Is Daniel Day-Lewis the Best Actor Ever?

What name comes to mind if I ask you who is the greatest actor of all time? Some might say DiCaprio or Jack Nicholson, while others say Tom Hanks or Robert De Niro. But this is Daniel Day-Lewis. Surprised?

At one time, when I just started getting into cinema, I didn’t even know who it was! And not surprisingly, this actor knows how to transform into new roles and even change his voice. 

So, why is Day-Lewis the best actor of our time, and how can we check it? He won an Oscar three times for leading male role, an absolute record for men. Today, I will tell you about Daniel Day-Lewis’s acting method and his incredible transformations. 

Daniel Day-Lewis.

Daniel Day-Lewis’s acting career lasted 46 years, from his first film in 1971 to the last in 2017. During this time, Al Pacino starred in more than 50 films, while Day-Lewis had only 18 films in which he played a leading or supporting role. Extraordinary selectivity, isn’t it?

The gaps between the release of tapes with Day-Lewis’s participation could reach several years, and he constantly threatened to give up everything and do something more useful. In 1999, for example, he settled in Florence for a year and worked for free as an apprentice shoemaker.

Innate talent and endless hard work alone are not enough to become a legend. Sometimes, you must challenge human capabilities and split your personality to create a new character from each fragment. That’s what Daniel Day-Lewis really nailed. 

Daniel Day-lewis best performances.

My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown, 1989. First Oscar.

My Left Foot is based on the true story of Christy Brown. From birth, he had cerebral palsy. People considered him an idiot and an inferior person. Even Christy’s father turned his back on the guy. However, the love of his mother and other family members and his courage and perseverance helped Brown learn to draw and write with the toes of his left foot. Thus, he began his journey to becoming one of the most famous Irish writers and artists of the 20th century.

It was Lewis’s second leading role, and it became an Oscar-winner for him. To prepare for the role of Christy Brown, a patient with cerebral palsy, the actor spent a long time communicating with people with disabilities. He didn’t break character even outside the set.

He got so accustomed to his character that he had to be spoon-fed, and moving around on his own was out of the question. When the critics were choked with delight, the film crew recalled with displeasure how they practically carried a healthy young man in their arms from place to place on the set. 

The role of Christy Brown is among dozens of the most outstanding performances in American cinema history, but Day-Lewis himself was dissatisfied with it. Because he could not master his left leg as masterfully as his prototype. Some of the manipulations had to be done with the right, for which the filming was carried out using a mirror.

The Last of the Mohicans, 1992.

1757 The Anglo-French war for the American colonies is in full swing. Colonel Munro’s daughters are trying to get into an English fort besieged by the French. A young white hunter, Natty Bumppo, comes to their aid. A mutual feeling flares up between Natty, who grew up among the Mohican Indians, and the eldest of the daughters, the sophisticated Cora.

But the girl and her sister are captured by the French allies – the Hurons, and only Natty Bumppo and his faithful friends – the Indians – can save them from painful death.

The actor had to transform into an Indian. For this, he trained his body and learned to live as the original Americans did—eat what the forest provides, independently make things necessary for survival, hunt, and deal with animal carcasses. Imagine he even carved a canoe out of wood and learned to swim in it. Daniel went on hikes and spent long periods alone with nature, and on the set, he always carried a flintlock rifle, which he also mastered shooting for the film.

However, this work went virtually unnoticed by award commissions, unlike his next role.

In the Name of the Father, 1993.

This drama is based on real events – the history of the Guildford Four. In 1975, a young Irishman, Gerry Conlon, was sentenced by English justice to life imprisonment for an assassination attempt that he did not commit. Three of his friends, his father, aunt, niece, and nephew were also convicted of conspiracy. Lawyer Garith Percy is trying to get the case reconsidered.

The actor spoke with an Irish accent all the time and spent his time outside of filming in a prison cell. He also demanded that the film crew insult him and pour cold water on him. Lewis once ordered an actual nine-hour interrogation for him. Of course, the request was approved. As a result, the actor received nominations for all the most prestigious acting awards.

I love this tape so much, and I think it is one of Daniel Day Lewis’s best movies. I cry every time I rewatch this masterpiece. 

Gangs of New York, 2002.

In 1846, gangs of “native” Americans and immigrants clashed in Lower Manhattan. There will be no mercy for anyone. The leader of the Americans, Bill “The Butcher” Cutting, kills the Irishman “Priest” Vallon, who was the leader of the immigrants. Amsterdam, the son of the deceased, ends up in a reform school. Bill Cutting becomes the master of the surrounding neighborhoods. In 1863, Amsterdam returned to his native streets to take revenge on his father’s murderer.

They say that to convince the actor to take part in filming Gangs of New York, director Martin Scorsese, producer Harvey Weinstein, and Leonardo DiCaprio personally contacted him. Daniel Day-Lewis started preparing meticulously for the role as soon as he accepted it.

To play the mad butcher in this film, the actor worked in a butcher shop in London and hired professional circus performers who taught him how to throw knives. And since the story takes place in the middle of the 19th century, he, having fallen ill with pneumonia on the set, refused treatment and continued to play his role, no matter what. He used to listen to Eminem on his headphones a lot, even though he couldn’t stand it. It always made him look so mad and crazy while filming.

There Will Be Blood, 2007. Second Oscar.

Daniel Plainview searched for gold and silver in California at the end of the 19th century. After falling into a mine and breaking his leg, he finds a rock sample indicating oil on the site. Plainview decides to go into the oil business. He despises people and cannot find those with whom he can get close. He chases money to rise above the crowd he hates. And he is ready to do anything to become the most prominent oil tycoon – deceive priests, drive out your son, even kill a man.

The actor prepared for this movie for three years, which resembled a scientific study. He dug through so much material about the era that he could write a history textbook. To choose a hat for the character, Day-Lewis wore each option for several days to see which one suited him.

The director, Paul Thomas Anderson, wanted the hero to look like the director of the golden age of Hollywood, John Huston. So Day-Lewis spent days watching documentaries about him, copying his movements and speech. By the way, one of Day-Lewis’s leading acting features is working with accents, dialects, and sometimes foreign languages. In each film, Day-Lewis speaks differently from the previous one, as if he were a completely different person. At least by ear, it isn’t easy to identify.

Lincoln, 2012. Third Oscar.

1865 The sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, is at the peak of his popularity. But he faces serious challenges: getting the anti-slavery amendment to the Constitution through the House of Representatives and ending the Civil War.

Brilliantly playing the sixteenth US President Abraham Lincoln, the actor received his third Oscar and second Golden Globe.

So, Day-Lewis took a year to prepare for the role of Lincoln. He has read more than a hundred books about the president. He then sent Spielberg a recording in a sealed box in which he spoke in Lincoln’s voice, which he picked up. On the set, Day-Lewis forbade the British from talking to him to avoid getting lost in American pronunciation. And everyone could only address the actor as Mr. President. His presence in the character was so mesmerizing that Spielberg later admitted that he was afraid to ask Day-Lewis how he achieved that effect. After the film’s release, critics declared Day-Lewis the most outstanding actor ever to appear in a movie.

Phantom Thread, 2017

After Lincoln, Day-Lewis again disappeared from the screens for five years. Only Paul Thomas Anderson persuaded the actor to participate in his next project. In 2017, the film Phantom Thread was released, in which Day-Lewis played the role of the famous English couturier Reynolds Woodcock, who is a collective image of many high-fashion figures.

You can be sure that this time, the actor prepared for the role for a very long time, working as an apprentice to the chief costume designer of the New York Ballet. He again received nominations for major acting awards.

Other roles.

“The Unbearable Lightness of Being” – the actor plays a Czechoslovakian doctor and spent eight months learning Czech.

“The Age of Innocence”—Day-Lewis spent several months wearing only appropriate 19th-century clothes, of course, with a cane and a bowler hat for the role of an aristocrat.

“Boxer”—The actor trained with former world champion Barry McGuigan, and after their collaboration, Barry said Daniel could become a professional boxer. At the end of training, he could defeat anyone except perhaps the top ten in England.

“The Ballad of Jack and Rose” – the movie was directed by the actor’s wife, Rebecca Miller, and according to the plot, he was supposed to play a lonely man who regrets how he lived his life. Daniel lived separately from his wife during filming.

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Final words.

What an awesome career this actor has! His last film was released in 2017, and maybe you will see his new tape in a couple of years. Fingers crossed! What do you think about Daniel Day-Lewis’s acting method? 

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