10 reasons why Daniel Day-Lewis decided to quit acting
Why Daniel Day-Lewis retired from acting
Daniel Day-Lewis left his fans heartbroken when he announced his retirement from acting in 2017 after four decades of impeccable work. At the time, his spokeswoman Leslee Dart shared, as per Variety, “Daniel Day-Lewis will no longer be working as an actor. He is immensely grateful to all of his collaborators and audiences over the many years. This is a private decision and neither he nor his representatives will make any further comment on this subject.” Though the actor did not elaborate much, below is a list of reasons that might have played a role in his retirement.
Extreme pressures of method acting
Daniel Day-Lewis was famous for his method acting and everyone knows it’s not child’s play. The 66-year-old often went to extreme lengths to perfect his craft. For example, he reportedly spent his time in a wheelchair and crewmembers used to feed him as he worked in his Oscar-winning film, ‘My Left Foot'.
People find Daniel Day-Lewis’ style of work weird
The ‘There Will Be Blood’ star's working style was not everyone’s cup of tea - in fact, many found it excessive and weird. British actor Jared Harris, who worked with Lewis on ‘Lincoln’, once reportedly shared, “His attention to detail and commitment is truly impressive but people refer to it as being an imposition or intimidating.”
Daniel Day-Lewis does not like a wrap
After putting so much of himself into a character, it reportedly used to get difficult for Lewis to say goodbye to the film. He reportedly said, “There's a terrible sadness. The last day of shooting is surreal. Your mind, your body, and your spirit are not prepared to accept that this experience is coming to an end. You've devoted so much of your time to unleashing, in an unconscious way, some sort of spiritual turmoil.”
Getting out of character makes Daniel Day-Lewis uneasy
The English actor once opened up about his experience working in ‘Gangs of New York’, in which played Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting. For the role, he did not just learn to gut carcasses but also spoke in butcher dialect for months. He shared, “I got nervous before the premiere. I knew I'd also feel a sense of sadness. Now I have to accept that the film is complete and no longer has anything to do with me.”
Daniel Day-Lewis likes his second job as a cobbler
Lewis has reportedly mastered the art of shoe-making under master shoemaker Stefano Bemer. He told Rolling Stone, “It's an antidote to this other thing I do. Most particularly, perhaps, because you see this visible evidence, you have this tangible thing at the end, and if you f*** 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.”
Legend wanted to leave acting way before 2017
Lewis was ready to leave the entertainment world long before the 2017 announcement. He reportedly mentioned, “I was not thinking about going back to work ... When Martin (Scorsese) told me about Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York, I wanted to change places with that man. But even then, I did not say yes right away. I kept thinking, 'I'm not sure I can do this again.’”
Daniel Day-Lewis does not like attention
Lewis reportedly does not like to be called a public figure. He once told BBC, “From the outside... I am, whether I like it or not, a public figure during certain periods. Like now. Then I disappear, it seems.” He added, “To people from the outside, I seem to disappear. Of course in my experience I don't disappear, I'm just doing other things. What I'm doing is re-engaging with life. And it's that period of time that allows me to do the work. So these two things are indivisible.”
Not a fan of the drama surrounding a movie
‘The Last of the Mohicans’ actor once reportedly asserted, “The work itself is never anything but pure pleasure, but there's an awful lot of peripheral stuff that I find it hard to be surrounded by. I like things to be swift, because the energy you have is concentrated and can be fleeting. The great machinery of film can work against that.”
Daniel Day-Lewis has taken long career breaks earlier too
Taking breaks from Hollywood is not something new for Lewis. In 2002, he told The Guardian, “I just wanted some time away from it all. I need that quite often. And I have felt like that ever since I got into acting. When I was younger, I made some decisions that I shouldn't have. And, in hindsight, I've almost always been wrong when I haven't listened to myself. I have quite a strong feeling about when I should work and when I shouldn't.”
DDL wants to 'explore the world in a different way’
2017’s ‘Phantom Thread’ was the last film Lewis did before he stepped down from acting. At the time, he told W Magazine, “I didn't want to get sucked back into another project. All my life, I've mouthed off about how I should stop acting, and I don't know why it was different this time, but the impulse to quit took root in me, and that became a compulsion. It was something I had to do.” The father of 3 added, “I've been interested in acting since I was 12 years old, and back then, everything other than the theater—that box of light—was cast in shadow. When I began, it was a question of salvation. Now, I want to explore the world in a different way.”
