Daniel Day-Lewis says he made a fool of himself by announcing retirement

When Daniel Day-Lewis announced his retirement in 2017, it was a familiar tune. But this time it actually seemed permanent, especially since he looked to be making good on his word, having avoided the screen up until this year’s Anemone. Now, it seems like Day-Lewis has to come to terms with his reputation for “leaving” the industry.

Daniel Day-Lewis was in attendance for the world premiere for Anemone at the New York Film Festival, where he was asked about his so-called retirements. As per World of Reel, “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 added, “I told myself, ‘I’m doing this [retiring] because I don’t really expect to find my way back to the appetite for this work again. And I did. I’m really grateful for it, and I hope to do it again.”

That seems to indicate that Daniel Day-Lewis would be ready to do more acting roles and avoid retirement altogether. But it would truly have to be the right project – then again, DDL was never the most prolific of actors. We know that it was the opportunity to work with Martin Scorsese again on Gangs of New York (following 1993’s The Age of Innocence) that got Day-Lewis out of his first retirement following 1997’s The Boxer, so what was it that took him out of it this time, having last appeared in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread? That would be his son, Ronan, who is making his debut with Anemone.

Daniel Day-Lewis has been doing a lot of backtracking over his supposed retirement, recently stating, “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.” Whatever the true case may be, to have one of the greatest actors ever back has helped make 2025 one of the most memorable in movies as of late.

The post Daniel Day-Lewis says he made a fool of himself by announcing retirement appeared first on JoBlo.