The greatest actor of his generation, Daniel Day-Lewis, will bow out after the upcoming Phantom Thread.
Daniel Day-Lewis has explained his decision to quit acting following the release of the upcoming Phantom Thread, his final collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson.
Day-Lewis – who is based in Wicklow – revealed in June that his latest movie would be his last acting job.
Phantom Thread is released next month.
“Before making the film, I didn’t know I was going to stop acting,” Day-Lewis, the only actor to have won three Best Actor Academy Awards, told W Magazine.
“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.
“That took us by surprise: We didn’t realise what we had given birth to. It was hard to live with. And still is.”
The 60-year-old finds it difficult to pinpoint the reason he is stepping away from the world of cinema, but says that his decision not to watch Phantom Thread feeds into his determination to move on with his life.
“I haven’t figured it out,” he said.
“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.
“I dread to use the overused word ‘artist’, but there’s something of the responsibility of the artist that hung over me,” he added.
“I need to believe in the value of what I’m doing. The work can seem vital. Irresistible, even. And if an audience believes it, that should be good enough for me. But, lately, it isn’t.”
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