Daniel Day-Lewis to Return From Retirement to Star in Son’s Feature Directorial Debut

Daniel Day-Lewis arrives at the Oscars at Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 24, 2013. Jason Merritt/Getty Images

After a seven-year absence from the screen, Academy Award-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis is coming out of retirement to star in “Anemone,” an original film directed by his son Ronan Day-Lewis.

The 67-year-old actor will appear alongside actors Sean Bean, Samantha Morton, Samuel Bottomley, and Safia Oakley-Green in the forthcoming drama, which “explores the intricate relationships between fathers, sons and brothers, and the dynamics of familial bonds,” according to a statement issued by Focus Features, the production company behind the new film.

“Anemone,” co-written by Daniel Day-Lewis and Ronan Day-Lewis, will serve as the latter’s feature directorial debut. The 26-year-old painter, who Daniel Day-Lewis shares with his wife, filmmaker and novelist Rebecca Miller, also launched his first international solo exhibition, “That Summer We All Saw Them,” in Hong Kong on Oct. 2.

“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,” Peter Kujawski, chairman of Focus Features, said in a statement.

“They have written a truly exceptional script. We look forward to bringing their shared vision to audiences alongside the team at Plan B.”

Return to Acting

“Anemone” will mark Daniel Day-Lewis’s first acting role since appearing in the 2017 romantic drama “Phantom Thread,” from Focus Features and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

Shortly before the film’s release, the three-time Oscar winner announced his retirement in a statement issued by his representative, Leslee Dart.

“Daniel Day-Lewis will no longer be working as an actor,” she said at the time, according to Variety.

Dart did not offer any additional insights into Daniel Day-Lewis’s announcement that he was stepping away from acting. However, she said the actor was “immensely grateful to all of his collaborators and audiences over the many years.”

“This is a private decision,” Dart added. “Neither he nor his representatives will make any further comment on this subject.”

The actor touched on his decision to retire from the film industry in an interview with W Magazine published in November of that year, admitting that he hadn’t seen “Phantom Thread” and did not plan to stop acting before the film.

“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 said.

“I dread to use the overused word ‘artist,’ but there’s something of the responsibility of the artist that hung over me. I need to believe in the value of what I’m doing. The work can seem vital. Irresistible, even. And if an audience believes it, that should be good enough for me. But, lately, it isn’t.”

Daniel Day-Lewis added that he did not want to get sucked 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,” he said. “It was something I had to do.”

Actor Daniel Day-Lewis (L), winner of the Best Actor award for "Lincoln," and presenter Meryl Streep pose in the press room during the Oscars held at Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles on Feb. 24, 2013. Jason Merritt/Getty Images

The actor made his screen debut in 1971, playing a teenage delinquent in the romance drama “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” He went on to land a number of film roles throughout the ‘80s, including “Gandhi” (1982), “The Bounty” (1984), “A Room with a View” (1985), “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” (1988), and “Eversmile, New Jersey” (1989).

Daniel Day-Lewis’s role in the 1989 comedy-drama “My Left Foot,” in which he played an Irish man born with cerebral palsy, earned the star his first Academy Award for “Best Actor in a Leading Role.”

His filmography from the ‘90s and aughts includes notable roles in “The Last of the Mohicans” (1992), “The Crucible” (1996), “The Boxer” (1997), “Gangs of New York” (2002), and “There Will Be Blood” (2007)—the lattermost of which earned him his second Oscar.

The actor later won his third Academy Award for his titular performance in the 2012 war drama “Lincoln.”