Three-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis, who is often referred to as the best actor of his generation, has announced that he will retire. The 60-year-old actor’s final performance will be Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson’s December 2017 release about the world of high fashion. Day-Lewis had last appeared in Lincoln (2012), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.
This is the British actor’s second retirement announcement. In 1997, he stepped away from the camera after The Boxer for five years. What he did during those years has never been made public, but part of the time was spent apprenticing as a cobbler in Florence, Italy. It was filmmaker Martin Scorsese who eventually persuaded Day-Lewis to come out of retirement for 2002’s Gangs of New York.
While the There Will Be Blood and Lincoln actor did not provide a reason for his departure from the profession, his spokesperson said: “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.”
On social media, there was a lot of speculation regarding the news, with more than a few references to Day-Lewis’s penchant for method acting.
There was also a reference to the paucity of roles for thespians in franchise-dominated Hollywood.
Is this scene at the end of Anderson’s There Will Be Blood (2007) an accurate depiction of the actor’s state of mind?
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!