Daniel Day-Lewis Ends Retirement After 7 Years to Act in Son’s Film “Anemone”
Arguably the greatest actor of his generation is getting back in front of a camera again.
Daniel Day-Lewis has officially unretired after seven years away to perform in his son Ronan Day-Lewis’s directorial debut, Anemone, from Focus Features and Plan B. The father isn’t just coming back to act in his son’s film—they co-wrote it together—a story about, fittingly, the nuanced relationships of fathers, sons, and brothers and the dynamics of familial bonds. Anemone also stars Samantha Morton, Sean Bean, Safia Oakley-Green, and Samuel Bottomley.
This is Daniel Day-Lewis’s first time in front of a camera since Paul Thomas Anderson’s slow-burn Phantom Thread in 2017. It was ahead of the release of Phantom Thread that he announced his retirement without making a big to-do about it, saying simply he was “grateful to all of his collaborators and audiences over the many years” via a spokesperson.
Credit : Laurie Sparham / Focus Features
“We could not be more excited to partner with a brilliant visual artist in Ronan Day-Lewis on his first feature film alongside Daniel Day-Lewis as his creative collaborator,” Focus Features chairman Peter Kujawski said in a statement. “They have written a truly exceptional script, and we look forward to bringing their shared vision to audiences alongside the team at Plan B.”
Earlier this year, Daniel Day-Lewis reunited with his Gangs of New York director Martin Scorsese at the National Board of Review Awards, where the chatter about his possible return was ignited with a shout-out from Scorsese himself: “We did two films together, and it’s one of the greatest experiences of my life,” said Scorsese while accepting the directing honors for Killers of the Flower Moon. “Maybe there’s time for one more. Maybe! He’s the best.”
Ronan Day-Lewis is 26, a filmmaker and a painter, with a debut international solo exhibition opening on October 2 in Hong Kong before traveling to New York and Los Angeles. In his father, he’s getting the only man to ever win three Best Actor Oscars—for Jim Sheridan’s My Left Foot, Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, and Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln—and who was nominated for two more, Scorsese’s Gangs of New York and Jim Sheridan’s In The Name of the Father.
The Anemone creative team includes costume designer Jane Petrie (The Crown), production designer Chris Oddy (The Zone of Interest), and cinematographer Ben Fordesman (Love Lives Bleeding).
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Featured image: Daniel Day-Lewis poses in the press room at the 18th Annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards held at Barker Hangar on January 10, 2013 in Santa Monica, California.
