hated Sevenoaks, and its  atmosphere. Because the play was precisely about   two guys from high society, from the same school,  who were recruited to spy by the Soviet Union.   1983 gave Day-Lewis a role in his  first blockbuster, The Bounty,   released in 1984. It was a mediocre role of the  assistant captain, with a minimum of lines, in a   very successful version of the story of the mutiny  on the ship Bounty, where he was lucky enough to   act next to Mel Gibson and Sir Anthony Hopkins. The inconspicuousness of the role in "The Bounty"   the actor more than compensated for his ego by  joining the troupe of the most prestigious theater   in Britain - the Royal Shakespeare Company.  Daniel explained the decision to join the RSC   in different interviews in different ways, but  the main statement was expressed in the phrase   "why not?". It was a challenge, an aptitude  test, because only the best were chosen there.   But there was one significant minus - Daniel  Day-Lewis had to play the classics again.   PUNK AND SNOB. BREAKTHROUGH The mid-1980s for Day-Lewis   can be called the years of his film  breakthrough. It was at this time,   in 1985, that the British drama mini-series of  the BBC "My Brother Jonathan'' was released.   The actor was invited to play the main role  of a young idealistic doctor who lives in   the shadow of his brother all his life, both  in life and in love. Daniel appears in two,   bright and completely opposite roles the same  year: a street punk-homosexual in the romantic   dramedy “My Beautiful Laundrette”,  directed by Stephen Frears [frirz],   and a refined snob in James Ivory’s [ˈaɪvəriz]  romantic melodrama “A Room With A View".   More dissimilar stories cannot be imagined, and  it happened that they appeared on the screens   almost at the same time. So, before the eyes of  both viewers and critics, the magic of virtuosic   transformation was shown, which was performed  by the aspiring actor Daniel Day-Lewis. We can   say that he was lucky to some extent, because  his acting was noted and remembered precisely   in this contrast. Even the most famous film  critics, including the American Roger Ebert,   did not overlook the actor's performance. Inset quote: The character of Johnny may cause you   to blink if you've just seen the wonderful "A Room  with a View." He is played by Daniel Day-Lewis,   the same actor who, in "Room," plays the heroine's  affected fiancee, Cecil. Seeing these two   performances side by side is an affirmation of the  miracle of acting: That one man could play these   two opposites is astonishing. - Roger Ebert In "My Beautiful Laundrette" - Daniel is   passionate and tough. In this story, which unfolds  in the 1980s, in the area of South London, the   main character - a young man of Pakistani origin  - fully experiences the snobbery of those times,   racism, colonialism, sexism and homophobia.  The main character is helped by his childhood   friend to make his way through life's  difficulties. He’s a punk extremist and   the leader of a street gang, who becomes  his lover, played by Daniel Day-Lewis.   At first, the director offered this role to  Daniel's peer - actor Gary Oldman, but he refused,   citing the fact that he did not like the script  and dialogues. But for Daniel, playing the role   of Johnny was very out of hand, because of his  teenage experience as a young London hooligan.   Director Stephen Frears later told the story of  how Daniel, whom they had first met when Frears   was casting for another of his films, “Prick  Up Your Ears”, was desperate to get the part   and wrote him a nasty letter. In this note,  he promised to break both of the director's   legs if he did not get the role of Johnny. The  actor himself, answering questions about this   incident in an interview, recalled with a smile  that he certainly had no such thing in mind,   he was sure that Stephen would understand him  and it was not intimidation, but a desperate   attempt to show his enthusiasm and that he really  fits the role of a street bully. And it worked.   Johnny, embodied by Day-Lewis, is rude,  narcissistic, shocking with the unexpected   tenderness he is capable of. He won over critics  with his charisma in this role. The film was   unexpectedly a great success and the box office  many times exceeded the budget spent on it.   Even then, Daniel was not afraid of bold, socially  significant roles. Daniel's hero is a delinquent,   an audacious hooligan with dyed hair, who found  himself at the epicenter of the ethnic conflict   existing in society, which at that time was  not accepted by the official authorities to   recognize and bring to the public. And frank love  scenes with a partner in the film, who played a   young Pakistani businessman, openly violated  sexual taboos that were not often dared to be   neglected even in the more frank American cinema. The picture was nominated for an Oscar and a BAFTA   for the best screenplay, and Daniel received his  first film award as Best Supporting Actor from the   U.S. National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. By the way, this year he received two absolutely   identical film awards as Best Supporting Actor,  because he was also awarded the same award from   the U.S. National Board of Review of Motion  Pictures for his role in "A Room With A View",   the filming of which he joined immediately after  the end of filming "My Beautiful Laundrette".   "A Room With A View" is a romantic film  adaptation in which Daniel played the proud   and arrogant aristocrat Cecil Vyse [vais] - the  fiance of the main character, who was played by   Helena Bonham Carter [bɑnhəm ˈkɑrtər], also a  newcomer in the world of cinema at that time.   The woman is torn between the planned wedding  with the curmudgeonly Cecil and her love for   another man, passionate and free-spirited. Rupert Everett was also auditioned for the   role of Cecil, but Ivory decided he wasn't quite  right for it. The choice fell on Day-Lewis when   the director saw him in one of the main roles  in the theater performance "Another Country",   which brought Daniel theatrical fame in the early  80s. And here the director hit the bull's eye,   because the image of an aristocrat from high  society, as well as the image of a street   hooligan, was also familiar to Daniel since  childhood. He grew up in this environment,   was a part of it from birth, and therefore Cecil  Vyse came out more than convincingly in it.   But at the audition for the role, Day-Lewis  appeared in the image of a punk Johnny,   which quite surprised the director, James Ivory.  At the same time, Daniel claimed not the role of   a romantic hero, but the role of a secondary  character - the refined esthete Cecil. And   although he incredibly convincingly got used  to his character, the actor himself said about   his hero the following: "he was a man worthy  of a great deal of compassion and whose skin   I could occupy in some of my worst nightmares." Inset quote: “Cecil is the sort of man who would   never play tennis, who wears a pince-nez,  who oils his hair and who thinks that girls   are nice because they like to listen to him  read aloud. Cecil does not have many clues   as to what else girls might be nice for. …And  Daniel Day Lewis creates a masterpiece in his   performance as Cecil; give him a monocle  and a butterfly, and he could be on the   cover of the New Yorker.” - Roger Ebert The picture was actually a huge success.   With a budget of 3 million dollars at the  exit, the box office brought in about 21   million profits from worldwide distribution.  The film was nominated for 8 Oscar categories,   of which it won 3, 12 BAFTA nominations,  of which it won 4, including the Best Film   category, 2 Golden Globes and a lot of the most  prestigious film awards from around the world.   At the end of the same year, director Alex  Cox [koks], having seen Daniel in the role   of punk Johnny, considered the actor for  a role in the biopic "Sid And Nancy" based   on the life of the scandalous lead singer  of the Sex Pistols band. But at the last   moment, he gave the role to Gary Oldman. But Daniel Day-Lewis didn't lose by missing   out on the role of Sid Vicious. Instead, in 1986,  on the stage of London's Royal National Theatre,   he played the bright and ambiguous  role of the rebellious odious poet   Vladimir Mayakovsky [məjɪˈkɔfskij] in the play  "Futurists". His performance as the poet of the   Soviet revolution was epic and the performance  received many positive reviews. Washington Post   correspondent Ann Hornaday [ˈhɔrnəˌdeɪ]  recalled her impressions of Day-Lewis'   play in an interview with Daniel like this: Inset quote: Day-Lewis dominated the play…with   a towering, all-consuming performance, his  shaved head making his 6-foot 2-inch frame   even more imposing, his shock-and-awe delivery  of Mayakovsky's poetry an explosive torrent   of politics, passion and commitment. He even  seemed capable of making the vein on the side   of his forehead pulse at will. - Ann Hornaday This was his penultimate role in the theater,   which he would later leave forever,  making the final choice in favor   of playing in the movies. “THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS”   AND A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE METHOD In 1987, the American director and screenwriter   Philip Kaufman [ˈkɔfmən] invited Daniel to  play the main role in the film adaptation   of the best-selling novel of the same name by the  Czech writer Milan Kundera [məˈlɑn kənˈdɛrə] "The   Unbearable Lightness of Being". For filming in this movie, Day-Lewis   probably used the method of immersion in a role  for the first time, which later, describing his   biography or acting career, only a lazy person  won’t mention. Method is a set of techniques that   some actors use to make their performance more  realistic. But there is one "but" - in the many   interviews he gave over the years of his acting  career, Daniel never personally directly referred   to the Stanislavsky Method as something  other than what he relied on when getting   used to the role of another character. Inset quote: “...it appealed very much to   something in mine, and I never chose to define it  or analyze it in any way whatsoever… I couldn't   begin to imagine where some of that had come from  because it didn't always appear to have a logic,   and yet it appeared to me to have its  own innate logic.” - Daniel Day-Lewis   Yes, there is definitely a similarity in approach,  despite the fact that at one time the actor   studied the Method for himself, but Day-Lewis most  often describes his system of immersion in the   role as his own, very intuitive, internal process.  He always claimed that in his own approach to work   with the role, he was simply trying to find  something for himself - some one or several   details that could help him enter the universe of  his character. Feel himself in his skin. And just   as often, he emphasized that sometimes he did not  even imagine where the idea to approach his acting   transformation for each specific role came from. Inset quote: “I've no idea what that transaction   is all about or from where the need arises, but it  is a response obviously to a very particular need   at a very particular time, a need to express  oneself in that way….” - Daniel Day-Lewis   Already starting with "The Unbearable Lightness  of Being", Daniel used, not yet so clearly,   a technique of preparing for the role,  which was not typical for most actors.   This time it was learning... the Czech language. Daniel was supposed to play the Czech neurosurgeon   Tomas and the main events of the picture took  place in the Czech Republic in the mid-60s,   in the days of the infamous Czech  Spring of 1968, when the Soviets   invaded Czechoslovakia [ˌʧɛkəsloʊˈvɑkiə]. The  plot revolves around Tomas's relationship with   his lover - a free-spirited artist played by Lena  Olin [ˈoʊlɪn] and a young girl - waitress Teresa,   played by Juliette Binoche [biˈnɔʃ], with  whom he unexpectedly falls in love. As   Daniel said about his character: Tomas  is afraid of falling into the love trap,   and in fact he is a rather bad character, because  he hypocritically protects himself from the   inconveniences that may be associated with love. However, later, after many years and several   Oscars, the actor admitted in an interview that  the decision to take on this role was not very   successful. Despite this, he did not regret it,  because it was a good lesson and an experience   that taught him a lot. Why did he regret? He  admitted that he took up the role in the first   place because there was a lot of noise around  the picture and it was a great chance for a young   novice actor to get into such a project.. Daniel  admitted that it was worth distancing himself from   all this hype around the picture, to dive deeper  in the script and realize that he is not yet ready   for such a role. Because at that moment he did not  quite grasp the deep essence behind the story.   It was in this search for a hero, how to present  him, something that he could cling to in order   to "unwind" the tangle of the character's  essence and give him realism, Daniel came   up with the idea of the Czech language. Inset quote: 'It was something to do with   language. The idea of speaking English with a  Czech accent without actually speaking Czech   meant it wasn't coming from anywhere - I knew that  that kernel of truth that I need to have somewhere   in a role would be missing.” - Daniel Day-Lewis The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) rated the   difficulty level of the Czech language for  English native speakers as four out of five,   with five being the highest level of difficulty  to learn. Day-Lewis studied this complex language   during the six months of filming and a little  before, just to find a connection with Tomas and   present him to the audience more realistically.  Already on the set of "The Unbearable Lightness   of Being" Daniel spent most of the time in  character. Although, as he later joked in one   of the interviews, after spending all these  six months in the image of Tomas, he still   did not run around Paris, seducing young maids. The film was shot in Paris, and in its festival   version, its full running time was three  hours long. The picture turned out to be   quite controversial, due to its specificity  and receiving very high ratings from critics,   it actually failed at the box office. Full of  erotic love stories of three people, against   the background of dramatic political events, based  on a philosophical novel - the product was quite   specific. Besides, Kundera, who was invited  as the official consultant of the picture, was   completely dissatisfied with the final result. But  not everyone agreed with the author of the novel.   Most critics were delighted, the website Rotten  Tomatoes gave the film an 86% and most reviews   almost unanimously characterized the film as an  incredibly successful combination of political   and erotic, where human sexuality is explored  against the background of social upheaval.   Inset quote: “The film will be noticed  primarily for its eroticism… What is   remarkable about “The Unbearable Lightness of  Being,” however, is not the sexual content itself,   but the way Kaufman has been able to use it as  an avenue for a complex story, one of nostalgia,   loss, idealism and romance.” - Roger Ebert And although the box office revenue did not   meet expectations, "The Unbearable Lightness  of Being" received two Oscar nominations.   The film did not become a hit, but it showed  Day-Lewis to the world as an exceptional actor,   and the love scenes full of eroticism and  emotional tension made Daniel a sex symbol.   There were a lot of naked Day-Lewis in  the picture, and for the actor himself,   the episodes in which the scenes unfold in bed  were a certain challenge. He was not prepared for   how he would feel. It was also a factor that later  made him believe that agreeing to film in “The   Unbearable Lightness of Being” was his mistake. Inset quote: “If I had even begun to think of the   thousands of people who might see me in those love  scenes, out there behind the lens of the camera, I   wouldn’t have walked onto the set… The idea of all  those people seeing me nude! But I’m also naked   metaphorically: Every time you give a performance,  you take your clothes off”. - Daniel Day-Lewis   Just after filming "The Unbearable Lightness of  Being", rumors about an affair between Daniel and   his partner in the film - French actress Juliette  Binoche - began to circulate. But as is usually   the case when it comes to Day-Lewis' personal  life, it still remained a mystery and based   on hearsay. The truth is that it was during this  period that Daniel broke up with his girlfriend,   Sarah Campbell, with whom they had been  together since their days at Bedales School.   Filming, the duration of which dragged  on for almost 8 months, exhausted Daniel,   because already in this film he tried  to be in the role most of the time.   Not yet as deep as in his next Oscar-winning  roles, but enough to make you want to rest.   But, instead of rest, he dived into a new  project, completely opposite to "Lightness",   the American comedy "Stars And Bars", full of  black humor and irony, which was released in   the same year as "The Unbearable Lightness of  Being". In the film, Day-Lewis played a British   art critic who travels across the United States to  the South to appraise a Renoir [rɛnˈwɑr] painting   from a private collection. Inset quote: In ''Stars and Bars,''   Daniel Day Lewis is chased by an Elvis lookalike,  paddles his canoe across the lobby fountain of   an Atlanta hotel, is threatened with death by  locals and runs for his life down the desolate,   early-morning streets of Manhattan clad only in  a cardboard box.” - Chicago Tribune, Jun 1988   Day-Lewis just had some good time during  filming. Even geniuses need to relax   sometimes. Although "Stars And Bars" turned  out to be a very mediocre film, some critics   noted the actor's comedic talent. FIRST OSCAR FOR HIS LEFT FOOT   In 1988, Daniel joined a unique project, a film  that would be a huge step in his professional   growth and would raise his acting career to  another level. It was the picture "My Left Foot",   the director and co-writer of which was  the Irishman Jim Sheridan [ˈʃɛrɪdən], for   whom this picture was the directorial debut. After the success of several previous films,   the actor was somewhat puzzled by how quickly  everything happened - unexpected fame,   new prospects and offers. So, he was in a state  of certain frustration, refusing to take on new   projects. But one day, Daniel found a script  in his mailbox. Someone just put it there. He   opened the envelope, read the first page of the  script and there was no turning back. Fascinated,   he read the first lines, which described how  a person puts a record on the record player,   puts the needle on the track and the melody begins  to play. As if there is nothing unusual except for   one detail - this person does it with his foot. Inset quote: ''I thought this was one of the most   unusual first pages I'd ever encountered,  I was delighted with it. Then I thought,   how on earth could I do this? It's  impossible.'' - Daniel Day-Lewis   The script was a description of the real life  story of a boy born with cerebral palsy - Christy   Brown, who could only fully control his left  leg due to the disease. From an early age,   the boy tried his best to prove to everyone  that he is not a vegetable and has the same   level of intelligence as other children of his  age. Born in a poor family with many children,   he learned to write and draw only with the  help of his left leg, overcoming his own   handicap and the prejudices of those around him. Such a difficult role was a tough nut to crack.   To investigate it from the inside, Daniel  rented a house near Sandymount School and   Clinic in Dublin - a leading center for the  treatment of the disabled and spent a lot of   time communicating with patients. There he was  looking for the image of his Christy Brown. He   tried to understand his character on all  levels, not just focusing on the outward   behavior caused by a developmental disability. Inset quote: ''I didn't want the film to be about   an actor's struggle to sustain disability,  when it's supposed to be about Christy's   ability to transcend it,'' he says. ''That  would make a nonsense of everything we were   trying to do in the film.” - Daniel Day-Lewis It was in this work that Daniel began to practice   staying in the image of his character in order to  get more deeply into the role. But many at that   time considered it nothing more than excessive  eccentricity and pretentiousness of Day-Lewis.   This also became a reason for constant grumbling  and dissatisfaction of many in the film crew,   because he caused them a lot of additional  trouble, purely physically. They had to carry   his wheelchair to places where he couldn't use  it himself, carry him in and out of the car,   carry him over all the obstacles and  cables that are numerous on every set,   and even feed him with a spoon. All the time he spoke out of one   corner of his mouth, like a person whose facial  muscles are not functioning as they should.   Inset quote: “The producers were  freaking out because they couldn’t   understand a word he was saying” - Jim Sheridan Being in a wheelchair all the time in an unnatural   position for himself, twisting to use only his leg  instead of his hands, the actor injured his back.   In order to learn to write with only his foot,  as Christy did, Daniel used a knife. Although,   as the director later recalled, the actor was  never able to skillfully exercise his left leg,   he used his right, and when he did it on  camera, a mirror was used for filming.   In the evenings, when Day-Lewis went to dinner  in one of the posh restaurants in Dublin,   he also remained in character, which made many  people around him uncomfortable. But that's how   he fully felt what a person with a disability went  through when facing society. During the filming,   in which children with disabilities took part, he  especially insisted that there was no one extra   present on the set, as was usually done during  the filming of scenes with naked nature. He didn't   want them to feel any additional discomfort. However, if you don't focus on Christy's   congenital deformity, but approach the theme  of the film at the level of universal values,   Daniel understood very well what this story  should be about. Everything about Christy's   life story was noteworthy, but something  stuck out to the actor the most when he   was deciding whether to take on the role. In March 1990, at the 62nd Academy Awards   ceremony, “My Left Foot” almost won the main award  as the best film, losing to “Driving Miss Daisy”.   But the Oscar for Best Actor went to none other  than Daniel Day-Lewis. His opponents that year   were Kenneth Branagh, Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman  and Robin Williams [ˈkɛnɪθ ˈbrænə, tɑm kruz,   ˈmɔrɡən ˈfrimən ænd ˈrɑbən ˈwɪljəmz]. In addition to several Oscar and Daniel   Award nominations, the film was also  nominated for several BAFTA Awards,   where Day-Lewis again won Best Actor and a lot  of other prestigious nominations and awards.   “My Left Foot”, unexpectedly for its creators,  created a sensation in the film world,   and Daniel turned from a well-known actor into  a superstar and his life changed irreversibly.   After such success, it was almost unreal  to remain in the shadows, and the actor   had to make more and more efforts in order to  somehow preserve his very precious privacy.   And of course, after he won an Oscar for his  incredibly realistic portrayal of Christy Brown,   the public talked about the great and  mysterious Method again. But Day-Lewis,   as before and in many interviews after,  avoided this loud word and simply said   that he had his own way of working with the role. Inset quote: “I don't follow the Method. I don't   even have a normal way of working. I tend  to be suspicious of all systems of acting,   so I was just trying to come to terms with the  more extreme physical problems of playing someone   who is disabled.'' - Daniel Day-Lewis While the press continued the commotion   surrounding the Oscar-winning film and the  mysterious Day-Lewis, the actor himself,   having faithfully completed the press tour,  went to Argentina. There he took part in the   next project - the British-Argentinian dramedy  "Eversmile, New Jersey". He played the main role   of an American dentist-motorcyclist who went to  Argentinian Patagonia [ˌpætəˈɡoʊniə] to provide   free dental services to the population.  The character travels on a motorcycle and   one day meets a local woman, which becomes the  beginning of both a romantic relationship and   a series of unexpected and surreal adventures. It wasn't a picture of Day-Lewis' level of talent,   it was barely seen by the world community, but  playing this part Daniel was definitely relaxing   on set indulging in another one of his great  lifelong passions. This hobby could be devoted   to a whole huge chapter in the description of  the actor’s private life and the title of this   chapter would be: "Daniel and motorcycles". From a  young age, he was fascinated by everything related   to motorcycles and motor sports. Among his own  faithful two-legged steeds were American Harley   Davidson, British Triumph including the T140  Bonneville, dirt bikes including the Suzuki 125.   Inset quote: “I like anything on two wheels. I  enjoy violent sports, mainly football (English   style). And I take the dirt bike around the  fields and tracks, skidding in the mud. I love   it. It’s a great release.” - - Daniel Day-Lewis As for motorsport, here too Day-Lewis approached   the matter seriously. He does not just admire it  as a spectator. In 2006, the actor experienced   racing adrenaline by completing two full  high-speed laps in the second seat of a Ducati   MotoGP at Estoril [eesh·tr·il], Portugal, behind  multiple GP champion Randy Mamola [mɐ.mˈɔ.lɐ].   Being a huge fan of Valentino Rossi, he even  jokingly calls himself his groupie, in 2007 Daniel   rented a powerful Suzuki GSXR 1000 sportbike and  raced at a speed of 120 m.p.h. from Los Angeles   to the track at Laguna Seca [ˈsɛka]. And all in  order to cheer for your idol at MotoGP. Though he   couldn’t avoid motorcycle injuries. In 2017 the  actor got into an accident on his motorcycle and   broke his arm. It’s no wonder that Day-Lewis  is often compared to Marlon Brando, who is   also considered a Method actor, an eccentric and a  recluse and who, like Daniel, adored motorcycles.   THE SHADOW OF HAMLET'S FATHER Around Daniel Day-Lewis’ life   and acting there have always been many  myths. About the method, about his women,   about what he does when he disappears from the  radar of the film community and world media.   One of such myths, which can be conventionally  called the "Hamlet myth", is connected with the   last play in Daniel's theatrical career.  It was Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which he,   in 1989, played the lead role of Hamlet, Prince of  Denmark at London's National Theater for a year.   1989 was not easy for Daniel in terms of acting  and emotional load. The new director of the   National Theatre, Richard Eyre, really wanted to  involve Day-Lewis in the production of Hamlet,   impressed by his role in "Futurists". But Daniel  was not given the role easily from the beginning,   besides, many criticized his way of  reading Shakespeare's text. Therefore,   the actor "dropped out" of the performance  for three weeks, in order to take part in   the promotional campaign of the film "My Left  Foot". After that, it was even more difficult   for the young actor to rejoin the theater  process. And one day he couldn't stand it.   Inset quote: “On Tuesday night, Daniel Day-Lewis,  one of Britain’s most exciting young actors,   finished Act 1 Scene 5 of Hamlet at  the National Theatre and, in a state of   nervous exhaustion (now clinically diagnosed as  stress syndrome) told the company that he could   not go on.” - “The Guardian”, Sept. 18, 1989 One can only imagine the outcry the press made   after this incident. The mass media in advance  told a spooky story that the actor played in this   way due to a blackout of consciousness, because,  having completely immersed himself in the role,   he saw the ghost of his dead father on the  stage. Whether it is true or a press conjecture,   one can only guess. Someone claims that Daniel  has spoken about it himself then, in turn,   Day-Lewis, when he agrees to answer at least  something about the case, has his own version.   Yes, even then, while playing this role, Daniel  used his method of work, looking for something,   some kind of hook, which he could cling to  in order to tie himself more firmly to the   understanding of the role. In Hamlet, this hook  became the fact that his father, like Hamlet's   father, died, continuing to remain an important  figure in his son's mind. Daniel hung a photo   of his father in his dressing room and addressed  him, talked to him. The connection with his own   deceased father gave him a deeper understanding  of this connection in his character.   Inset quote: “…if you’re working in a play  like Hamlet, you explore everything through   your own experience…That correspondence  between father and son, or the son and the   father who is no longer alive, played a huge  part in that experience. So yes, of course,   it was communication with my own dead father. But  I don’t remember seeing any ghosts of my father   on that dreadful night!” - Daniel Day-Lewis So, there was no ghost, but then why did Daniel,   despite all his obligations as an actor hired  to act in a play, allow himself to simply walk   off the stage in the middle of an act? But Day-Lewis didn't really set out to   explain something to someone after that, although  journalists chased after him and tracked him like   hounds tracked the hare. Jumping on the first  train to Somerset [ˈsʌmərˌsɛt], Daniel approached   his closest person at the time - sister Tamasin,  where, according to her own words, he lived with   her and her family for about two months. As Daniel  told many years later in an interview, answering a   question about the famous "Hamlet myth": Inset quote: “I was working and living   with that play for a year and a half of my  life. And it's a weighty play to live with,   so it didn't really surprise me that I got  tired by the end… I work in a certain way,   and I never really felt the need to explain  it or apologize for it, but in England,   they thought I was unhinged. The  press goes after you, and they   don’t tend to let go.” - Daniel Day-Lewis Yes, after he ran off the stage and fell to   the floor backstage in tears, the press really  got on him. Journalists began to invent some   stories about his relationship with his father,  that in fact they were terrible, and Daniel had   childhood trauma on this ground and much more. This time, in the early 1990s, was a period for   Daniel when he felt his life was on pause  because he wasn't sure how to move forward.   On the one hand, there was cinema, in which he  was now an Oscar-winning actor of A-category,   which imposed certain obligations and certain  frameworks. And there was a theater to which,   after the story with Hamlet, he knew even then  that he was unlikely to return. It was a period   of deep self-examination, which was helped by  the bureaucratic formalities associated with   the case of a breakdown at the performance  of "Hamlet", for which he had to talk about   his situation in therapy sessions for some time. Inset quote: “It was very helpful. I’ve always had   a bloody-minded attitude toward feeling poorly.  I was saved from choosing the darker avenue,   which is always my preferred choice. I  was encouraged to believe that I wasn’t   inherently demonic.” - Daniel Day-Lewis The result was that he once again felt the   desire to open up to new opportunities.  Since the triumph of "My Left Foot",   the actor has constantly received some offers,  none of which were good enough for him to accept.   Because from the beginning of his film career,  Daniel was distinguished by a very meticulous   selectivity regarding the projects in which  he volunteered to participate. But he simply   could not refuse one of the offers. It promised  what he loved so much in life - the opportunity   to discover something new for himself. In many interviews of Day-Lewis, the same   word often slips by - "curiosity". This is what  drives the actor not only in choosing roles,   but also in what he does off-screen. If what  he plays does not arouse this curiosity in him,   he, most likely, will simply not waste time on  it. In the same way, he chooses characters that   differ in personality type, which allows  him to discover a new side of himself.   And what could be more interesting than opening  an unknown world from scratch? Because it was an   offer to play in an epic adventure film based on  James Fenimore Cooper's [ˈfɛnɪˌmɔr ˈkupərz] novel   of the same name "The Last of the Mohicans".  The role promised a new challenge, which was   to be directed by Michael Mann, and Daniel  plunged headlong into this opportunity.   Despite the fact that Daniel had never expressed a  desire to be involved in a big-budget blockbuster,   he agreed. Because Mann suggested focusing  attention not so much on battle action as on   love stories. The main line of the picture  is the passion between the character of   Day-Lewis - Nathaniel "Hawkeye" Bumppo [nəˈθænjəl  "ˈhɔˌkaɪ" bampou], who was born by white settlers   and adopted by Native Americans, and the daughter  of a British colonel, played by Madeleine Stowe   [stoʊ]. She paves her way against the backdrop  of political intrigue, betrayal, loyalty to   the principles and laws of honor, at a time when  European civilization was just beginning to change   the land of North America with its influence. Inset quote: “I liked the idea of a man who had   not been touched by 20th-century neurosis…a life  that isn’t drawn inwards.” - Daniel Day-Lewis   Day-Lewis, who after the experience with "My Left  Foot" fully felt the effectiveness of his method   of working with the role, this time went, perhaps,  even further than he did with the role of Christy   Brown. In "The Last of the Mohicans" he had to  raise himself to a completely different level   of physical training in order to get used to the  skin of a frontier man. A boy from an intelligent   family, a pupil of a private school, he, of  course, played sports as a teenager, but he never   attached great importance to physical form. The  only thing he was really close to was running.   To prepare for the role of Hawkeye, Day-Lewis  spent six months working out with a fitness   trainer five times a week to gain mass and  the necessary physical form. He didn't just   want to play frontier man, he wanted to  be one. So, the actor spent another month   living in the open air in the forests of North  Carolina to feel for himself what it is like to   be a child of the forest and depend only on  his skills and the grace of Mother Nature.   He also underwent separate training  with a military expert - Colonel David   Webster [ˈwɛbstər], a former Special Forces  instructor who taught pilots survival skills   in extreme situations. For a few months in  1991, his only student was Daniel Day-Lewis,   whom he helped to master the skills of  being an “outdoorsman and a frontiersman.”   As if that was not enough, Daniel also  received special training in the skills   that the Native Americans possessed - reading  tracks, setting traps, skinning hunted animals,   fighting with tomahawks, making fire and cooking.  He even learned to build a canoe and skillfully   row it. In this he was helped by another expert  - Benton Jennings, who not only knew all this,   but according to Day-Lewis himself,  literally lived in the 18th century,   and was not just interested in reconstruction. In preparation for the role, the actor learned to   use all types of weapons, from modern automatic  rifles to specific firearms and melee weapons of   those times. Other filming participants mention  that Day-Lewis was literally inseparable from the   12-pound flintlock rifle all this time, just as he  was in the image of his character all this time,   at least outwardly. There is even a  legend that Daniel brought this gun   home with him for Christmas dinner. The filming itself lasted almost four   months and was incredibly physically  exhausting. Especially for Daniel,   due to the fact that he almost always lived the  way his character should live. He slept little   and ate little. And this is not only because of  the tight schedule and difficult conditions. As   the director, Michael Mann, recalled: "If he  (Daniel) didn't shoot it, he didn't eat it."   Daniel's partner on the set, Madeleine Stowe,  confirmed the actor's dedication during filming:   "This was a difficult film on  everyone, especially on Daniel.   And he never once -- not once -- complained." Day-Lewis got so used to the image of a frontier   man and to life in the wild that during the  filming and for some time after it ended,   it was difficult for him to be in closed rooms: Inset quote: “I find it difficult to be in rooms   now for long periods of time. I  can usually take it for about an   hour. Then I stride out.” - Daniel Day-Lewis But these efforts and certain sacrifices were   not in vain. When "The Last Of The Mohicans"  was released in 1992, it definitely went down   in history as one of the best action movies.  The box office grossed many times the cost,   and most critics were delighted, if not by  the historical accuracy and following Fenimore   Cooper's original, then by the incredibly  dramatic and impeccably acted love line,   the vividness of the staging of the battle scenes,  and the stunning authenticity of Day-Lewis in the   role of a brave and noble son of the forests. The picture had several Oscar nominations,   and won in the Best Sound category for  its beautiful soundtrack. Day-Lewis was   nominated for a BAFTA as Best Actor, losing to  Robert Downey Jr for his role in “Chaplin”.   The film, although it did not bring  Day-Lewis outstanding cinematography awards,   renewed the actor's interest in acting in  the cinema and the final choice was made,   forever leaving his theater career in the past. Another plus was that in this role,   Daniel convincingly showed himself capable  not only of deep dramatic roles, but also of   roles that required a certain special physical  training. Later, this will bring him other roles   in which he will appear in very bright masculine  characteristic images. Daniel himself, despite   the fact that after the role of Hawkeye, he was  often asked in interviews whether he currently   saw himself in the role of a new Hollywood action  hero, unequivocally answered in the negative.   Inset quote: “In almost every respect, I’d say  no. I don’t deal at all well with the relative   amount of stuff I have to face already.  I don’t want to think about it because it   only depresses me.” - Daniel Day-Lewis Instead, as if to prove once again that   being an action hero is far from his dream, almost  immediately after the end of filming in "The Last   Of The Mohicans" he took part in a new project  directed by Martin Scorsese where his role was as   different from the previous one as possible. ACTING IS LIKE A RING   Actually, in 1993, Daniel Day-Lewis  entered simultaneously with two films   that were shot one by one. Having gladly  volunteered to play the gentleman-lawyer   Newland Archer [ˈɑrʧər] in Scorsese's film,  he also promised his old friend, Jim Sheridan,   with whom they had previously shot "My Left Foot",  to join his new project. For Sheridan, he had to   embody on the screen the image of a real character  - the Irishman Gerry Conlon [ˈkɑnlən], one of the   four falsely accused in the famous Guildford  [ɡɪldfɔrd] pub bombings that happened in 1974,   in the film "In the Name of the Father". And again, for the second time in his career,   almost simultaneously there were two very  different stories and completely different   characters. And the point is not that Daniel had  nothing to choose from and it just happened that   way. The actor was followed by a series of very  famous and high-grossing films in which he refused   to act. Among them were such pictures as: "Pulp  Fiction", "Interview With The Vampire", "Batman   Forever", "The English Patient", "Shakespeare In  Love", "The Lord Of The Rings" and several others.   So, the choice was always his alone. Inset quote: “I really haven’t done it on purpose,   it’s just that the characters I’m interested  in rarely have anything in common with the   characters I’ve played before. I don’t set out to  undergo some elaborate physical transformation,   but the physical aspects of the part are  related to all the other demands of the   part — to the life of the person. And all  people look different.” - Daniel Day-Lewis   In the case of Scorsese's offer, Daniel was  a big fan of the director's talent since the   release of "Taxi Driver" with De Niro in the lead  role. Actually, it was with this role of De Niro   that the interest of Daniel and his classmates in  the Stanislavsky Method theater course began. So,   when Scorsese offered the actor a role in  his new film - a historical romantic drama,   Day-Lewis didn't even think twice. In "The Age Of Innocence" events take place   in the American New York of the 19th century, in  the highest strata of its society. Newland Archer   plans to marry a charming woman played by Winona  Ryder [ˈraɪdər], and everything would have gone   according to plan if her cousin Elena, played by  Michelle Pfeiffer [ˈfaɪfər], had not come to May.   From the very first second of Newland and Elena's  acquaintance, a passion arises between them,   which later turns their whole life into a quiet  hell, because Archer is a worthy member of society   who is used to doing the right thing, even if it  goes against his heart's desire. The performance   of Daniel and Pfeiffer is so emotionally intense  that the pain of their characters is literally   felt physically. There is not a single nude or  candid scene in the film, and the episode where   the two of them are in a carriage and Newland  unbuttons only the buttons on Elena's glove to   kiss her wrist can be safely classified as  one of the most erotic scenes in cinema.   In preparation for the role of Newland Archer,  Daniel settled in the historic center of New York,   walked everywhere with his walking stick,  did not get out of the suits of the style   of that era, wearing the antique cologne. And so, from such an American gentleman of   the 19th century, Daniel actually had  to immediately transform into an Irish   prisoner in Britain in the 1970s. In "In the  Name of the Father" he had to play the role of   the unjustly convicted Conlon - the script again  promised an emotionally and physically complex,   exhausting role, and the story itself was based  on the story of a real person, with whom Daniel   had the opportunity to personally communicate. From the beginning, the famous Irish actor Gabriel   Byrne [bɜrn] bought the rights to film this  story, intending to play Conlon himself, but   when he learned that Day-Lewis was interested in  this role, he gave up the role without question,   remaining the executive producer of the film. Conlon, a petty crook from Belfast who is forced   by the police to confess and take the blame. The  police charged four men, including Conlon, and   these innocent people spent 15 years in prison. What is it like to be a prisoner? What is it like   to serve years of cruel punishment as an  innocent, to lose a father who dies here,   nearby, also innocent and also in a cell? Day-Lewis went to the extreme again to prepare for   this role. The actor lost almost 40 pounds, and in  order to better understand the life of a prisoner,   he spent three days in a real prison cell. In  addition, local thugs kept him awake there,   banging on the door all night. He went through  a real interrogation, which, at his request,   was arranged for him by police officers.  The interrogation lasted nine hours. And   as if that wasn't enough - Daniel insisted  that the members of the film crew pour cold   water on him and verbally humiliate him in every  possible way. During the entire period of filming,   the actor communicated exclusively with a Belfast  accent, both on and off the set. When asked why he   was so extreme, Day-Lewis always answered: Inset quote: "How could I understand how an   innocent man could sign that confession and  destroy his own life…. What is done is done   as part of the fascination for the subject and the  world that one is trying to create. It’s not like   a sort of self-imposed torture. It’s just a tool  to stimulate the imagination, which is, finally,   the only tool you ever have.”- Daniel Day-Lewis Taking advantage of the fact that Gary Conlon was   a real person, the actor took the opportunity  to meet and talk with him. Daniel spent hours   in his company, learning the manner of speech,  gestures. This helped him a lot in his work on   the role, but at some point the actor  caught himself getting so deeply into   the character that he almost lost himself. There is always a certain difficulty in this,   when the real story of a person is filmed  - not to make a literal biographical copy,   but to reproduce one's vision of  the person and the situation, while   at the same time not giving in to the truth. Both films, “The Age Of Innocence” and “In the   Name of the Father” were simultaneously nominated  in several categories at the 66th Academy Awards   and at the BAFTA Awards. For his portrayal of Gary  Conlon, Day-Lewis was nominated in the Best Actor   category for both of these awards. But there  was a whole series of nominations and victories   for both films around the world. Although "The  Age Of Innocence" did not make the box office,   critics gave the film high reviews, and  "In the Name of the Father" at the same   time conquered both critics and viewers  who gladly voted with their wallets.   These years full of work, nervously exhausting  and illuminated by the increased attention of the   press, were another test for Day-Lewis, because  his personal life always provided topics so that   the paparazzi did not give him peace for a minute.  The favorite of women is the manly Hawkeye,   the seductive doctor Tomas and the romantic  Mr. Newland. The press created him the image   of a love interest and a heartbreaker, always  poking his nose at Daniel's dirty laundry.   As much as he tried to keep his personal life a  secret, both the truth and rumors regularly seeped   into the pages of newspapers. After supposedly  having a relationship with Juliette Binoche,   when he broke off a long-term relationship with  Sarah Campbell, in the early 1990s he began   an affair with another French beauty - Isabelle  Adjani [ædˈʤɑni]. This relationship just happened   to be 100% verified truth. They claim that it  was to Isabel that Daniel wrote romantic letters,   which he sealed with wax seals in the old fashion.  But the relationship was not equal. For her part,   Isabellle later called them "a long period  of emotional enslavement related to her   disillusioned love affair with Daniel  Day Lewis". As usual, he refrained from   commenting. But according to rumors, the couple  has been together several times over the years,   and then broke up. It was all too emotional. But the actor, despite the fact that in those   years he was in a relationship with Isabelle,  which could be characterized by the word   "tumultuous", the press regularly imposed other  intrigues. Since Day-Lewis himself consistently   refuses to comment on his personal life, we can  only wonder what was true and what was made up   by the paparazzi in pursuit of big headlines. So, after his filming in "In The Name Of The   Father", he was credited with an affair with  the singer Sinead O'Connor, who participated   in the creation of the soundtrack for the  film. In her 2021 memoir, she admitted that   she dedicated the song "A Perfect Indian"  to him, inspired by his role in "The Last   of the Mohicans." In the same memoirs, she wrote:  "It's not that I was in love with him (I wasn't),   but I was very fond of him as a friend." "The Age Of Innocence" brought rumors   of a relationship with co-star Winona  Ryder. Of course, they worked together,   they were often seen together, they were friends,  but none of them confirmed the affair in any way,   and there is no real evidence of this. In  the same period, the press raised waves about   a probable affair between the world-famous  Pretty Woman - Julia Roberts and Day-Lewis.   There came out a generally mysterious story,  which everyone, except, of course, Daniel himself,   who was silent, told in different ways. The  kernel of the story, which is known for sure,   is that Roberts was supposed to star in the  project "Shakespeare In Love" and one of the   potential candidates for the role of her co-star  in the film was Day-Lewis. The producer of the   picture, Edward Zwick [zwɪk], in his memories  of the shooting, mentioned that after learning   that Daniel was being considered for the role  of Shakespeare, Julia became literally obsessed   with the idea that Day-Lewis should play him.  She was delighted. But he categorically refused   to participate in the project, explaining it by  the fact that he had already promised Sheridan   to play him in "In the Name of the Father".  According to the producer, after that Julia   did not stop her own attempts to attract Daniel: Inset quote: “He’s brilliant — he’s handsome and   intense. And so funny! Did you see his performance  in ‘A Room with a View?’ He’s done Shakespeare,   too. Don’t you think he’d be perfect?…I  can get him to do it.” - Julia Roberts   She sent the actor roses and insisted on a  personal meeting. Later, there were rumors   that during the visit of the actress to  Dublin, where Daniel was at that time,   there was an affair between them. But other rumors  claim that Roberts herself started the gossip   about this affair. As a result, Daniel did not  get the role of Shakespeare, and Roberts had no   desire to play with other partners, which almost  disrupted the entire production of the project.   At the same time, the paparazzi often caught  Day-Lewis in the company of his 26-year-old   fitness trainer Deya Pichardo [pɪˈʧɑrdoʊ],  who even moved to his New York apartment.   And in the meantime, Day-Lewis, around whom such  passions unfolded, and Isabelle Adjani had a son,   Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis, in 1995, a few months  after they broke up. And there was also gossip,   because it was said that Daniel broke up with  Isabelle, just by sending her a message by fax.   It is not surprising that after the completion  of shooting in "In the Name of the Father",   tired of the paparazzi's attention to his  private life, Day-Lewis immediately set about   the next project, which promised him another  escape from the public eye. It was the British   director Nicholas Hytner's [haitnerz] film "The  Crucible" based on the play by the "great and   terrible" writer Arthur Miller, in which the  actor had previously refused to participate.   Filming was supposed to begin in early 1996, and  a few months earlier, the actor went to a location   lost among the lakes of northern Massachusetts  [ˌmæsəˈʧusəts] to begin training for a new role.   Daniel got the role of John Proctor [ˈprɑktər]  - a strict and correct Puritan farmer of the   17th century from the infamous town  of Salem [ˈseɪləm]. He is married,   but succumbing to a short-term weakness,  enters into a relationship with a young maid,   played by Winona Ryder. A young woman, wanting to  bind Proctor to herself, half-jokingly conducts   a witchcraft ritual with her friends. But this  "joke" turns into a real process of witch-hunting,   which has affected a large number of  decent residents, including Proctor.   The plot of the drama drags with the depth of  contradictions and the abyss of human nature,   which Miller skillfully brought to light,  and the acting of Day-Lewis, as always, did   not leave the audience and critics indifferent: Inset quote: “Day-Lewis doesn’t have any tricks   to rely on this time — even his New England accent  is understated — but in scenes like the one where   he confesses his adultery in court, he burrows  into the soul of John Proctor’s stubborn decency,   his unwillingness to grasp that the  truth is the last thing that’s going   to protect him” - Entertainment Weekly What was behind the preparation for the   role of John Proctor, apart from trying  to understand the psychological portrait   of the character? What did Day-Lewis use this  time to get closer to the world of his hero?   Daniel's tanned and weathered face, his worn,  calloused hands, which we see in the film footage,   are not make-up. Months before the start  of filming, the actor came to northern   Massachusetts and settled there on Hog Island,  an uninhabited bird sanctuary in Ipswich Bay,   where the film crew was just starting to build  the sets of colonial Salem in 1692. The actor   personally helped build the wooden house in which  his character lived and other parts of the scenery   of the settlement, using only 17th-century tools.  He remained living there on the island, without   electricity and running water, trying to arrange  his life as it was established in those times.   Inset quote: ”It seemed that the important  thing to do was some kind of physical work,   so I spent some time on the island, because  so much of the story of those people’s   lives was contained within the way they took  possession of that land.” - Daniel Day-Lewis   After the summer spent on the island,  he completely immersed himself in his   character. Day-Lewis didn't talk much. Instead  of using a golf cart to get around the island,   as other actors did, he rode exclusively on his  brown horse. In the frame, he was mowing the   grass for real, because he learned how to do it. Unfortunately, although the film received a lot of   positive reviews from critics and several of the  most prestigious awards and nominations (including   an Oscar nomination for the best screenplay),  it was a complete failure at the box office.   What else did participation in this film  bring to Day-Lewis, apart from a break from   society and immersion in a new world for  him with the actor's constant curiosity?   One of the reasons why Daniel still agreed  to participate in the project was the author   of the film's script, Arthur Miller, who  was a real legend for Day-Lewis and whom   he got a chance to meet personally. They  not only met, but also corresponded for   a long time about the role and the script. A few months later, on November 13, 1996, on   the eve of the movie release, Daniel, unexpectedly  for everyone, and especially for Deya Pichardo,   who at that time still lived in his New York  apartment and considered herself his girlfriend,   married a writer, actress and director Rebecca  Miller, the daughter of a great writer.   The couple met during the filming of "The  Crucible" and soon decided to get married,   without too much fuss and lavish ceremonies.  Daniel was 39 at that time, Rebecca was 33.   Rebecca's half-brother, Robert Miller, who acted  as a producer of the film, said even then that   they had every chance to become an ideal couple. Inset quote: ”They should be good for each other.   They’re both very creative people,  they’re independent and yet also very   loving and very bright.” - Robert Miller Most likely, he turned out to be right,   because 27 years have passed since their  wedding, and they are still together,   have two children - sons Ronan Cal and Cashel  Blake and are just as vigilant in keeping the   paparazzi away from their personal life. In the 90s, Daniel had not yet made a habit   of taking long breaks between movies, as he  would later do, so immediately after "The   Crucible" he joined Jim Sheridan's new  project and their third collaboration.   Day-Lewis cut his hair almost bald and moved to  Ireland, where he was supposed to play the boxer   Danny Flynn [flɪn], a former IRA fighter  in the film "The Boxer". Sheridan wrote   the script partly based on the story of a real  character - Irish boxer, featherweight champion,   Barry McGuigan [məˈɡɪɡən], who became  Daniel's trainer in preparation for the role.   Inset quote: “I wanted to know what  I could make of this, if there was   anything in me for it. Because I didn’t see  the point in doing a film unless I could   really learn to fight.” - Daniel Day-Lewis The actor started working with McGuigan long   before the idea of the film was even up there.  They met thanks to Sheridan, several times over   a beer they all discussed the possibility of  filming the boxer's story, and even then Daniel   wanted to just try to start boxing. So, by the  time the script was put into work, Day-Lewis had   already been in intensive boxing training for over  a year. In total, the actor devoted almost three   years to boxing, preparing for the film. And,  just like in everything that Day-Lewis undertook,   he tested himself for strength here as well,  getting used to the role to the maximum.   After 16 weeks of filming, which lasted until  July, 1997, McGuigan confidently asserted that   the actor, who had spared more than 400 rounds  in total during this time, was ready to fight   seriously in the professional ring and would  have every chance to become a professional boxer,   if he had such a desire. McGuigan was impressed  by Day-Lewis' dedication to his craft and   his persistence in preparing for the role. Inset quote: “Daniel doesn’t do anything easy.   He trained like a nut. He trained harder than any  fighter that I’ve ever worked with. Daniel worked   twice a day, seven days a week. I said, ‘Daniel,  you don’t have to make it this tough.’ He said,   ‘Look, in order for me to understand  what a fighter goes through, I have to   simulate what it’s like.” - Barry McGuigan This was all Day-Lewis. But in addition to   purely physical training, he also tried to find  an approach to the difficult personality of his   character, the key to how to convey the  chemistry that was supposed to be on the   screen between him and his screen partner,  who was played by Emily Watson [ˈwɑtsən].   According to the story, the characters of  Daniel and Emily have not seen each other   for 14 years. As much as Danny Flynn spent in  prison. From the very beginning of filming,   Daniel agreed with Emily that they would hardly  talk. At first, the actress perceived this request   as something too demanding and uncomfortable, like  the entire method of Daniel's work on the set.   Inset quote: “Daniel and I didn’t really speak…  I found that difficult. I found it quite lonely   and isolating and a bit scary. He has a sort of  electric force about him, and it’s intimidating   but amazing to watch. It really was as it was  in the story. It’s a spare, brutal world where   people don’t express themselves.” - Emily Watson But later, after many years, having gained more of   her own acting experience, she already looked at  it in a completely different way. As the actress   mentioned in an interview, she was grateful to  fate for this experience. Once she asked Day   Lewis: “Why do you work like that?” to which he  modestly replied: "Well, I don't think I'm a good   enough actor to be able to not do it this way." "The Boxer" was nominated for three Golden Globe   Awards, one of which was Day-Lewis' nomination  for Best Actor. Critics generally welcomed   the film and it did not lose at the box  office, but for some reason the film was   not talked about as much as other projects  in which the actor starred in those years.   But Daniel, as always, invested a lot of  himself in this film, and considering that   he already had a family, Rebecca was waiting for  the appearance of their firstborn - son Ronan,   who would be born in 1998, the actor decided to  simply disappear from the radar. Literally. They   got together and moved to Florence, Italy. And  Day-Lewis disappeared from the screens and from   the front pages of the press for five years. COBBLER & BUTCHER   What was Daniel doing all this time? Well,  he just enjoyed life. This was his first,   and far from the last, experience of being removed  from the world of cinema for quite a long time.   The actor gave himself so much on the set that  he barely had enough to withstand the mandatory   PR company that followed the next picture. Inset quote: “I know this is part of what we   have to do. But I really have to be forced.  I just want people to go and see the film.   And I hope that they like it. I have done my  part. And once I'm finished, I always feel a   little empty inside." - Daniel Day-Lewis So, having endured the necessary number   of interviews and public appearances, Daniel  allowed himself to enjoy the company of his wife,   put his face in the Mediterranean sun, devote  time to his favorite cabinet making and...   master the art of cobbler from scratch. Another strangeness for the already strange   Day-Lewis, who is used to be perceived as  for his love for solitude and a specific   style of working with the role. But why  shoemaking? In an interview with Rolling   Stone magazine, he called all his passions  for craftsmanship a kind of antidote to his   acting work and everything related to it. Inset quote: “Most particularly, perhaps,   because you see this visible evidence,  you have this tangible thing at the end,   and if you fuck up, you can see it very clearly  and do it again. It’s not a matter of opinion.   It’s either good or it’s bad.” - Daniel Day-Lewis So, Florence and Daniel as an apprentice to shoe   maestro Stefano Bemer [bɛmər], who was considered  the best at the time and a pair of leather brogues   made in his workshop in those years cost as  little as $500. Maybe Day-Lewis would have   continued to enjoy this vacation from acting, if  not for Martin Scorsese, who once again wanted the   Oscar-winning genius for a role in his new film  - the epic historical drama "Gangs of New York".   Though for the role of Bill the Butcher,  Scorsese initially approved Robert De Niro,   and Daniel was planned for another role.  But considering that the entire project,   from the first approval to the actual finished  film, took almost 20 years, De Niro refused to   participate because he could not wait any longer  and had commitments to other projects. 20 years   is a huge period of time, but the director did  not give up. The problems were that with such a   large-scale idea, the need for a large number  of scenery and costumes, it was difficult to   find the necessary funding. In addition, the  rights to the picture were transferred from   studio to studio more than five times, until  Miramax Films finally took over the project.   Day-Lewis, who agreed to a smaller  role because it was Martin Scorsese,   was happy to take on one of the main characters  of the picture - the role of the extraordinary,   maniacally violent, faithful to the principles of  the dying era, the leader of the Brit gang William   Cutting [ˈkʌtɪŋ], whom everyone called Butcher. It was precisely for this reason that Day-Lewis   refused the role of Aragorn in "The Lord Of  The Rings", because firstly, this is Scorsese,   and secondly, this Butcher was already  very bright. And this is not only due   to the external image created by the actor,  but because he tried to understand him more   deeply and on a more subtle level, to judge  his actions not by the standards of our time,   but from the point of view of those times. And Daniel did not miss, because his William   Cutting is remembered better than all the  other, even the main, heroes of the picture.   Needless to say, Day-Lewis once again resorted  to his own way of finding a connection with the   character. Filming began in the winter of 2000  in Rome and ended in the spring of 2001. All   this time Day-Lewis was the Butcher, spoke with  a strange accent, was learning to touch the tip   of a knife to his eye (as Bill's was glass),  and for about six months before that had been   looking for something to use for his method. Inset quote: “It can be six or eight months.   It has been longer. People talk, apparently on my  behalf, about this torturous preparation period,   but it misses the point, because for me it’s  sheer pleasure. Butchery wouldn’t be my first   choice. But anything that involves very particular  skills – you watch a butcher sharpen a knife,   and it’s a thing of beauty.” - Daniel Day-Lewis The actor was again always in character and off   the set, which sometimes scared the crew  to the point of shivering, because being   in the orbit of the Butcher's changeable and  explosive character was another “pleasure”.   This time, he learned to skillfully sharpen  knives, dismember pig carcasses, dressed according   to the fashion of the 60s of the 18th century,  did not leave the set and continued to play even   after DiCaprio accidentally broke his nose during  the filming of a fight scene. In order to learn   to skillfully throw knives, as the Butcher did,  Daniel hired an instructor from a circus troupe.   He was so faithful to the character that he  even caught pneumonia, because the clothes he   wore and which corresponded to the role were too  light for filming in winter Rome. And as if that   were not enough, the actor refused to take modern  medicines, seriously risking not only his health,   but also his life. But, fortunately, everything  worked out. Even Scorsese was impressed by how   much Daniel grew with his character. Inset quote: “I would have him over   for dinner while we were shooting, and  even though he’d be in modern clothes,   it would still be very much like Bill might  dress. Off-camera, or on the telephone, I’d   always feel like I was talking to Bill, although  he also has an override mechanism in which he   can talk about the part.” - Martin Scorsese "Gangs of New York" became an event. Scorsese   once again confirmed his reputation as a great  director. And Day-Lewis is an exceptional actor   who can play any role, even the antagonistic  character and the biggest villain, in such a   way that the audience will take their breath  away. No, that time it wasn't an Oscar again,   but the picture received 10 nominations, Day-Lewis  received his third Best Actor nomination, and was   recognized at this year's BAFTA as Best Actor. In 2002, when the picture was released and   Day-Lewis was again connected to the promotion  company, he and Rebecca had a second son - Cashel   Blake Day-Lewis. His first son from his  relationship with Isabelle Adjani, Gabriel-Kane,   was already 7 years old at that time. Although  the boy was born in New York, soon his mother   took him with her to Paris, and at that time she  and Daniel saw each other, but not often enough.   After the resounding success of "Gangs of New  York", the actor again felt that he had given   his best and, having the experience of escaping  to Italy, this time he decided to find a more   permanent shelter for himself and his family,  to build a family nest. As far as possible from   Hollywood and at a certain distance from Britain -  places where the press always crowded around him.   In 2003, Day-Lewis bought a house and  a piece of land in his beloved Ireland,   in County Wicklow [wɪkloʊ], among heather-covered  mountain slopes. Now the family spent most of   their time in this house, occasionally visiting  New York. Daniel himself has been a citizen of   Ireland since 1987, and it was only a matter  of time before he decided to settle there. But   this did not mean that he gave up on Britain. Inset quote: “Yes, I do have dual citizenship,   but I think of England as my country. I miss  London very much but I couldn't live there because   there came a time when I needed to be private and  was forced to be public by the press. I couldn't   deal with it.” - Daniel Day-Lewis But why, in fact, Ireland?   One of the reasons, according to his own words,  is vivid childhood memories of this region,   of how they spent summer vacations with the  whole family in County Mayo. There his father   was always happy, returning to the places  where he was born. Remembering those times,   Daniel usually smiles and begins to tell about  the boundless delight he felt as a child when   they flew out of the car, arrived at the place  and ran to dive into the Atlantic. About lighting,   smells that still remain in memory from those  cloudless days. Life in England, compared to   these memories, always seemed a bit dull. So, having arranged his own refuge in a   secluded corner of Ireland for himself  and his family, he now had a wonderful   place to spend his time in between working  on films, and these periods became longer and   longer over the years. This time, Day-Lewis  took a three-year break between projects.   Daniel himself, contrary to how it is  used to be presented in the mass media,   does not divide his life in front of the camera  and off it into two separate universes. He simply   changes the situation, but he himself  remains the same. It's just that having   to step away from acting from time to time  is part of who he is, he's so comfortable   with it and he has every right to do so. Inset quote: “Something that has been suggested   on my behalf is that I live an almost bipolar  existence, with the public life of filmmaking   on one side and a sort of reclusive, almost  misanthropic life on the other. But it never   appears to me that there’s any chasm, any  rift, between those two worlds. My life to   me contains both the professional and the  personal very easily. - Daniel Day-Lewis   Perhaps this break of three years after filming  in Scorsese would have lasted even longer if it   were not for Daniel's wife. She persuaded her  husband to act in her new film "The Ballad   Of Jack And Rose", which was released in 2005.  Rebecca Miller, at the time of their acquaintance   with Day-Lewis, was not only the daughter  of the famous American writer Henry Miller,   but also a director, and “The Ballad Of Jack  And Rose” was to become her third movie.   This film, in terms of its scale, did not quite  fit into the type of projects that the actor   usually pursued. Because of this, it’s said that  his family relationship with Rebecca played a key   role in the fact that he agreed to play in it.  He was involved in this project of hers from the   beginning, because he was the first to read the  script, which was also written by Rebecca. She   shared her thoughts with her husband during  the creation process. So, when the idea and   the script were finally formed, it was easy for  her to persuade him to join the filming and he   gladly took part in it. But he was ok with it,  as he really liked the script. The only thing   they both feared at the beginning was that it  might be difficult to work together as director   and actor, given their close relationship. In this drama, Daniel got the role of a hippie,   a single father who lives in the ruins of a  commune on an island on the east coast with his   teenage daughter, played by Camilla Belle [bɛl].  The relationship between father and daughter,   the war with developers, the struggle  with his own, probably fatal, disease.   This time, Daniel did not impress the paparazzi  either with spectacular external transformations   or extreme physical exertion in preparation for  the role. For this role, Day-Lewis separated   himself from his family for a while, in order  to feel how important this connection between   children and parents is. But they were all  together at the filming. So, it wasn't as   dramatic as the paparazzi made it out to be. The film did not bring either a successful   box office or an unequivocal reaction  from critics. Some moderately praised,   some moderately criticized. So, in terms of the  reaction to his participation in the project,   for an actor of the caliber of Day-Lewis,  it was really a fairly neutral work,   although the film turned out beautiful and  deep in its own way. But the very next picture,   in which he took part, again made the world talk  about the mystery and power of Day-Lewis' talent.   NEW CHALLENGES Two years later, in 2007, the drama "There   Will Be Blood" by the American director Paul  Thomas Anderson was released on world screens.   Actually, Anderson wanted to involve Day-Lewis  in this project as soon as possible so much   that he even sent him a not yet fully polished  version of the script. But even this was enough   for Daniel to get fired up to play this role  - the role of the stubborn prospector Daniel   Plainview [ˈpleɪnˌvju], who in the search,  first for gold, and then for oil, having   achieved the dream of wealth and power, finally  loses his humanity, principles, and decency.   The mysterious and surrounded by a million  rumors method of Day-Lewis, and in this picture,   did not bring him to the extreme that  the audience eagerly expected from him,   whispering to each other: "Well, what else is  that strange Briton doing on the set? What will   he invent again to get into the role?". From the time he accepted the role until   the film was financed, Daniel lived in his  home in Ireland and worked on the role mostly   with the help of his own imagination. Inset quote: “...no matter what stimulus   you can find that belonged to that world,  that world that you’re trying to imagine,   finally imagination is the only thing that’s going  to take you there… I had time, and a quiet place,   and neutral surroundings. I’ve got a room  at home where I can really daydream without   being disturbed, and I suppose it’s there  where things ferment.” - Daniel Day-Lewis   It's funny, but even the remoteness of  the actor from the filming location did   not stop gossipers from absurd fabrications.  It was rumored that Day-Lewis, in order to   physically experience the role, had personally  set up a cattle pit in his Wicklow backyard.   Oddly enough, he didn't do anything that special  this time. Well, he spent three days choosing the   hat he was supposed to wear, out of five options.  And then he didn't take it off all the time when   he was in the character of Daniel Plainview. The actor worked more carefully to understand the   era and what motivated people to this difficult  task. Most of the story takes place in Southern   California, from the turn of the century to  the 1920s. As most actors would do, he read the   book on which the script was based - the novel  “Oil!” written by Upton Sinclair [sɪnˈklɛr].   In addition, Daniel studied in detail in  the archives the correspondence of real   people from those times who, extracting oil,  literally lived in these holes in the ground,   which they dug with their own hands. In personal  correspondence with their families and loved ones,   these people described not only their everyday  life, but also their hopes and dreams,   fears and disappointments. The actor studied the  photos of that time in detail, paying attention   to clothes, everyday life, and work tools. Day-Lewis also paid considerable attention   to finding a voice for his character. He spent  dozens of hours listening to old audio recordings   of people from that region and time period that  have survived to this day. He recorded his voice   samples to understand how he would sound. Finding a hero's voice in general seems very   important in Daniel's work. He did this with  the Butcher, choosing a specific accent for him,   and would do it a little later with Lincoln.  Because, in fact, the voice is as essential   a part of everyone as gestures and mannerisms. Inset quote: “I like to have the illusion that I   can hear that voice before I’m able to speak with  that voice, I do use a little tape recorder. I   talk to myself a lot. I try without thinking about  it to have a sense of whether that voice belongs   to me in my new life. Finally, I just began to  hear a voice which seemed to be right. I couldn’t   make the sounds initially. I could hear them,  but I couldn’t make them.” - Daniel Day-Lewis   Nevertheless, it was not possible without  everything going a little out of bounds. At   the very beginning of filming, after two weeks  of work, the actor Kel O'Neill [oʊˈnil], who was   supposed to play the bitter enemy of Daniel  Plainview, left the project. It is said that   this happened because Kel could not stand the  intensity that Day-Lewis put into his acting   and the relationship between them on the set.  O'Neill was replaced by Paul Dano [ˈdɑnoʊ], who,   according to rumors, Daniel threw real bowling  balls at in the heat of one of the scenes.   His other co-star was 10-year-old Dillon Freasier  [ˈfriziər], who played his on-screen son,   HW. Since the boy has never acted in a  movie, Daniel always wanted to somehow take   care of him, at least, according to the actor: Inset quote: “He was a 10- year-old man-child.   And he had a great head on his shoulders, and a  pair of hands like shovels. I daresay he could   have knocked me out if he wanted to. He was a  wonderful, self-possessed, beautiful young man.”   They really became friends, and before a  very difficult scene in which Plainview   had to treat HW very harshly, the actor  decided to explain to the boy what and why,   and to say that despite everything he said to  him in the frame, he actually loved him. This   was where Dillon finally showed character  and forever discouraged Daniel from showing   excessive care for him, almost sending him away. For the opening scene, in which Plainview was   looking for a piece of silver in the California  desert, Day-Lewis had to go down into a real mine,   excavated specifically for filming, and dig and  chip with his own hands, because he was used to   going through all the experience on his own.  But during one of the takes, the actor fell   from a height of 50 feet, breaking a rib. If you collect all the enthusiastic reviews   of critics about the performance of  Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood",   you can probably publish a small book, and next  to it put on the shelf a shining Oscar statuette,   the second one in the actor's career. Inset quote: "It’s a thrilling performance,   among the greatest I’ve seen, purposefully  alienating and brilliantly located at the   juncture between cinematic realism and  theatrical spectacle." - New York Times   Yes, he already received the second highest  award of the film academy. At the time,   it was only the tenth time in the history  of the Academy Awards that an actor had   won two Best Actor awards. In this, Day-Lewis  joined a constellation that included such movie   superstars as Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper,  Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson and Dustin   Hoffman [ˈspɛnsər ˈtreɪsi, ˈɡɛri ˈkupər, ˈmɑrlən  ˈbrændoʊ, ʤæk ˈnɪkəlsən ænd ˈdʌstɪn ˈhɔfmən]. But   he did it in his own style - popping into the  spotlight from time to time, as if out of nowhere,   on the wave of noise and admiration caused  by his next appearance on the screen,   and disappearing again for several years. An  Oscar-winning star who at the same time is not   a Hollywood star - only Day-Lewis can do that. The Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award,   and many other nominations and awards  were added to the Academy Award.   And Day-Lewis politely thanked everyone for the  Oscar and once again quietly disappeared from   the radar of moviegoers for a couple of years,  coming to his senses after an exhausting role.   But a year later, in the spring of 2008, after  receiving an offer to try himself in a completely   new genre for himself, he sent the producers a  video in which he... sang. Perhaps it was his   curiosity again that was the driving force that  pushed the actor to try himself in a musical?   In 2009, the romantic musical drama "Nine"  was released, inspired by the film "8½"   by maestro Federico Fellini, and in which  Day-Lewis played the main character - film   director Guido Contini [kəntinɪ]. In addition to the fact that the   musical was something completely  new for the actor, the project had   several undeniable trump cards for him. First, the film was directed by none other   than Rob Marshall - whose other musical "Chicago"  won an Oscar. Secondly, the main character on the   screen was to be surrounded by a galaxy of  beautiful women - his muses and his lovers:   Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard,  Penelope Cruz, Kate Hudson, Fergie, Judi   Dench [nɪˈkoʊl ˈkɪdmən, ˈmɛrion kotijar, pəˈnɛləpi  kruz, keɪt ˈhʌdsən, ˈfɜrɡi, ˈʤudi dɛnʧ] and film   diva Sophia Loren as Guido Contini's mother. One can only imagine the challenges faced   by Day-Lewis in preparation for this  picture. But those, for the most part,   were purely technical difficulties. He had a strong voice but lacked skill. Therefore,   for the first eight weeks, or even more, the actor  practiced vocals with the movie’s music director,   in order to choose for Day-Lewis the manner  of performance that would work best for him   and would not be in dissonance with his  character. As a result, we can enjoy two   songs performed by Daniel Day-Lewis himself  on the official soundtrack to the film.   Another problem was the choreography. Here the  actor decided not to even try to jump above his   head, which was supported by Rob Marshall. Inset quote: "I kind of climb in time to the   music. That luckily was something that Rob didn't  try and convince either himself or me of — that   he'd found a dancer. So he worked around that,  in my case. ... I was quite relieved that I could   concentrate on the music." - Daniel Day-Lewis In other respects, he followed the familiar   routine of familiarizing himself with the  character - he tried to be in the role of   his hero not only on set, but also outside  it, wore a Guido suit, smoked cigarettes,   practicing for himself the manner in  which Guido should do it. It is said   that he wrote his co-stars cute complimentary  notes in the style of Guido. His dressing room   was decorated and furnished as the office of a  film director in the 60s should have looked.   Of course there were a lot of regular press  rumors. This time about the fact that the   actor learned Italian in order to get used  to the role of the character. Daniel was   frankly amused by these rumors. Because,  as he himself said later in an interview,   considering that both the preparation for the film  and the filming itself took no more than a year,   he simply did not have time to learn the language,  even if he wanted to. Because in order to master   the language at the level at which he would  consider it acceptable, it would take at least   five years. Also, given that he once lived in  Italy for five years, he could speak some Italian   anyway, which allowed him to deftly add a slight  flair of an Italian accent to his character.   Inset quote: "The most extravagant rumors  seem to develop out of almost every piece   of work that I ever take on and although  some of them might have some basis in truth,   they're very often unrecognizable to me.  I wish I could claim that I had; I'm so   tempted to lie about it." - Daniel Day-Lewis Unfortunately, despite the mega-star cast and   hopes invested in it, the picture did not repeat  the glory of "Chicago". Reviews from critics   were quite mixed, but far from enthusiastic,  and the film did not come close to bringing   in the expected profits. Perhaps of all the  works of Day-Lewis of this scale and budget,   this was the most unsuccessful work in terms  of its reception by the public, although it was   his performance, as well as the performance of  Cotillard and Cruz, that was mostly praised by   film critics. And, despite everything, Daniel was  also nominated for this role at the Golden Globe   Award and at the Satellite Award as Best Actor. After that, the actor disappeared for three years,   only to return to Hollywood after a moderate  ovation for his role in "Nine" for another   Oscar. This time the role was offered by Steven  Spielberg and it was not just big, it was epic!   OSCAR TO LINCOLN and Sir Daniel Long-bodied, thin, with a long neck   and legs. This is what Abe Lincoln looked like,  according to his biographers. Such is Day-Lewis,   who is the closest in physique to the great  president of any actor who has ever played Lincoln   before. The height of Lincoln, who was considered  almost a giant for his time - 6 feet 4 inches,   Daniel is not much less - 6 feet 1¼". In addition, to match the actor's face   to Abe's appearance, almost no makeup was needed.  Day-Lewis' own hair and beard, cut and styled as   Lincoln wore, the famous birthmark, and that's  pretty much all that was needed. Spielberg was   struck by this similarity. When he and the  screenwriter Tony Kushner arrived to persuade   the actor to take the role, they all went to a  pub together and, as Daniel and Tony stood in the   background of the window and talked, Spielberg, as  if spontaneously, clicked a photo of Day-Lewis on   his iPhone and dropped it to Kushner by e-mail. Inset quote: “Steven said that his earliest memory   of Lincoln was a cardboard cutout  of his silhouette for Presidents’   Day. This silhouette of Daniel against the  window—you would absolutely think you were   looking at young Abe Lincoln.” - Tony Kushner In general, Spielberg made several attempts to   persuade the actor to participate in the project  of "Lincoln". The first time was in 2003. Then   the script was completely different, there was  very little Lincoln in it and more attention was   paid to the Civil War. In addition to the  fact that Daniel did not like the script,   he also insisted that the idea of him playing  the great President was complete nonsense.   The director made the next attempt six years  later, when Tony Kushner [ˈkʌʃnər] was already   working on a new script. This time the story  was briefly based on the 2005 biography of   Lincoln written by Doris Kearns Goodwin [kɜrnz  ˈɡʊdwɪn]. The script described only the last   months of the President's life, when he worked to  push through Congress the 13th Amendment to end   slavery. This scenario intrigued Day-Lewis,  and although he initially refused again,   it was too late. As he said himself: Inset quote: “I had already been drawn into   Lincoln’s orbit. He has a very powerful orbit,  which is interesting because we tend to hold him   at such a distance. He’s been mythologized  almost to the point of dehumanization. But   when you begin to approach him, he almost  instantly becomes welcoming and accessible,   the way he was in life.” - Daniel Day-Lewis That's when the work began. This time,   in order to prepare for the role, Day-Lewis  did not try to master any practical skills   that the character possessed. Preparation  consisted largely of reading. Among the   books were the writings of Lincoln himself, the  reminiscences of contemporaries, and, of course,   a biography of Abe written by Doris Goodwin. In  addition, the actor specially went on a tour of   the house and law office of the young Lincoln in  Springfield, Illinois [ˈsprɪŋˌfild, ˌɪləˈnɔɪ]. He   paid special attention to the study of photographs  of the 16th president taken at the end of his life   by photographer Alexander Gardner [ˈɡɑrdnər]. “I looked at them the way you sometimes look   at your own reflection in a mirror  and wonder who that person is looking   back at you,” the actor recollected. Another way to Lincoln's personality was   the President’s voice. While there was historical  evidence that Lincoln had a high-pitched voice,   rather than the thick, booming baritone he  was usually voiced by in film and animation,   Day-Lewis had his own theory about  it. According to his observations,   high-pitched voices are better perceived by  the crowd, such a voice is better heard in a   larger area. The actor assumed that Lincoln  was such an effective orator partly thanks   to such a "comfortable" speaking tone. Daniel has walked this path of searching   for the character's spirit more than once and  has definitely confirmed the effectiveness of   this method for himself. The voice  was always very important to him.   One day, Spielberg just received a voice recorder  in the mail, in an envelope marked "for your eyes   only", on the recording was a Voice reading  something from Shakespeare and Lincoln's   Second Inaugural. It was Lincoln's voice. Not  the one that many imagined when looking at   the official portraits of the 16th President  of the United States in textbooks. It was a   voice very similar to the one described in the  memories of his contemporaries - a soft tenor,   a little too high, a little cracked, in the  accent of which a border mixture of Illinois,   Indiana and Kentucky dialects was easily read. Inset quote: “A beautiful voice. I wanted   that voice to read me a book. It came with a  letter that said, ‘After you listen to this,   would you ring me up and we’ll have a natter?’ …  That was the result of Daniel's process. I never   questioned him about how he arrived at the voice.  I simply accepted that voice as the 16th president   of the United States," - Steven Spielberg To get used to this voice, Day-Lewis used it   all the time - on set, between scenes and even for  some time after the work was finished. The actor   didn't just play Lincoln. In order to play Abe  at the level of skill he did, he had to literally   become Lincoln for a while. He insisted that the  entire film crew address him as "Mr. President",   with his co-star in the film, actress Sally  Field [fild], who played the president's wife,   he even exchanged text messages in the image and  style of Abe. She remembered how he often sent   her some funny limerick signed 'Yours, A.',  and she had to reply to him on Mary's behalf,   as she, his wife, would have done, scolding him  for wasting his time on such nonsense, instead of   concentrating on something more meaningful. Over the years, Day-Lewis' somewhat maniacal   method of immersing himself in the role was,  thanks to the tabloids, familiar to almost   everyone on the set. So, no one was surprised by  the actor's specific requirements. Screenwriter   Tony Kushner later recalled how Daniel,  with whom they had a friendly relationship,   warned him before the start of filming that  from the beginning of the shooting process   he would not talk to him, only to Spielberg.  Tony remembers very vividly the scene they   filmed right at the beginning - one of the most  important in the film, where Lincoln explains   to his cabinet the importance of passing  the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.   According to Kushner, everyone literally had  their breath taken away when the scene was filmed.   He also claimed that it was the greatest  performance he had ever seen in his life,   and in order to play like that, an actor must  be there, at that moment, completely, in the   highest concentration. This is not psychosis  - this is art. Is it really so necessary to   stay completely in the role all the time? Kushner  claimed that yes, it has its own meaning and its   own logic. He expressed the opinion that actors  of this level are a kind of sacrificial animals,   because he had never seen a great actor play a  great role, for which he would pay a great price.   In order to list all the awards that  "Lincoln" received, a whole separate   page is opened in Wikipedia, and the  big bunch of these awards belongs to   Day-Lewis as the actor who played the famous  president. And among them - the third Oscar.   When the filming was finished and the promotional  campaign of the picture began, Day-Lewis still did   not want to part with one of his greatest roles.  He admitted that it was very sad and difficult   for him to leave his Lincoln behind. Inset quote: “Without sounding unhinged,   I know I’m not Abraham Lincoln. I’m aware of that.  But the truth is the entire game is about creating   an illusion, and for whatever reason, and mad as  it may sound, some part of me can allow myself to   believe for a period for time without questioning,  and that’s the trick...” - Daniel Day-Lewis   Shortly after winning the Oscar for his role  as Lincoln, Day-Lewis announced that he would   take a break from acting and return to his  farmhouse in Ireland. He disappeared from   the screen for up to five years - the longest  interval between filming in his entire career.   But the actor did not manage to completely avoid  publicity during these five years. Because in   2014, Daniel Day-Lewis was awarded the honorary  title of Knight, in the Queen's Birthday Honours.   But, to the great regret of the press, nothing  more could be extracted from this event than Sir   Daniel's brief remark, when he first learned of  the honor he had received, that he was "entirely   amazed and utterly delighted in equal measure." Three years after receiving the knighthood,   in 2017, Day-Lewis reappeared on the screen in  Paul Anderson's Phantom Thread, stunning in its   visual sophistication and shocking denouement. Inset quote: “But it’s not a return to me. I never   went away. I never left myself. I simply need the  time I spend not working in films, the time away,   to do the work that I love to do in the way  that I love to do it.” - Daniel Day-Lewis   THE PHANTOM THREAD OF THE LAST ROLE Day-Lewis and Paul Anderson had the idea   of this film for several years. The director  had a story about a man who becomes strangely   dependent on his mistress, about an emotionally  strained relationship between him, his sister   and his muse. Later, together with Daniel,  they decided that the protagonist should be   a fashion designer and together they plunged  into the unfamiliar world of high fashion,   creating a kind of perverted twisted  version of the story of Cinderella.   Sometime in 2015, a couple of years before  filming began, Day-Lewis began immediate   preparation for the role. As it turned  out later, it was his last film role.   But at that time, Daniel didn't even think about  making the decision that he would not continue   acting. To transform into Woodcock [wʊdˌkɑk],  the actor studied the lives of famous designers,   watched archive videos from fashion shows of  the 1940s and 50s, learned to draw sketches,   sew with his own hands and design dresses. Inset quote: “I’ve explored so many different   worlds, but the thing they have in common  is they were always entirely mysterious to   me in the beginning. Probably a great part  of the allure — discovering something that   seems beyond reach, sometimes impossibly  beyond reach, that pulls you forward into   its orbit somehow.” - Daniel Day-Lewis On the screen, he once again created the   magic of details. The way he takes measurements  from his muse in the frame and hems the dresses   with his own hands is literally mesmerizing with  its meditative truthfulness. We see a close-up of   Day-Lewis' fingers, calloused from scissors and  needles, pricked and scratched from pins. The   hands of the real Reynolds Woodcock, who Daniel  and Anderson invented as a collective image of a   brilliant couturier - meticulous, bent on his  business, fixated on control over everything   and the stability of his life patterns. Day-Lewis consulted with the curator of   fashion and textiles at the Victoria and Albert  Museum in London and interned for many months   with Marc Happel [ˈhæpəl], who headed the New York  City Ballet's costume department. He watched, and   later began to help reconstruct theater costumes  with his own hands. At the end of this internship,   the actor decided that he was ready and that he  needed to create a couture item from scratch.   For this, he chose to recreate one of the  dresses of the famous couturier Cristóbal   Balenciaga [buh·len·see·aa·guh], whose image  he and Anderson unanimously chose as the main   prototype for Woodcock. This simple-looking dress,  which Daniel fell in love with at first sight,   was stored in the fashion designer's archive in  Paris. Without access to it, he drew a sketch and,   using his wife Rebecca as a living mannequin,  began to try to reconstruct the model himself.   Inset quote: “… it looked very simple until I had  to figure out a way to make it and then realized,   My God, this is incredibly complicated… The code  that I had to crack was a very particular gusset   in the armpit. You couldn’t tell from  the photos how the gusset was designed.   Marc and I each worked on our version of  the gusset and, through trial and error,   figured it out.” - Daniel Day-Lewis In the end, Day-Lewis did repeat this model,   sewing it from silk in a soft lilac shade,  which in "Phantom Thread" would become   Woodcock's signature shade. Knowing Daniel's  perfectionism and the way he approaches   everything he immerses himself in, it doesn't  even seem surprising that the dress turned out   gorgeous and Rebecca later wore it to the world. In this film, as in no other, the director and   costume director gave Day-Lewis complete carte  blanche in choosing clothes for his character.   So the actor not only mastered the couturier's  craft, but also carefully thought through every   detail of his personal wardrobe. When Anderson's  old friend, Oscar-winning costume designer Mark   Bridges [ˈbrɪʤəz], came on board, Daniel already  had a clear plan of action. Bridges later fondly   recalled their joint shopping spree with  Day-Lewis. The actor, for whom the upper   world of London was nothing more than the  atmosphere in which he grew up, discovered a   lot of new things for the designer. In his interview about how the work on   the costumes for the film went, Mark Bridges  especially emphasized the actor's participation in   this process. Daniel, as a true English gentleman,  because he grew up in the wealthy area of London's   Kensington and was the son of a famous poet, was  well versed in this whole world of quality things   that were created to order. Thanks to him, Mark  learned that it is not unusual for a man of a   certain status in Britain to understand fabrics,  where the buttons should be located, and to take   care of his wardrobe carefully. When giving  costume cues for the film, the actor recalled   how his grandfather dressed, so they were sure  that gray flannel slacks would be appropriate with   country clothes. He remembered that people had  been wearing their custom-made country blazers at   Anderson & Sheppard for years. The actor was happy  to share his knowledge of English clothing, and   then they worked together to make sure that these  items fit the film and were also photogenic.   In addition to Woodcock's costumes, Daniel also  helped with how the character's home should   be furnished and decorated, which should  lie on his bedside table. He also decided   what breed the couturier's dogs should be. Day-Lewis made special demands on colleagues   on set. So he insisted that he and the actress  Vicky Krieps [krips], who played his muse Alma,   did not interact in any way until the very  moment of filming the first scene. To make their   acquaintance with both Woodcock and his sister,  the way she gradually entered their lives, seem as   true as possible. Despite the fact that with the  actress who played the character’s sister, Daniel   had intensive communication for months to rebuild  the family relationships of their characters.   Planned from the beginning as an easy  journey, the film turned out to be so intense,   deep and energetically exhausting for them that  neither the director nor Day-Lewis expected it.   According to Day-Lewis himself, and this was also  confirmed by Mark Bridges, before the shooting of   the picture began, the actor had no idea what  he wanted to do with acting after it. Later,   Daniel recounted how he and Paul laughed and  joked a lot in preparation for the shooting,   and as they got deeper and deeper into the  process of making the film, they began to feel   an overwhelming sense of sadness. It appeared  out of the blue, as if they suddenly realized   what they had given birth to. In his words:  "It was hard to live with. And still is.”   For the role of Reynolds Woodcock, Day-Lewis was  again nominated for an Oscar, he received a Golden   Globe and many more prizes and nominations. The  fashion world was delighted with the picture.   But Daniel himself even refused to watch the  movie when it was ready to be shown. Why?   Inset quote: “I haven’t figured it out, but it’s  settled on me, and it’s just there. Not wanting   to see the film is connected to the decision  I’ve made to stop working as an actor. But   it’s not why the sadness came to stay. That  happened during the telling of the story,   and I don’t really know why.” - Daniel Day-Lewis And here, the great Daniel Day-Lewis, the only   winner of three Oscar statuettes, the best actor  of all time according to the Academy of Motion   Picture Arts and Sciences, an actor unique in  his skill, bordering on loss of personality,   publicly announced that he had decided  to leave acting forever. He was 60,   he was at the peak of success and world fame. As we know, Day-Lewis often took breaks between   films before this, which became longer  and longer over the years. This time,   the actor made a public statement that  this time he was going to leave for good.   Why did he choose to do this publicly? As he noted in one of his interviews, throughout   his acting career, he regularly had the desire to  stop acting. Sometimes Day Lewis even voiced it.   But this time everything was different. This time  the impulse to finally leave was so ingrained in   him that it actually became an obsession and  he felt he really had to do it. Officially,   he made this statement precisely in order to  draw a line publicly, leaving no way back. So   that his curiosity or some other circumstances  do not drag him into another project again.   What was he going to do? What to devote life to?  Rumors began to circulate here that the actor,   after his experience with "Phantom Thread",  decided to start a career as a fashion designer.   Moreover, before that, he had already mastered  the skills of creating shoes as well. But,   in his characteristic manner, at such assumptions,  Daniel only smiled out of the corner of his   mouth and said mysteriously: "Who knows?" He is a very versatile person and has many   hobbies. He draws well, he had the experience  of writing a comedy script together with his   wife Rebecca. He loves making furniture and  carpentry. Once, on the set of Rebecca's film   "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee", Daniel was  actively involved in the production of scenery.   But it is still hard to imagine that a person  who made such a significant contribution to   cinema will stay away from it forever. Especially since in the winter of 2024,   the actor was seen in the company of Martin  Scorsese. And later the director announced   that maybe Day Lewis would join his new film. Let us know in the comments if you think we'll   see more of Daniel Gray on screen? Inset quote: “I won’t know which way   to go for a while. But I’m not going to stay  idle. I don’t fear the stony silence...“Do I   feel better?” “Not yet. I have great sadness.  And that’s the right way to feel. How strange   would it be if this was just a gleeful step into  a brand-new life. I’ve been interested in acting   since I was 12 years old… When I began, it was a  question of salvation. Now, I want to explore the   world in a different way.” - Daniel Day-Lewis Today he is 66 years old, he has a wife, with   whom he has been together for 27 years, and has  three adult sons. Gabriel-Kane, his first son from   Isabel Adjani, lived with his mother in France  until he was a teenager, but at the age of 14   he decided that he wanted to live with his father  and moved to Ireland with him. He is successfully   involved in the modeling business and music, and  even managed to release his own album. The middle   son, Ronan Cal, went on his mother’s steps and  after obtaining a bachelor's degree in fine arts   from Harvard continued his career as a director  and artist. The youngest, Cashel Blake also   inherited the family artistic gene and for him  it manifested itself in an interest in music.   The Day-Lewis family is quite friendly, everyone  supports each other. The sons are quite proud of   their parents, but in fact all of them,  like the children of many star parents,   can confirm the words of the elder: "I'm very  proud of who my parents are, but they really set   a bar and cast an immense shadow. It’s made it  hard for me to find myself.” The circle closed,   and Daniel's children found themselves exactly  at the same point where he had once been,   starting life in the shadow of the fame of his  father - the most famous poet in Britain.   So what awaits Day-Lewis in the future, apart from  the fact that he will watch the creative growth   and success of his sons and arrange a quiet  and comfortable life for himself and Rebecca,   making cozy furniture with his own hands  and taking care of the house? Maybe he will   continue to ride a dirtbike until he is 80  years old and take part in one more Moto GP,   this time not as a passenger, but as  a pilot? Can he start his own line of   handmade shoes? Or will he open a real  Irish pub and call it "Three Oscars"?   You can expect anything from the great and  unpredictable Daniel Day-Lewis, but we just   don't want to believe that he will never again  amaze us with his new screen transformations. So,   we will wait, maybe we will hear about him in the  world of film business. If you are interested in   our story, we also have videos about other famous  actors and directors, interesting facts from their   personal and creative lives. So click on the video  that appeared on your screen and learn more. Thank   you for watching to the end, we will be sincerely  grateful for your ‘like’ and will be happy to tell   you even more interesting stories. Stay with  us on the Biographer channel. See you soon.

Channel: Biographer

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Keywords: Daniel Day-Lewis Biography, Daniel Day-Lewis bio, Daniel Day-Lewis life story, Daniel Day-Lewis personal life, Daniel Day-Lewis scandals, Daniel Day-Lewis interview, Daniel Day-Lewis awards, Daniel Day-Lewis real estate, Daniel Day-Lewis facts, Daniel Day-Lewis movies, Daniel Day-Lewis family, Daniel Day-Lewis kids, Daniel Day-Lewis wife, who is Daniel Day-Lewis, Daniel Day-Lewis Academy Awards, Daniel Day-Lewis Oscar, Gangs of New York, Lincoln, There Will Be Blood, biographer

Id: 5Z7DmxYkOfM

Length: 115min 9sec (6909 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 21 2024