In his acceptance speech after receiving his third Best Actor Oscar last week, Daniel Day-Lewis made sure he thanked his wife, Rebecca Miller, for having “lived with strange men over the years”. And how heartwarmingly apt.
For, only Miller will know what it’s like to live with a method actor of Day-Lewis’ stature (and how few of them these days). If there was a cerebral palsy-inflicted artist from the 1940s in bed one year, there was a ruthless oil baron from the 1920s the next, and then recently, a lonely American icon who helped abolish slavery.
Of course, Miller will tell you that putting up with these characters — as Day-Lewis never switches off even when the cameras are turned away — paid off richly: Day-Lewis is the first actor in history to earn three Best Actor Oscars for his role in My Left Foot in 1987, There Will Be Blood in 2007 and Lincoln this year.
And those were not the only ones. Ever since his debut in the Oscar-winning Gandhi in 1982, the British-Irish actor has tackled a diverse number of characters with the same intensity and dedication that few actors of his generation have. In fact, so obsessed is he with his roles that besides staying in character at all times, he’s often known to push himself physically to the edge.
For his role as Nathaniel Hawkeye in 1992’s The Last of the Mohicans, he reportedly underwent rigorous weight training and learned to live off the land and forest where his character lived, even learning how to skin animals.
Another popular anecdote often told is how, while filming Gangs of New York in 2001, the 55-year-old was diagnosed with pneumonia, but refused to be taken to the hospital because it was not in keeping with the period of the film, set in the 1800s.
It’s no wonder then that Day-Lewis’ filmography does not even add up to 20, not including TV productions. But he is living proof that to be at that paragon of brilliance one needs to not only be consumed through and through, but also continuously push oneself to that very extreme where only very few dare.
That will perhaps help us appreciate why he does such few films. As he said once, he is careful not to take on too much work because he is aware of how vulnerable he can become when he opens himself to demanding roles.
Growing up in London, Day-Lewis, the son of poet laureate Cecil Day-Lewis and actress Jill Balcon, was introduced early to the arts. He has often said he was a naughty child, often getting into trouble for petty crimes. But it was his father’s death, when he was only 15, that would prove to be the most challenging for the young actor: He ended up in hospital following an overdose. Years later, he would joke that convincing the doctors he was sane enough, was his “greatest acting performance ever”.
Claim to fame
Starting off with theatre, Day-Lewis’s brush with Hollywood came with a small role in Gandhi and two years later in The Bounty. But it was his roles in My Beautiful Laundrette and A Room With a View, both released in 1985, that would introduce him to the public. Then, of course, that Oscar-winning role as Irish artist Christy Brown in My Left Foot changed things forever.
Today, happily married to Miller, the daughter of playwright Arthur Miller, Day-Lewis lives between his homes in New York, London and Wicklow, a county in Ireland. Now that his children are grown up, to understand the “crazy” things he puts himself through when prepping for a role, he says he has learnt to tone it down a notch.
“I’ve found a balance,” he told The Sun. “When I didn’t have a family, and even when my children were very young and didn’t know the difference, it was irrelevant really to what extent I existed in that world I’d created for myself. But it makes a difference now, so I’m not a crazy person.”
Given a choice (“And enough money”), however, he would settle down in his 50-acre property in Ireland and go back to his first love: Woodwork.
“Films exhaust me and I often want nothing more to do with them,” he told The Independent once. “But I’m continually surprised at the resurgence of the impulse to come back and do it all over again.”
And we can only thank our stars for that.
