The incident happened in 1989. London’s National Theater was full of spectators, where the four-hour-long play ‘Hamlet’ was being staged. Actor Daniel Day-Lewis played the role of Hamlet. The drama was getting mixed reviews from the audience. Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance was criticized and attacked by critics, tagging him as a ‘film actor’. At that time, theater people knew films as a low-class art and artists. It was a dispute that had been going on for years, between film and theater.
Daniel started his career in theatre. His roots were in the theater where he learned to stand. In this way, he left his ground and took the film, which was not liked by the theater. As he started working in one film after another, his identity as a film actor had developed. After deciding not to work with the theater company ‘Royal Shakespeare Company’, he became more criticized. His decision was taken as an insult by the company.
He was disappointed by the bad reviews of the play ‘Hamlet’ and the attacks on his performance. The play was staged 65 times. Now only seven shows were left. The 66th show was on, as always. There was a special scene in the play where Hamlet had to communicate with the ghost of his dead father. At that moment, Daniel suddenly fell on the ground and started crying. The scene shocked everyone. He was then taken backstage where he sobbed and said, ‘I can’t…. i can’t I will not go back.” He was going through deep mental fatigue, so the doctors advised him to stay away from the stage for some time. In the rest of the shows, another actor played in his place. At that time, the incident was very famous. That incident caused great mental and emotional stress to Daniel. He was never seen in the theater after that. In a way, he retired from theater forever.
At that time, many kinds of speculations were made about what actually happened to him on the stage. However, the explanation he gave showed that it was a very personal experience. According to him, he saw the ghost of his dead father on stage. This deep and powerful feeling made him very emotional and unstable, due to which he had to leave the stage during the performance of the play.
His father, Cecil Day-Lewis, died when he was 15 years old. The death of his father affected him a lot, so he had to take medicine and be admitted to the hospital for a few months. He said about the incident, “At that time, I was seeing hallucinations, where my father’s ghost was.” I was talking to him. However, that was not the reason why I left the stage. I had to leave the stage because I was completely exhausted. There was nothing in me. I had nothing to say… nothing to give. If someone is acting as a character, then of course he takes something from his experiences. When I became Hamlet, I had to communicate with the ghost of my father (‘Hamlet’s’ father).. I remembered my own dead father. I remembered our relationship.
At that time, a theater actor said, “I have never seen anyone take a review so personally.” However, Daniel took it. He was maddened by the bad reviews. We artists should always know how to manage life outside and inside the stage. One day when I went to meet Daniel, he was sitting at home with the script of Hamlet.
Incidents of this nature are challenges to the mental health of actors who sink into the depths of acting.
It was in the same year (1989) that he starred in director Jim Sheridan’s ‘My Left Foot’, playing the Irish writer and painter, Christy Brown. Daniel won several awards including Academy Award, BAFTA Award for his iconic role in ‘My Left Foot’, based on the autobiography of Cerebral Palsy sufferer Christy Brown.
Christy Brown could only use her left leg. Daniel spent eight weeks in a cerebral palsy clinic to get a deeper understanding of the character’s condition, where he befriended many people with disabilities, getting to know them better. He also learned to write and draw with his fingers. He did not leave his wheelchair during the entire shooting of the film, so that the film staff had to carry him in and out of the vehicle every day. He had to be spoon fed. She should have been addressed as ‘Christy’.
Thus he tried to experience all aspects of Brown’s life closely and deeply. It was also rumored that he had broken two ribs due to bending his body while sitting in a wheelchair during filming, which he later said was false.
After the film ‘The Boxer’ which came out in 1997, he took a break from the film world for five years. During that period he worked as a furniture and shoe maker. In ‘The Boxer’ he played the role of Irish boxer Danny Flynn. Before playing the character, he trained in boxing for about 18 months. He was like a professional boxer. Many people started saying that he will now pursue boxing as his career. His trainer Barry McGuigan also said, “Daniel was so good at boxing that if you take out the top 10 middleweight boxers in Britain, he is a professional boxer who can compete with anyone.”
There are many such examples, in which he has poured his entire strength and soul, for the sake of a character.
In 1985, when he was cast in the film ‘My Beautiful Laundrette’, the director ‘Stephen Frears’ did not have much faith in the new actor Daniel. He couldn’t be convinced, could Daniel do justice to the role of a classy student? After that, Daniel started to write a threatening letter to the director, “If you don’t give me this role, I will break your legs.” In this way, the director was finally convinced by the way he spoke.
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In order to play the lead role of Hawkeye in the 1992 historical film ‘The Last of the Mohicans’, Daniel adopted a totally outdoorsy lifestyle. For that he learned to make a boat. Learned to use the ax well. Learned how to skin animals and cook them. Learned to use a gun. So much so that when he was with his family, he used to stay with a gun. In the 1988 film ‘The Unwearable Lightness of Being’, he even learned the Czech language to play the role of a brain surgeon.
In 1993, for the film ‘In the Name of the Father’, he had to undergo the most mental and physical suffering of his career. In it, he lost more than 50 pounds to play the role of ‘Jerry Conlan’, wrongly accused of the 1974 IRA Guilford pub bombing. Not only that, he spent two days and nights in solitary confinement in an abandoned prison, without any food or water. During the filming of the film ‘Gangs of the New York’, he contracted pneumonia, refusing to wear a coat. He wanted to stay in character. He refused to take medicine.
Another film that Daniel is known for is Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, which was released in 2007. In the film, he played the role of Daniel Plainview, a businessman who searched for crude oil in Southern California in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Daniel read many books on oil to prepare himself. When the film was released, critics included There Will Be Blood among the best films of the 21st century. The film received nominations in eight categories at the 80th Academy Awards. Daniel won the Oscar for Best Actor for the film, for the second time.
For Steven Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’, he insisted that he should be addressed as ‘Mr. President’ throughout the filming of the film. In order to understand the nature of Abraham Lincoln, he deeply studied the photographs of the American Civil War era. Later he said that he used to see his reflection in those pictures. Daniel asked for a year to prepare for the role of Lincoln. During that period, he read more than a hundred books written about Lincoln, as well as his speeches and writings. He lost weight to show his physical resemblance to Lincoln. Throughout filming, he voiced Lincoln.
The film Lincoln received critical acclaim, especially for Daniel’s performance. The film was also commercially successful. At that time, Time magazine presented him as the ‘World’s Greatest Actor’ on its cover. From Lincoln, he won his second Golden Globe and third Oscar. He became the first actor to win the Oscar for Best Actor three times.
Although trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic, Daniel is known worldwide as a method actor who is constantly researching and dedicating himself to his roles. Method acting is such a type of acting, in which the artist binds himself or lives in reality and emotionally by identifying, understanding and experiencing the internal feelings of the character, fully absorbed in the role. It is primarily an emotional and psychological process for the artist. This process of method acting was developed by Lee Strasberg and Elia Kazan in the 1930s in American acting studios.
However, it was first invented in the early 1900s by Russian actor and theater director Konstantin Stanislavsky. Stanislavski did not call it method acting at the time, but his ideas created a model to help actors create believable characters.
Stanislavski’s view and belief was that actors should be encouraged to draw real feelings from their personal experiences and memories and should relate to the characters. Method acting stood in contrast to the traditional, dramatic and classical acting of that time.
After winning the Oscar for Lincoln, Daniels announced that he would take a break from acting. After five years in 2017, he returned to the screen by acting in Paul Thomas Anderson’s film ‘Phantom Thread’. He was again nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor from that film. In the same year in June 2017, before the release of the film, he announced his retirement from acting for good. Everyone speculated that he took a break from acting because of method acting.
He later said in an interview, ‘I don’t want to join another project. I am tired.’ Due to his deep attachment and dedication to the character and role, he was really mentally exhausted. There are many artists who have taken a break from time to time to prioritize their personal lives and mental health.
Thus Daniel, the most (three times) best actor Oscar winner, joined the ranks of film greats like Steven Soderbergh, Ken Loach and Jack Nicholson at the age of sixty, who surprised everyone and announced his retirement from acting, expressing gratitude to his colleagues and the audience.
American actor Jack Nicholson has made less appearances in acting since 2010. He decided not to return to acting due to his mental health and age. Similarly, director and actor Steven Soderbergh announced his retirement from acting after ‘Behind the Candelabra’ in 2013. He wanted to take his life in a new direction. British director Ken Loach decided a few years ago that he would limit himself to the role of director and not act in the future. Actress Sigourney Weaver has been seen less in acting since 2010. She is prioritizing her family and personal life. Similarly, Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman decided to quit acting for some time due to health reasons.
These are examples that show that artists’ decisions to retire are often based on their personal, social and professional reasons. Many actors stay away from acting due to mental and physical fatigue and problems caused by continuous work. Most actors and actresses run away from the colorful world to focus on their personal lives. Some artists retire because they feel creatively unsatisfied and fail to achieve excellence.
Some actors leave acting to pursue new opportunities such as directing, writing or other creative pursuits. Some actors decide to retire from their career after entering political life. Female actors stay away from acting after getting married or pregnant to focus on their families and children.
Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, George Clooney, Halle Berry, Mia Farrow, Charlotte Rumling, Demi Moore, Mary Kay Adams, Rachel Ames, Suzy Amis, Lisa Bonnet, Justin Burfield, Michael J. Fox, Karin Parsons, Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall, Joe Pace, Jane Fonda, the list of actors who have retired from acting for various reasons will be long. There are also some actors who stayed away from acting due to criticism and bad reviews about their films or acting.
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