Daniel Day-Lewis retired from acting after feeling 'hollowed out'
Daniel Day-Lewis has opened up about why he retired from acting in 2017, revealing he felt "hollowed out" and didn't feel he had "anything else to offer", but he is gearing up for a big screen return after feeling a "residual sadness" that he wouldn't ever be able to work with his filmmaker son.
Daniel Day-Lewis retired from acting because he felt "hollowed out" and didn't feel he had "anything else to offer".
The triple Academy Award winner, 68, has returned to the profession to appear in Anemone, a new film directed by his son Ronan Day-Lewis, after turning his back on acting in 2017.
But Daniel - who is a renowned method actor - has insisted he "never, ever stopped loving the work".
He told Rolling Stone magazine: "It was just kind of a 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."
Daniel quit acting after shooting Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread, but he felt some "residual sadness" that he wouldn't ever be able to work with his filmmaker son.
He added: "I had some residual sadness because I knew Ronan was going to go on to make films, and I was walking away from that.
"I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could do something together and find a way of maybe containing it, so that it didn’t necessarily have to be something that required all the paraphernalia of a big production?' "
Daniel co-wrote Anemone - which also stars Sean Bean and Samantha Morton - alongside Ronan.
The film will be released in October, just over eight years after Daniel retired from acting in June 2017.
A spokesperson for the actor announced at the time: "Daniel Day-Lewis will no longer be working as an actor.
"He is immensely grateful to all of his collaborators and audiences over the many years.
"This is a private decision and neither he nor his representatives will make any further comment on this subject."
