6 Minutes
Daniel Day‑Lewis returned to the spotlight at the BFI Southbank this week not with a red carpet speech but with a quietly charged conversation. Sitting opposite critic Mark Kermode in NFT1, the three‑time Oscar winner opened his London Film Festival appearance with a wry 'I'm still alive' and proceeded to give one of the most candid public reflections on method acting, representation and his new film, Anemone.
The evening began with a surprise: Kermode revealed he had solicited a question from frequent collaborator Paul Thomas Anderson, whose emailed note praised Day‑Lewis not just as an actor but as a reader and writer whose contributions to dialogue are often underappreciated. Anderson was curious about what books and reading informed Day‑Lewis's approach to Anemone, the film directed by his son, Ronan Day‑Lewis.
Day‑Lewis answered by crediting two novels by American author Kent Haruf — Plainsong and Eventide — as key touchstones during prep. He described how Haruf's spare, compassionate portraits of a small community and, in particular, two elderly brothers who share a tacit, nearly wordless bond, helped him shape a tonal center for Anemone. That influence underlines a throughline in Day‑Lewis's work: an intuition for silences and the lives lived in them.
Anemone itself is set in a Northern English landscape. Written by Ronan with his father and produced by Brad Pitt's Plan B, it tracks a man who walks into the woods to reconnect with a hermit brother and the life‑altering events that fractured them decades earlier. Samuel Bottomley, Safia Oakley‑Green and Samantha Morton co‑star. For fans of British social realism and intimate family drama, the film's mood suggests more of Ken Loach's humane gaze than blockbuster spectacle — a point Day‑Lewis acknowledged by praising Loach's Kes as formative viewing.
The conversation inevitably turned to Day‑Lewis's storied process. For decades his immersive, transformational approach has been both admired and mythologized. He pushed back on caricatures of method acting as 'madness' and framed his work as an ethical obligation when portraying a distinct life: 'If you've got the responsibility of portraying a life like Christy Brown, who was a huge and noble figure in Irish society, you have an obligation to try to understand, as far as you are humanly possible, what it feels like to be inside of that experience.'
That remark prefaced one of the night's most striking moments: Day‑Lewis conceded he 'would not be able to make' My Left Foot in 2025. Looking back at his Oscar‑winning turn as Christy Brown, a man with cerebral palsy who could control only his left foot, he described the role as 'already questionable' even at the time, and said that when preparing he had sought help from young disabled people in a Dublin clinic. They told him plainly they did not think he should play the part.
'I said, well, I understand what you're saying, but I do think it's an important story,' he recalled, admitting that the justification was thin and personal desire played a role. The acknowledgment is telling: an established artist reflecting on how shifting ethics around representation and casting have remade what is considered acceptable on screen.
Industry context: representation is changing
Day‑Lewis's admission sits within a broader industry reckoning. Since the late 2010s there has been growing insistence that roles portraying disability be offered to actors with lived experience, and that filmmakers consult closely with the communities they depict. Films such as Sound of Metal, which worked closely with deaf consultants and cast deaf actors, and other contemporary projects emphasize authenticity and collaborative access. Day‑Lewis's honesty — about past choices and present limitations — adds a rare, reflective voice to that conversation.
Comparisons and influences
The evening also dug into influence and admiration. Day‑Lewis spoke warmly of Marlon Brando and revealed that Brando once called him about possibly working together, an anecdote that sent a ripple through the audience. He also revisited his debt to Ken Loach's Kes, a film whose unflashy humanism feels echoic in Anemone's woodland meditations. Film lovers might trace a line from Loach's social realism through Day‑Lewis's performances to Ronan's restrained direction: a throughline of empathy, silence and moral nuance.
Behind the scenes and festival reception
Beyond the onstage talk, a few behind‑the‑camera details will interest cinephiles: Anemone is Ronan Day‑Lewis's feature debut and was produced by Plan B, connecting a Hollywood producer with an intimate British film. Audience reaction at NFT1 was warm and concentrated — an LFF crowd appreciative of craft, legacy and a candid conversation about cinematic ethics. Kermode's decision to rope in PTA for a question underscored how Day‑Lewis remains a touchstone for filmmaking peers.
Expert view
'Day‑Lewis's public reappraisal of My Left Foot marks a rare moment when a major artist acknowledges the ethical shifts in cinema,' says cinema historian Marko Jensen. 'His willingness to reflect openly is valuable — it signals a more mature industry conversation about responsibility, representation and the evolving role of method practice.'
A father’s advice and a generational handover
The night closed with something softer: advice to his son. 'Take it easy,' Day‑Lewis told Ronan. He explained that early career pressures to be prolific had given way to a recognition that his best work is born of a slow, idiosyncratic process. That counsel feels like the thematic heartbeat of the event — a reminder that craft, like reading, patience and honest listening, is cumulative and generational.
Whether Anemone will catalyze a wider Day‑Lewis renaissance or stand as a singular, late‑career bookend remains to be seen. What the Q&A made clear is that his return is less a triumphant fanfare than a careful conversation about what cinema is for, who it should speak with, and how artists can reckon with their pasts while re‑engaging the screen. The London Film Festival runs until Oct 19, and Anemone's place in this year's programme feels precisely right: a reflective, modest film that invites both admiration and debate.
Source: deadline
Comments
Reza
Wow that Brando call anecdote actually gave me chills. And the dad advice, slow down, read more, less rush. curious to see Anemone's tone.
bioNix
Wait, DDL saying he couldnt do My Left Foot now? I get the ethics shift, but are we erasing history or learning from it? messy, honest convo.
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