Three-times Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis is back on screen on his son's directorial debut after an eight-year long hiatus. The 68-year old actor addressed his reasons for returning to the acting world at the first screening of his son's movie Anemone at New York Film Festival.
"I made a f------ fool of myself by announcing that I was going to stop working, and probably a bigger fool of myself coming back," Daniel admitted, whose last film was Paul Thomas Anderson's erotic slow burn Phantom Thread in 2017.
"But to deny myself the possibility of working with Ronan just to stand on my pride, I think that would've been probably a worse decision than just, well, I said that, so I'm sticking to it."
"I had long periods where I thought I'm not well suited. The work was always very precious to me — it was like food and drink. But I think I have it in common with a lot of actors, that I'm very ill suited for the life around it... the public aspect of it."
Daniel, who stepped away from acting in 2017, is set to return to the screen in a film centered on family dynamics.
According to the synopsis, it delves into the intricate bonds between fathers, sons, and brothers, tracing personal journeys and generational conflicts. Daniel plays the role of a man named Ray who abandons his family and goes into self-imposed exile out of shame, when he's accused of a war crime.
Anemone, directed by Ronan Day-Lewis and co-written by Daniel, with whom Daniel co-wrote the script. will hit select theaters on October 3 and expand wide from October 10.
Daniel likes his privacy. After his retirement, he was photographed on very rare occasions.