Daniel Day-Lewis is walking back one of the most famous “goodbye” announcements in modern acting history.
In a new interview, the three-time Oscar winner said he “never intended to retire” from acting and now regrets how final he made it sound in 2017—adding that he “should have stayed quiet.”
Why does he say the “retirement” wasn’t really retirement
Day-Lewis formally announced in 2017 that he would no longer be working as an actor, a statement that landed as a definitive exit after his work on Phantom Thread.
But looking back, he described that language as overblown—calling it “grandiose gibberish”—and framed the decision as stepping away from that specific kind of work rather than leaving acting forever.
What pulled him back
The immediate reason for the reconsideration is Anemone, a new film directed by his son, Ronan Day-Lewis. Day-Lewis said the collaboration reignited his creative drive, describing the experience as joyful and more intimate than the demanding process he’d associated with earlier work.
The toll he’s acknowledged before
Part of what made the original retirement feel believable is Day-Lewis’ reputation for total immersion—and his own admission that filmmaking could leave him feeling “hollowed out.” He’s also taken long breaks before, which adds context to his “I never meant forever” clarification now.
