Daniel Day-Lewis has opened up about returning to acting after a brief period of retirement, saying he "never, ever stopped loving the work".
The acclaimed-actor, who won the Academy award for best actor thrice for his roles in Jim Sheridan's biographical drama My Left Foot (1989), Paul Thomas Anderson's period epic There Will Be Blood (2007) and Steven Spielberg's historical film Lincoln (2007), had famously called it quits on acting after starring in the 2017 movie Phantom Thread.
But eight years later, he is back on screen, headlining Anemone, a film that marks the directorial debut of his son Ronan Day-Lewis.
In an interview with entertainment news outlet Rolling Stone, the 68-year-old actor said he had a "residual sadness" that his son is beginning his journey in cinema at a time when he 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?'" he said.
The actor admitted that his hesitation or doubts about returning to a role or to the industry weren't because of a lack of passion or skill, but because of fear.
"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," he said.
Day-Lewis said after working on Phantom Thread, which was also directed by PTA, he felt he had nothing more to offer.
After Phantom Thread was released in cinemas, the actor's representative released a statement, saying, "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." Looking back at his declaration of retirement, Day-Lewis said he should have just kept his "mouth shut".
"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. And so I think I was at such a low ebb, I thought," he said.
Anemone, a family drama about the "lives undone by seemingly irreconcilable legacies of political and personal violence", has been co-written by Ronan Day-Lewis along with his father.
Set in Northern England, the film follows a middle-aged man, played by Sean Bean, who sets out from his suburban home on a journey into the woods, where he reconnects with his estranged hermit brother, played by Day-Lewis.
"Bonded by a mysterious, complicated past, the men share a fraught, if occasionally tender relationship'one that was forever altered by shattering events decades earlier," read the official logline.
Anemone will have its world premiere at the 63rd New York Film Festival under the Spotlight section. It also features Samantha Morton in a pivotal role.