The return of one of cinema's most beloved and revered actors is cause for celebration. Recently, it was revealed that Daniel Day-Lewis is coming out of "retirement" to star in his son Ronan's much-intriguing directorial debut, 'Anemone'. The first trailer and posters promise a complex, emotion-driven story.
But did the actor really intend to retire at all, or was it just a fleeting feeling? It wouldn't be surprising, though, because this is not the first time that he has returned to acting after announcing his retirement after the release of Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Phantom Thread’.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the ‘There Will Be Blood’ actor reflects on his earlier statements on the same and jokes that a better alternative would've been to just keep quiet. "It just seems like such grandiose gibberish to talk about. I never intended to retire, really," he shared, adding, "I just stopped doing that particular type of work so I could do some other work. I never, you know… 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."
'Anxiety about re-engaging with the business'
Admitting that he is a "very proud person, and not in a good way," the actor recalls thinking, “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."
The actor, who enthralled fans with performances in such remarkably performance-heavy films as 'Gangs of New York', 'My Left Foot', 'Lincoln' and 'Phantom Thread', said his reservations came from a place of "low-level" fear, an "anxiety about re-engaging with the business of filmmaking. 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. I mean, I was well acquainted with it. I understood that it was all part of the process and that there would be a regeneration eventually. And it was only really in the last experience [making Phantom Thread] that I began to feel quite strongly that maybe there wouldn’t be that regeneration anymore. That I just probably should just keep away from it, because I didn’t have anything else to offer."
What's 'Anemone' about?
Written by Ronan and Daniel, and directed by the former, ‘Anemone' revolves around the tumultuous relationship between two brothers and the bearing of past events on those in the present. As per the Rolling Stone logline, Day-Lewis plays a reclusive former British soldier, Ray, who is visited by his brother, Jem (Sean Bean, of 'Game of Thrones' and 'Golden Eye'), to prevent the former's teenage son from treading the same perilous path his father did, a concern shared by his mother, played by Samantha Morton ('Minority Report', 'The Walking Dead').
Backed by Focus Features, the film, titled after the flower whose petals close at the hint of an approaching storm, is looking at a limited theatrical engagement on Oct. 3, followed by wider release on Oct. 10. It's unclear if 'Anemone' will hit Indian theatres on the same date, or later, as in the case of 'Phantom Thread', which took nearly two months to reach Indian screens following its US launch.
