The musician Daniel Day-Lewis thinks is “very cool”
As one of the most decorated and adored cinematic talents of the past half-century, Daniel Day-Lewis is an undisputed British legend of the silver screen. Although the three-time Academy Award winner retired from his profession in 2017 following Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, Day-Lewis sits atop a towering oeuvre of admirable scope and consistency.
Whether portraying a cerebral palsy sufferer in My Left Foot, the heroic Natty Bumppo in Last of the Mohicans or the evil Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood, Day-Lewis always brought a characteristic intensity and seamless talent to the screen. As one of many esteemed Bristol Old Vic Theatre School alums, the trick to Day-Lewis’ ability is method acting.
The actor reportedly spends many months preparing for his roles. He immersed himself in his characters to the extent that he lived in the woods for a month while preparing for The Last of the Mohicans and spent time in a cerebral palsy clinic for My Left Foot. When it came to his Oscar-nominated role as Bill the Butcher in Martin Scorsese’s 2002 movie Gangs of New York, Day-Lewis trained as a butcher to get a feel for things.
“I would have him over for dinner while we were shooting,” Scorsese recalled of working with Day-Lewis per The Guardian. “And even though he’d be in modern clothes, it would still be very much like Bill might dress. Off-camera, or on the telephone, I’d always feel like I was talking to Bill, although he also has an override mechanism in which he can talk about the part.”
In a past interview with The Guardian, Day-Lewis also addressed rumours that he liked to listen to Eminem while on set. “Yes, every morning around five, especially the song ‘The Way I Am,’” he confirmed. “I’ve admired him for a while. I’m always on the lookout for music that might be helpful to a role. It bypasses the intellect in a particular way. With this film, I realised I was listening to Eminem more than usual.”
The English actor revealed that “Sinéad O’Connor certainly has helped me”, as well as Bach, Nirvana and Snoop Dogg. As he listed these other artists, the interviewer, Mark Binelli, noted the coincidence that he was to interview Snoop Dogg the following day.
“Are you?” Day-Lewis exclaimed. “Will you, from this great distance, pay my respects? He won’t know who the fuck I am, but I think he’s very cool.”
Despite portraying the most ruthless gangster in Gangs of New York, Bach appears as a much less surprising selection for Day-Lewis, given the era in which the movie was set. Though he’s never been type-casted, Day-Lewis has made a habit of landing roles set over a century ago.
Watch the trailer for Gangs of New York below.