Daniel Day-Lewis is considered one of the
greatest actors in the world, but in Hollywood, he is one of the strangest. Although he is notably successful and famous,
no one hates the limelight more than him. Aside from the unbelievable stories many tell
of the actor's WILD acting methods, nobody knows what life this actor leads. Who knew the iconic Marilyn Monroe was almost
his mother-in-law? His extreme take on acting has landed the
actor a record-breaking THREE Oscar awards for Best Male Actor. But that is not the only way the actor's skills
have affected his life. After falling into a deep depression, the
critically acclaimed actor decided he was done with the emotional business of storytelling. Daniel Day-Lewis may be one of the most notable
talents ever to exist, but very little is known about this strange actor, and it's not
by mistake. Day-Lewis makes it a point to keep his private
life out of the public's eye. Often compared to Marlon Brando , Day-Lewis
is part of the reclusive actors club. Though his success is well-known, his life
is full of mystery. The only people who truly know the actor are
his loving wife and children. With his family by his side, the actor is
never truly alone. "How can you be a recluse in a house full
of children, even if you had the inclination to be, which I don't?" Maybe because for the past decades, the peculiarly
odd star has had himself tucked away in the mountains of a small Irish village? The actor has been peacefully living on a
fifty-acre farm with his family. Though his actual home is nowhere near that
large, the actor bought the other forty-five acres of surrounding land to have some privacy. And if that didn't send a clear message to
his neighbours, steering clear of them any chance he gets may have. Day-Lewis is comfortable in his hermit-like
lifestyle, and he won't adjust that for anyone, not even for another well-off resident, U2
singer, Bono. "The truth is I don't notice [the pressure
of celebrity] around here because I'm allowed to live. I notice it elsewhere." When the actor can't find isolation outside
of his home away in the mountains, he creates the environment himself. On one of his lesser-known films, The Ballad
of Jack and Rose, Day-Lewis built himself a shack FROM SCRATCH that he lived in for
most of the filming, while his family was cosied up in a luxurious hotel close by. The eccentric actor wanted to, quote, "retain
a sense of isolation," that he says the movie set did not have. But the actor could not stay there forever. "When the work is done, it's to this place
that I return to as a refuge," he spoke of his fifty acre hideout spot. The critically acclaimed actor only emerges
from his safe haven for film roles that he deems worthy. In the past 20 years, the actor has only returned
to shoot a handful of films. One of which landed him his second Oscar. Many would recall his performance in There
Will Be Blood as a masterpiece, but one co-star does not. Kel O'Neill, the actor who was initially cast
to play the role of Eli, was rumoured to have quit the film because the leading man was,
quote, "crazy" and “intimidating”. The
Real Eli also shared his experience with the actor in the iconic end scene of the movie,
which sees Day-Lewis's character throwing bowling balls at him. "They start flying, and I realise he's getting
into it. Then a ball bounces up and hits me in the
leg, and I'm thinking: 'OK, those are heavy; this is getting serious - I'd better duck.'" The crew was also left stunned, as the committed
actor was never meant to take things that far. Many stars have also left the set unhappy,
after working with Day-Lewis, including a Gangs of New York co-star who was infuriated
that Daniel kept on calling him by his character's name, even when they bumped into one another
at the gym. However, with this bad cloud over the actor's
head, O'Neill came forward, denying that Day-Lewis was why he left the film days before production
began. He claimed that the rumours were an attempt
to add to the majesty of Daniel Day-Lewis. "I would be cautious now, especially when
he's not going to do this anymore, about making him so mythical that there's no acknowledgement
of the human being there." By "not doing this anymore", O'Neill is referring
to the acting business. '
Day-Lewis has threatened to leave the world of acting many times. He stuck to his word and never set foot on
a stage again after, running off the stage claiming that he saw his father's ghost. "I had the strange sensation I was talking
to my father," he shared. "What he said to me on that night seemed particularly
hard to bear." And he hasn't looked back on the theatre world
since. However, when it comes to the film world,
he has tried to quit several times but would instead take a long hiatus. Still, every time a notable role came knocking
on the actor's door, he would sacrifice his time alone for months on set. This explains why very few fans took the actor
seriously when he announced that he was officially retiring from acting. This time it was less of a decision and more
of an epiphany. Whilst on the set of his latest and, as it
seems, last film, Phantom Thread, the actor was left with no choice but to put away his
acting gloves and tend to his mental health. "Before making the film, I didn't know I was
going to stop acting," he shared. "I do know that Paul and I laughed a lot before
we made the movie. And then we stopped laughing because we were
both overwhelmed by a sense of sadness… It was hard to live with. And still is." Though the actor has finally given in the
towel on acting, he never said he was done with the film industry. The selected few, who get to be invited over
into his little sanctuary in the mountains, were stunned to see the actor's obsessive
love for shoemaking and woodwork. Years back, during his time away from acting,
Day-Lewis made a rare appearance in filmmaking, but not on the big screen. The
actor joined the carpentry crew and helped build the set of The Private Lives of Pippa
Lee, directed by his wife, Rebecca Miller (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1yaLEqjRxA
0:00), daughter of famous playwright and ex husband of the ever-so-loved Marilyn Monroe
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9RThZnYV0g 0:07). Day-Lewis is so fascinated by building things
that, at nine years old, his son had no idea his dad was a big-time movie star. He thought Day-Lewis was a construction worker. What may have added to this idea is probably
that the actor insists on living as his film character for two years before taking on another
movie. To prepare for his role in Last of The Mohicans,
the actor spent days alone in the woods learning how to live off of the land. He taught himself how to hunt, track and skin
animals, amongst other skills and would apparently refuse to eat anything he had not killed himself. This is also where his carpentry skills may
have been birthed. The actor built canoes with his bare hands
and reckons he would be a good canoe salesman when he retires. Does that mean we should be expecting a Daniel
Day-Lewis Canoe store to pop up anytime now? And if you thought, that was the wildest thing
he has done for a role, check out these moments when the star took acting to another level. Two Nights In Jail
In preparation for an intense interrogation scene, as a wrongly convicted felon for In
The Name Of The Father, Day-Lewis spent two days and nights in jail, depriving himself
of food and water. The self endured torture did not earn the
actor an academy award. It only scared his co-stars and the rest of
the crew, but this is nothing new for the actor. Didn't Wash
It's not known whether the actor did not actually wash his body, and he hasn't commented on
it either. However, while making The Crucible, Carpentry
enthusiast built his character a house on the film set replica, where he lived for days
with no running water and electricity. Stayed In A Wheelchair
His first Oscar-winning performance in My Left Foot cost the actor two broken ribs. Trying his best to channel late Irish writer
and painter, Christy Brown, who could only move his left foot, Day-Lewis decided to remain
in a wheelchair for the entire duration of the film's shooting. The filming crew had the responsibility of
carrying the actor around the set. Day-Lewis was so committed that he'd fall
out of the chair at times. This and the constant slouching resulted in
him breaking two ribs. Learnt new language
The Unbearable Lightness of Being may not be one of his notable films, for which the
actor made a name for himself, however, Day-Lewis did not shy away from giving the performance
his all. With the story set in Prague, the actor took
acting to the next level when he went out of his way to learn Czech. Though the star didn't speak a word of the
language in the film itself, Day-Lewis did it to try channelling the accent. And when he didn't reach his desired goal,
it ate him up inside, feeling as though he had failed the story and his role. "I think he went through a lot of torment
with that character," the film's director shared. "He was trying to become Czech." That's all we have for you today. Do you think Daniel Day-Lewis is done with
acting for good, or will he be back to collect his fourth Oscar in another iconic role? Let us know in the comments below, and remember,
don't forget to tell your friends how cool we are.
