Throughout his career, Daniel Day-Lewis has delivered some of the most memorable, brilliant, and unique performances in recent cinematic history.
At the age of 32 in My Left Foot (1989), Daniel Day-Lewis won his first Oscar for playing the true story of Christie Brown – a quadriplegic who becomes an accomplished artist and writer all by using his lone functional limb. In 1992, Lewis played in The Last of the Mohicans as an adopted orphan reared by Mohawks. In 2002, Lewis received another Oscar nomination for playing Bill “The Butcher” Cutting in Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. While I did enjoy Gangs, everything else in the movie played a distant second to Lewis’ performance as The Butcher. Of course, then there was his universal praise in 2007 for playing Daniel Plainview in Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood.
Lewis takes all of his roles very seriously and on the screen you can tell that he gives himself completely to the roles he chooses. When he accepted his Oscar for There Will Be Blood, he referred to his wife as “Mrs. Plainview.” Of course, unlike many of his successful peers, Lewis is very patient with the roles he chooses and only averages a film once every 15 to 24 months. Between 1992 and 2007, Lewis has played in exactly 8 films. One of those films was in 1997 where Lewis played another Danny in The Boxer. In the film, Danny Flynn is a hometown favorite who is released from prison after 14 years for some IRA related activities that he had little or nothing to do with. He comes home to a town that is sick of fighting and a group of local strongmen that do not appreciate Danny’s desire to live a life of peace. Overall, the film was good and Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance was solid, however, this one falls short compared to the amazing roles with which he has spoiled us. For now, Daniel Day-Lewis is not slated for any new films, but I am sure that once he comes out of his typical hiatus, he will move us with another unforgettable performance.
Click here to see an interview with Daniel Day-Lewis on the Arsenio Hall Show and SNL’s Bill Hader in “There Will Be Milkshakes for Old Men.”
Daniel Day-Lewis Interview on Arsenio Hall Show (1990)
There Will Be Milkshakes for Old Men
