Daniel Day-Lewis Officially Ends Acting Retirement to Work on His Son’s Film

Seven years after Daniel Day-Lewis announced he was done with acting, the Oscar winner will star in his son Ronan Day-Lewis’ directorial debut, “Anemone.”

Focus Features and Plan B film studios, which are overseeing production and distribution of the project, confirmed the news to The Associated Press on Tuesday.

“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with a brilliant visual artist in Ronan Day-Lewis on his first feature film alongside Daniel Day-Lewis as a creative collaborator,” said Focus Chairman Peter Kujawski, in a press release. “They wrote a truly exceptional script.”

In addition to co-writing the screenplay for “Anemone” with his son, Daniel Day-Lewis will star alongside “Game of Thrones” alum Sean Bean and “The Whale” actress Samantha Morton.

According to a synopsis, the film “explores the relationships between fathers, sons, brothers and family bonds.”

Ronan Day-Lewis, 26, has spent his adult life primarily as a painter.

His father won three Academy Awards: for “My Left Foot” (1989), “There Will Be Blood” (2007) and “Lincoln” (2012).

Daniel Day-Lewis’ return to acting is sure to please fans, who spotted him and Bean riding a motorcycle in Manchester, England, on Tuesday, several media outlets reported.

Daniel Day-Lewis told W Magazine in 2017 that he planned to retire.

“I need to believe in the value of what I do,” he said, adding that a “great sadness” came over him while working on “Phantom Thread.” “The work can seem vital. Irresistible, even. And if the public believes it, that should be enough for me. But lately, that’s no longer the case.

The actor announced his retirement in June of that year, before the film’s theatrical release, and told W Magazine that he “knew it wasn’t usual to make a statement,” but that he wanted to “draw the line” – because apparently his previous efforts to quit smoking were always foiled.

“I didn’t want to get dragged into another project,” he added. “All my life I’ve talked about how I should stop acting out, and I don’t know why it was different this time, but the urge to stop took root in me, and it’s become a constraint. It was something I had to do.

Fortunately for all of us, he disowned it; the release date for “Anemone” has not yet been set.

CORRECTION: This story previously misreported the number of times and films for which Daniel Day-Lewis had won an Oscar.