“Extraordinary”: Daniel Day-Lewis once named his favourite actor of all time
When Daniel Day-Lewis announced his retirement after he gave his final performances in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, the cinema world mourned. After all, Day-Lewis is simply one of the greatest actors to ever grace the silver screen and has provided some of the most memorable and intense performances in the history of entertainment.
Whether it were his early efforts in A Room with a View and The Unbearable Lightness of Beingor his Academy Award-winning turns in the likes of My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood and Lincoln, Day-Lewis practically redefined what it was to be a contemporary actor, bringing a newfound commitment to the craft.
Even though, he is indeed considered one of the greatest to ever act, Day-Lewis has always detailed an air of humility when it comes to his reputation. The legendary actor has equally never stopped shy of naming his favourite actors of all time, which perhaps helps to deflect the attention from himself during moments at which he wants it least.
Day-Lewis had once stated his admiration for the likes of Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro and Orson Welles, which is quite a list of cinema legends. However, even such acclaimed figures from the film industry couldn’t topple Day-Lewis’ love for his favourite actor ever.
In an interview with American Cinema, Day-Lewis revealed his top choice for best actor of all time as the iconic Hollywood star Montgomery Clift. “Everyone has been influenced by Brando; fewer people have been influenced by Clift,” Day-Lewis noted. “But for me he was an extraordinary actor.”
The four-time Academy Award-nominee was celebrated for his roles in Red River,A Place in the Sun, From Here to Eternity, Judgment at Nuremberg and The Misfits. Alongside Brando and James Dean, Clift was considered one of the first actor in Hollywood to subscribe to method acting and worked with the likes of Lee Strasberg and Elia Kazan.
According to Day-Lewis, Clift left a big impression “not because he covered a big range, but because he was different.” The actor then explained how Clift’s difference from other actors was like comparing him to Ralph Richardson or John Gielgud, two stars who dominated the English theatre stage with Laurence Olivier for much of the 20th century.
“There’s no comparison between Richardson and Clift in style, but I do believe that each had his own way of seeing things,” Day-Lewis noted. “Clift contained within him, a vision of some kind, which I found absolutely riveting. It separates him from his contemporaries. While they were superb in their moods, their changes, their violence of sensuality, Clift had a spiritual quality of some kind.”
Another of Day-Lewis’ favourite actors, Robert De Niro, had also been a great fan of Clift, who had admittedly tried to distance himself from the “method actor” label. Clift had also transcended the typically accepted route of the movie star by rejecting the offer to sign a studio contract when he first arrived in Hollywood, at least until his first few movies were a success.
Discussingthe special quality of Clift and a handful of other stars, De Niro once noted, “People like Brando, James Dean, Montgomery Clift. They all had something more. An intangible feeling… Heart, soul… It wasn’t just about interpreting your character, it was something so much more than that”.
