Daniel Day-Lewis did the rarest celebrity trick: he retired, then actually vanished. No cameos, no surprise voice work, nothing. And then he popped up this year in a movie called 'Anemone' and showed up at its world premiere at the New York Film Festival. Cue the inevitable question: so... that whole retirement thing?
DDL on retiring, un-retiring, and feeling a little silly about it
Asked about his habit of leaving the business and then wandering back, Day-Lewis didn’t dodge it. He owned it, bluntly:
"I’ve gotten accused of retiring twice now. I probably made a f*cking fool of myself by announcing that I was going to stop working - and I probably made a fool of myself by coming back."
He also said he stepped away because he didn’t expect the hunger for acting to return. Then it did. And now he’s grateful for that, and hopes to do it again. Translation: he is open to more roles, but only if the project is right. Which, to be fair, is how he has always operated.
So what pulled him back this time?
The last time Day-Lewis hung it up was after 'Phantom Thread'. What lured him out? Family. His son, Ronan, is making his debut with 'Anemone', and that’s the project that brought Dad back to the set.
The retirement talk, reconsidered
He has also been walking back the grand finality of his earlier announcement, putting it this way:
"It just seems like such grandiose gibberish to talk about. I never intended to retire, really. I just stopped doing that particular type of work so I could do some other work."
In other words, maybe we all took the doomsday tone a little too seriously. Or maybe he did. Either way, he’s back on screen, and 2025 suddenly feels a lot more interesting.
Quick refresher: the DDL stop-start timeline
- 1997: After 'The Boxer', he steps away the first time.
- 2002: Martin Scorsese entices him back for 'Gangs of New York', following their earlier team-up on 'The Age of Innocence' in 1993.
- 2017: Announces retirement after 'Phantom Thread'.
- 2025: Re-emerges in 'Anemone', which had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival; credits his son Ronan’s debut as the catalyst.
If you’re keeping score, the retirement saga has gone from solemn oath to running bit. But if the result is more Day-Lewis on screen, I’m not complaining.