NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Daniel Day-Lewis, a three-time Oscar winner and receiver of many accolades, including Golden Globe and BAFTA, among others, has turned into somewhat of an enigma after announcing his retirement from acting after 2017 with 'Phantom Thread' being his supposed last film. The 'My Left Foot' actor was spotted in the US, quite a few times in the past months and was described as almost unrecognizable.
One such sighting sparked concerns among the fans as the Hollywood behemoth was seen walking with the help of a pair of crutches in NYC towards the end of June, reportedly after breaking a bone.
Where is Daniel Day-Lewis now?
After his performance in the British film, 'Phantom Thread', Day-Lewis, took the decision to retire from acting. The Oscar winner's representatives informed his fans about his impending retirement through a succinct note to Variety, where they wrote that the 'Phantom Thread' would be his last film. "This is a private decision and neither he nor his representatives will make any further comment on this subject," read the ending lines of the note. Leslee Dart, his spokesperson, said during the time that the actor was "immensely grateful to all of his collaborators and audiences over the many years." Just a year after his announcement, Page Six reported that Day-Lewis was probably meeting studio executives for a new project. An insider seemed to have shared the news to the outlet. However, it is not known whether the project will ever be released.
Despite being an actor by profession, Day-Lewis was never short of vocations. After announcing his retirement, he is living an idyllic quiet life in Ireland with his writer wife, Rebecca Miller. Moreover, before becoming an actor, Day-Lewis studied woodwork in London. Essentially an artist, he loves to breathe life into any simple object. He thus said, "Being in a workshop is like food and drink to me. I love that sense of creation," during an interview with W Magazine. He also found love in shoemaking and took lessons in the craft from Stefano Bemer in Italy, where he enlisted himself as an apprentice. We can only guess that the hobby he discovered while filming 'The Gangs of New York' would bring solace during his days of retirement.
'I did want to draw a line'
Day-Lewis made up his mind to make his final bow to the audience with the 2017 movie. He said in the interview with W Magazine that he did not know he would be retiring from acting after the film before the commencement of the shoot. He said, "Before making the film, I didn’t know I was going to stop acting. I do know that Paul ['Phantom Thread' director Paul Thomas Anderson] 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 realize what we had given birth to. It was hard to live with. And still is."
Furthermore, Day-Lewis shared that while he had expressed his desire to quit acting several times, it was the strongest at that moment. "I did want to draw a line. 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," stated the actor in the interview.
However, Day-Lewis couldn't point out why he was quitting, as he said, "I haven’t figured it out. But it’s settled on me, and it’s just there." He even decided to not watch the 2017 film and expressed, "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."
