Daniel Day-Lewis has emerged from retirement in a first-look photo from his new film, ‘Anemone’, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
The Focus Features project is set to have its world premiere at the New York Film Festival, which runs from September 26 to October 13, marking the return of the three-time Oscar winner after an eight-year hiatus.
Anemone is the feature directorial debut of Lewis’ son, Ronan Day-Lewis, and was co-written by both father and son.
According to the official synopsis, the film is “an absorbing family drama … about lives undone by seemingly irreconcilable legacies of political and personal violence.” Set in Northern England, it follows a middle-aged man (Sean Bean) who “sets out from his suburban home on a journey into the woods, where he reconnects with his estranged hermit brother (Day-Lewis). Bonded by a mysterious, complicated past, the men share a fraught, if occasionally tender, relationship — one forever altered by shattering events decades earlier.”
This is Day-Lewis’ first feature film since 2017’s ‘Phantom Thread’. Prior to the film’s announcement, the actor had issued a statement: “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.”
In an interview with W magazine, he elaborated, “I knew it was uncharacteristic to put out a statement. But I did want to draw a line. I didn’t want to get sucked back 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. It was something I had to do … 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.”