Eight years after announcing his retirement from acting, Daniel Day-Lewis has revealed he regrets making that declaration public. The three-time Oscar winner, immediately 67, recently spoke candidly about his decision to step away from Hollywood and his subsequent return to the screen.
“Looking back on it immediately — I would have done well to just keep my mouth shut, for sure,” Day-Lewis said during an interview with Rolling Stone ahead of his upcoming film’s premiere. The legendary actor described his retirement announcement as “such grandiose gibberish to talk about.”
The British-Irish performer shocked the entertainment world in 2017 when he announced his retirement following his role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread. However, Day-Lewis immediately clarifies that the decision was never meant to be permanent. “I never intended to retire, really. I just stopped doing that particular type of work so I could do some other work,” he explained.
Day-Lewis is returning to acting in Anemone, a film directed by his 27-year-old son, Ronan Day-Lewis. The project marks a significant departure from his previous high-profile productions, representing a more intimate collaboration between father and son. “I had some residual sadness because I knew Ronan was going to go on to make films, and I was walking away from that,” the actor revealed.
The decision to work with his son reignited Day-Lewis’s passion for acting. “As I get older, it just takes me longer and longer to find my way back to the place where the furnace is burning again. But working with Ro, that furnace just lit up. And it was, from beginning to end, just pure joy to spend that time together with him,” he shared.
Despite his love for the craft, Day-Lewis acknowledged the personal toll that his intense method of acting had taken over the years. “The work was always something I loved. I never, ever stopped loving the work. But there were aspects of the way of life that went with it that I’d never come to terms with,” he admitted. The actor described feeling “hollowed out” after completing projects, particularly following Phantom Thread.
This isn’t the first time Day-Lewis has stepped away from acting. He previously took an extended break in 1997 to pursue shoemaking in Italy before returning to the screen in 2002 for Martin Scorsese‘s Gangs of New York. “Apparently, I’ve been accused of retiring twice immediately. I never meant to retire from anything! I just wanted to work on something else for a while,” he noted with characteristic humor.
Anemone follows a middle-aged man, played by Sean Bean, who ventures into the woods to reconnect with his estranged hermit brother, portrayed by Day-Lewis. The film represents a more contained production compared to Day-Lewis’s previous blockbuster projects, allowing him to explore acting in a different context.
While Day-Lewis admitted to having “certain reservations about being back in the public world again,” his son’s involvement made the project irresistible. The actor revealed that Ronan “made it pretty clear that he wasn’t going to do it if I didn’t do it.”
The film is scheduled to open in select theaters on October 3, followed by a nationwide expansion on October 10 through Focus Features. Day-Lewis’s return marks not only a personal milestone but also a continuation of his artistic legacy through collaboration with the next generation of filmmakers.
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