For an actor who spent decades drifting between myth and disappearance — working rarely, but so intensely that each role seemed to take years off his life — it always felt inevitable that Daniel Day-Lewis would walk away from acting. And he did, for the second time, after making Paul Thomas Anderson‘s “Phantom Thread.” The idea that he had finally retired became part of his ongoing legend. But in truth, Day-Lewis never meant it to be final.
Speaking with Rolling Stone, in a recent interview promoting his upcoming film “Anemone,” Day-Lewis suggested it wasn’t acting itself that wore him down, but the business surrounding it. He said the love for the work never left him — he just needed time to replenish his spirit.
“You’re right. I think the reservations were entirely a reflection of fear more than anything else. It was just kind of a low-level fear, [an] anxiety about re-engaging with the business of filmmaking,” he explained. “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.”
That sense deepened while making “Phantom Thread,” when he began to wonder if the well would run dry. “And it was only really in the last experience that I began to feel quite strongly that maybe there wouldn’t be that regeneration anymore,” he said. “That I just probably should just keep away from it, because I didn’t have anything else to offer.”
Looking back now, he admits the talk of retirement was too absolute. “I would have done well to just keep my mouth shut, for sure [laughs.] It just seems like such grandiose gibberish to talk about,” he said. “I never intended to retire, really. I just stopped doing that particular type of work so I could do some other work. 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.”
Part of it, he confessed, came down to pride. “If I draw a line under this, I’ll be too proud to go back on that. Because I know there’ll come a day when I’ll be tempted again. But if I’ve said I’m not doing this, I won’t do it. This just shows I’m not as proud as I like to think I am!”
For all the myth-making around his so-called retirement, one truth remains. “I do feel it’s important to restate that the love of the work itself, that has never diminished for me.”
And so the myth continues. “Anemone” will make its world premiere at the New York Film Festival this September before opening in limited release on October 3, 2025, via Focus Features, with a wider rollout to follow on October 10. It’s Day-Lewis’ first film in eight years, and proof that the fire hasn’t gone out just yet.
