“Phantom Thread” marks two, distinct occasions for cinephiles: a new film by Paul Thomas Anderson, and the last big screen performance by Daniel Day-Lewis. That’s right, earlier this year, the acclaimed thespian announced his retirement from acting. We’ve been used to long stretches of absence by Day-Lewis, but it sounds like this time it’s for good. But even getting the actor — whose lsat screen role was five years ago in Steven Spielberg‘s “Lincoln” — to sign up for the project proved a bit daunting.
Speaking with W Magazine, Day-Lewis — born in the U.K. — has long avoided taking English roles, his last being Martin Scorsese‘s “The Age Of Innocence.” But he felt the pull of Anderson’s thread, so to speak, in diving into this film. However, as the pair developed and worked on “Phantom Thread,” something shifted for Day-Lewis.
“I don’t know why, but suddenly I had a strong wish to tell an English story,” he explained. “England is deep in me. I’m made of that stuff. For a long time, a film set in England was too close to the world that I’d escaped from — drawing rooms, classic Shakespeare, ‘Downton Abbey’ did not interest me. But I was fascinated by London after the war. My parents told stories about living through the Blitz, and I felt like I ingested that. I am sentimental about that world. And my dad was very much like Reynolds Woodcock. If a poet is not self-absorbed, what else is he?”
“Before making the film, I didn’t know I was going to stop acting. I do know that Paul 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,” he continued.
However, in the past, Day-Lewis has stepped away from moviemaking only to be pulled back in again. However, this time it sounds like he’s sticking to it.
“I knew it was uncharacteristic to put out a statement,” he explained. “But 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.”
“…I have great sadness,” Day-Lewis added. “And that’s the right way to feel. How strange would it be if this was just a gleeful step into a brand-new life. I’ve been interested in acting since I was 12 years old, and back then, everything other than the theater—that box of light—was cast in shadow. When I began, it was a question of salvation. Now, I want to explore the world in a different way.”
The actor isn’t sure what he’ll do next — you can scotch those rumors about him becoming a fashion designer — but he promises he’ll be busy doing something.