Daniel Day-Lewis names “the biggest influence” on his career
As one of the finest actors to ever grace the silver screen who became increasingly selective the longer their career wore on, Daniel Day-Lewis was in a position to pick and choose the projects that appealed to him the most, which regularly put him into the orbit of cinema’s foremost auteurs.
During a career that saw him make history when he became the first and only performer to win three Academy Awards for ‘Best Actor’, Day-Lewis made a point of surrounding himself with some of the industry’s top talents, which regularly brought out the best of both.
In addition to his multiple features with Martin Scorsese, Jim Sheridan, and Paul Thomas Anderson, the star was directed by Richard Attenborough, Stephen Frears, Michael Mann, Steven Spielberg, and Philip Kaufman, among others.
And yet, despite the filmmaker being named as the single biggest inspiration on Day-Lewis’ entire career, he never got the chance to take part in a Ken Loach picture. One of the United Kingdom’s most distinguished auteurs, he’s amassed a filmography of more than two dozen features, with Kes well-known for being one of the Phantom Thread frontman’s favourites.
Maybe he was concerned that working with his hero wouldn’t have lived up to expectations, but the prospect of a Day-Lewis/Loach union was nonetheless a tantalising one that’s destined to go down as one of cinema’s most painful missed opportunities now that the former is sticking to his guns about retirement.
In an interview with The Guardian, where it was suggested he’d actively turned his back on British film in favour of cracking America, Day-Lewis acknowledged that he was “rather surprised that I haven’t made more stories about my own country”. However, he drew the line at the lure of Hollywood being his guiding light.
“But, it is a mistake to suggest that the biggest influence on my life in terms of movies has been America,” he said. “It was, and remains, Ken Loach and his whole body of work, not that I have ever worked with him. There is something unique and pure about the way he works, without a taint on it. His beliefs have remained unwavering since he made Cathy Come Home.”
Loach’s 1966 teleplay about the titular Cathy had a seismic social impact, raising awareness among the British public about homelessness to a new level of visibility. The charity Crisis was launched the following year as a direct result, with the filmmaker spending the next six decades of his career repeatedly using social realism in his movies to shine a light on topical and relevant societal issues.
It affected Day-Lewis profoundly, but the chance for the respective heavyweights to put their heads together on a production was one that sadly never manifested.
