Line #30 Creator/DanielDayLewis


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5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ddl2.png]]
6	[[caption-width-right:350:[[MethodActing For this article, Mr. Day-Lewis actually turned himself into a website.]]]]
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8	->''"I suppose I have a highly developed capacity for self-delusion, so it's no problem for me to believe that I'm somebody else."''
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10	[[UsefulNotes/KnightFever Sir]] Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957 in London, England) is a retired English-Irish actor. Considered one of the greatest actors in film history, with some comparing him to Creator/LaurenceOlivier, Creator/MarlonBrando, and Creator/RobertDeNiro at their best, he is known for his legendarily intense [[MethodActing method techniques]]. He is the first and only man to win three UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s for Best Actor (''Film/MyLeftFoot'', ''Film/ThereWillBeBlood'', ''Film/{{Lincoln}}'').
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12	Day-Lewis started out as a stage actor, excelling at the National Youth Theatre before being accepted at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. While he shifted between theatre and film throughout the early 1980s, an incident in 1989 where he had a genuine breakdown while playing the title role of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' and left midway through marked his last-ever stage appearance.[[note]]The scene he was performing at the time was when Hamlet sees the ghost of his father; Day-Lewis later admitted that he had seen his own late father's ghost on stage, which triggered the reaction.[[/note]]
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14	Day-Lewis is known for refusing to compromise on any performance, fully giving in to each role he plays by working to immerse himself into the lifestyle of his character as much as possible, even to the point of negatively affecting his health. This made it difficult for him to function as a stage actor, where such levels of commitment make performances harder to repeat on a nightly basis. He was far better suited to film, and even then as he grew older, his dedication and commitment to each part made it harder for him to continue with his next role.
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16	Although he took a leave of absence after starring in Jim Sheridan's 1997 film ''The Boxer'' -- dropping off the media radar, going into "semi-retirement", and returning to an old wood-making passion while apprenticing as a shoemaker -- Creator/MartinScorsese convinced Day-Lewis to return for his film ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'' in what was the biggest and most high-profile role Day-Lewis had ever played, as gang leader Bill the Butcher. The role was also different from his earlier parts; Day-Lewis had played sensitive (albeit intense), highly vulnerable and generally heroic characters, but Bill was a flamboyant LargeHam villain who was supremely macho and charismatic. The result was a performance that some consider one of modern cinema's most iconic villains.
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18	This started a new phase for Day-Lewis where he became highly selective (some six films between 2002-2017) but achieved a degree of fame and respect that overshadowed his already commendable career before his first retirement. On June 20, 2017, he announced a second retirement, with his final performance being in Creator/PaulThomasAnderson's ''Film/PhantomThread''. He called it [[http://variety.com/2017/film/news/daniel-day-lewis-quits-acting-oscar-winner-1202472766/ "a private decision"]].
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20	Day-Lewis' father was British Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis, while his maternal grandfather was the film producer Michael Balcon. He's married to Creator/ArthurMiller's daughter Rebecca Miller, an accomplished writer in her own right, whom he met while filming the 1996 adaptation of Miller's play ''Theatre/TheCrucible''. Prior to that, Day-Lewis had a relationship with French actress Isabelle Adjani, with whom he has a son. He famously ended that relationship by breaking up with her over fax.
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22	Surprisingly, he's not [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama Barack]] [[https://youtu.be/ZyU213nhrh0 Obama]].
23	----
24	!!Selected filmography:
25
26	* ''Film/{{Gandhi}}'' as Colin (bit part)
27	* ''Film/TheBounty'' as John Fryer
28	* ''Film/MyBeautifulLaundrette'' as Johnny Burfoot
29	* ''Literature/ARoomWithAView'' as Cecil Vyse
30	* ''Film/TheUnbearableLightnessOfBeing'' as Tomas
31	* ''Film/MyLeftFoot'' as Christy Brown
32	* ''Literature/TheAgeOfInnocence'' as Newland Archer
33	* ''Film/TheLastOfTheMohicans'' as Nathaniel "Hawkeye" Poe
34	* ''Film/InTheNameOfTheFather'' as Gerry Conlon
35	* ''Theatre/TheCrucible'' as John Proctor
36	* ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'' as Bill "The Butcher" Cutting
37	* ''Film/ThereWillBeBlood'' as Daniel Plainview
38	* ''Theatre/{{Nine\|Musical}}'' as Guido Contini
39	* ''Film/{{Lincoln}}'' as UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln
40	* ''Film/PhantomThread'' as Reynolds Woodcock
41
42	!!This actor provided examples of:
43
44	* {{Bookends}}: As Paul Thomas Anderson notes, ''Phantom Thread'' is one to his early roles such as ''A Room with a View'' and ''The Unbearable Lightness of Being''.
45	* ChewingTheScenery: When the time calls for him to yell, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i4cAvR5O3Q he will YELL.]]
46	* CreatorBreakdown: Daniel's MethodActing once led to an incident where he collapsed into a sobbing wreck during a performance of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' as the titular character, during the scene where Hamlet speaks to his father's ghost. Daniel later admitted that during the scene he saw his own father (who had died over a decade earlier). He never appeared on stage again.
47	* DeathGlare: Check out the absolute crackers he gives to his nurse/[[spoiler:future wife]] when she tries to take his hidden bottle of whiskey off him in ''Film/MyLeftFoot'', to Eli Sunday during his "confirmation" in ''Film/ThereWillBeBlood'', and at several points during ''Film/GangsOfNewYork''.
48	* DyeingForYourArt: Trained as a boxer for three years and broke a knuckle for his role in ''The Boxer''.
49	* FakeAmerican: Several roles, such as [[Literature/TheAgeOfInnocence Newland Archer]], [[Film/TheLastOfTheMohicans Hawkeye]], [[Film/GangsOfNewYork Bill the Butcher]], [[Film/ThereWillBeBlood Daniel Plainview]] and [[Film/{{Lincoln}} Abraham Lincoln]]. He's a one-man history of 19th Century America.
50	* ManOfAThousandFaces: He changes his appearance and behaviors radically in every film he acts in.
51	* ManOfAThousandVoices: As part of the transformative quality of his performances, Day-Lewis is extremely adept at manipulating his voice and accent to match specific time periods. His most high profile characters, from cerebral palsy afflicted Irish painter [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaBtXwbfgGI/ Christy Brown]] in ''Film/MyLeftFoot'', to Old Californian prospector [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHz-zZoBnbc/ Daniel Plainview]] in ''Film/ThereWillBeBlood'', to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAunpxS8GXo/ President Lincoln]] in ''Film/{{Lincoln}}'' , show impressive vocal range. These men sound ''nothing'' like each other. His filmography is limited, but his vocal range has been a multifaceted tool over the course of his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpDalntZPiw&t=549s/ career]].
52	* MethodActing: To say the least. He's famous for his exhaustive, in-depth preparations for his characters, for which he will always do extensive research, and not once breaking character until production is wrapped. He could be considered the patron saint of this trope.
53	* PlayingAgainstType: He doesn't exactly have a type, per se, but he first drew attention in America for playing two incredibly different roles in movies that happened to premiere in the US on the same day: as the repressed, snobbish, upper-class, Edwardian-era Englishman Cecil in ''Film/ARoomWithAView''; and Johnny, the gay ex-skinhead thug in Thatcher's London engaged in a forbidden romance with a Pakistani boy in ''Film/MyBeautifulLaundrette''. '''Many''' critics were impressed that he did both roles so convincingly.
54	* ProductionPosse: At the very least, [[Film/MyLeftFoot Jim]] [[Film/InTheNameOfTheFather Sheridan]], Creator/MartinScorsese and now Creator/PaulThomasAnderson are the only directors willing to work with him more than once.
55	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
56	** He actively campaigned for the part of Vincent Vega in ''Film/PulpFiction'', but was turned down by Creator/QuentinTarantino.
57	** He was also going to be cast as Aragorn in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' films when Stuart Townsend was kicked off the project, but Creator/PeterJackson ended up going with Creator/ViggoMortensen because of Day-Lewis's reputation as a difficult actor to work with. Had Mortensen actually drowned in ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers The Two Towers]]'' film, however, he might've been Mortensen's replacement.
58	** He was Creator/JonathanDemme's first choice to play Andrew Beckett in ''Film/{{Philadelphia}}''[[note]]Leading to a rather tasteless joke that he would have actually contracted AIDS for the part[[/note]]. He turned down the role to star in ''Film/TheAgeOfInnocence''. Amusingly, he ended up losing the Academy Award for Best Actor to Creator/TomHanks, who was ultimately cast as Beckett.
59	** He was considered for Jesus in ''Film/ThePassionOfTheChrist'', but was deemed "too European".

Context Creator / DanielDayLewis