Legendary actor Daniel Day-Lewis has finally revealed why he decided to end his retirement after nearly a decade. Often regarded as the greatest living film actor, Daniel Day-Lewis has always been selective with his film projects and has stepped away from the spotlight multiple times. Following his 2017 role in Phantom Thread, the actor said he would be retiring from acting. Yet now, in 2025, eight years after his last movie, Day-Lewis is returning to the screen in Anemone, directed by his son, Roman Day-Lewis. The father-and-son duo also wrote the script together, with the actor now revealing it was the chance to work with his son that brought him back to the screen. Speaking with Rolling Stone, Day-Lewis said it was the chance to work with his son that motivated him to return.
“I had some residual sadness because I knew Ronan was going to go on to make films, and I was walking away from that. I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could do something together and find a way of maybe containing it, so that it didn’t necessarily have to be something that required all the paraphernalia of a big production?”‘
While he seemed to have some reservations about returning to acting, and at one point only considered being the co-writer for Anemone, his son, Roman Day-Lewis, convinced him to return to acting, saying he wouldn’t direct the movie otherwise. Day-Lewis also talked in detail about the process of acting, and why he decided to step away the first time. While he always loved acting, there were other aspects that Day-Lewis was looking forward to leaving behind. However, it appears working with his son might have lit a new creative fire inside him. Day-Lewis said:
“It was just kind of a low-level fear, [an] anxiety about re-engaging with the business of filmmaking, 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 — from the day I started out to today. There’s something about that process that left me feeling hollowed out at the end of it. I mean, I was well acquainted with it. I understood that it was all part of the process, and that there would be a regeneration eventually. And it was only really in the last experience [making ‘Phantom Thread’] that I began to feel quite strongly that maybe there wouldn’t be that regeneration anymore. That I just probably should just keep away from it, because I didn’t have anything else to offer.
But looking back on it now — I would have done well to just keep my mouth shut, for sure. It just seems like such grandiose gibberish to talk about. I never intended to retire, really. I just stopped doing that particular type of work so I could do some other work. I never, you know… Apparently, I’ve been accused of retiring twice now. I never meant to retire from anything! I just wanted to work on something else for a while. … 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.”
Daniel Day-Lewis’s History of Walking Away From Acting, and Why He Always Comes Back
Daniel Day-Lewis’s first round of “retirement” came in 1997 following the release of The Boxer. He moved to Florence, Italy, where he pursued his passion for woodworking and became intrigued by the craft of shoe-making. He returned to the screen in 2002 for Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. He followed that up with a string of performances, notably his two Academy Award-winning performances in There Will Be Blood and Lincoln, and also two films that generated mixed to negative responses, The Ballad of Jack and Rose and Nine. Many thought his performance in Phantom Thread, which reunited him with There Will Be Blood director Paul Thomas Anderson, was a fitting final film for the actor.
Anemone is set to debut at the New York Film Festival on Sept. 28, 2025, before its limited release on October 3, followed by a wider release on October 10. Day-Lewis is already generating awards buzz for his role in Anemone, despite nobody having seen the film. Daniel Day-Lewis has been nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards six times, and won three for his performance in My Left Foot, There Will be Blood, and Lincoln. He holds the record for most wins by a male actor.
Daniel Day-Lewis’s choice to return to acting to work with his son is certainly a sweet gesture. Yet it is film fans that will be receiving the awards, as in the worst-case scenario, Day-Lewis is the best part of a forgettable film like Nine, and at best, he delivers an all-time iconic cinematic performance like in There Will Be Blood. The idea of seeing a new Daniel Day-Lewis movie seemed impossible just three years ago, yet now it is only weeks away. Hopefully, he sticks around for more.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
