Daniel Day-Lewis Would Turn Down His Oscar-Winning Role Today — It Was Already Questionable

Daniel Day-Lewis popped up at the BFI Film Festival and did the thing only Day-Lewis can do: casually reframe a movie that won him his first Oscar. He looked back at My Left Foot and basically said he would not make that same choice today. That got my attention.

What he said now

Quite obviously, I would not be able to make that now - at the time it was already questionable. A couple of the kids that helped me so much at the Sandymount Clinic made it clear to me that they didn’t think I should be doing it.

So, yes, the guy who won Best Actor for playing Christy Brown is now saying the casting was iffy even then, and he heard that directly from some of the people who trained him.

Quick refresher: the role that made him Daniel Day-Lewis

My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown follows the Irish writer and painter who had cerebral palsy and could control only one foot. It was the performance that turned Day-Lewis into Day-Lewis: total commitment, complete transformation, and a statue at the end of it.

Before filming, he embedded himself in Dublin, trained at the Sandymount Clinic, and learned to write and paint with his toes. On set, he stayed in character, full stop. Co-stars and crew have said they literally carried him around and fed him between takes. It convinced audiences and awards voters, but even back then people were asking whether that particular flavor of Method - and that casting - was the right call.

• Title: My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown
• Genre: Biographical comedy drama
• Director: Jim Sheridan
• Cast highlights: Daniel Day-Lewis, Hugh O'Connor, Brenda Fricker, Ray McAnally, Fiona Shaw
• Rotten Tomatoes: 98% critics, 92% audience
• Awards note: Day-Lewis won his first Oscar (Best Actor) for the role

The bigger conversation he just walked into

Day-Lewis is far from the only legend rethinking past choices through the lens of representation. Tom Hanks has said that his turn in Philadelphia - where he played a gay lawyer with AIDS - would not fly now, arguing that audiences would not accept the inauthenticity of a straight actor playing a gay man today. The point back then, Hanks said, was to make a nervous public less afraid; today, the ground has shifted.

Where this gets thorny: you can prioritize lived experience in casting without turning acting into an ID check. The job is still pretending to be someone else. If you push the rule too far, you end up with a version of casting that does not make a lot of practical sense. At the same time, Day-Lewis acknowledging that even people around him at the clinic questioned the gig is not nothing. That tension - authenticity vs. artistry - is exactly what Hollywood is wrestling with right now.

Where to watch

My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown is streaming on Kanopy. Philadelphia is available to rent or buy on Apple TV+ (USA).

So where do you land on this? Do you think he should not have played Christy Brown, or do you see it as a product of its moment that still works because of the performance?