The movie Daniel Day-Lewis called a “nightmare” to film
Given the fact that Daniel Day-Lewis is known for his intense form of method acting, it would be understandable if he gave off a spiky impression to those that he has worked with during a film’s production. However, those involved with the legendary actor know they must allow him to deliver his excellence.
Throughout the likes of My Left Foot, The Last of the Mohicans, Gangs of New York, There Will Be Blood and Lincoln, Day-Lewis has proven himself to be one of the greatest actors to ever perform on screen, which largely comes down to the sheer dedication he gives in bringing his characters to life.
However, with such intense performances naturally comes the difficulty of producing them in the moment. Day-Lewis announced his retirement in 2017, with his final performance being in Paul Thomas Anderson’s film Phantom Thread. While the film saw yet another Day-Lewis masterclass, he admitted that the production was rather difficult.
In fact, Day-Lewis said that making Phantom Thread was “awful”. The film sees the actor play Reynolds Woodcock, an uptight haute couture dressmaker in 1950s London. When he takes a waitress to his home as his muse, Reynolds begins to behave in the most obnoxious way, and a battle for emotional control over one another quickly ensues.
The filming for Phantom Thread began in the countryside, but eventually, it shifted to the townhouse, where most of the film takes place. In such a confined area, Day-Lewis found that shooting in the townhouse, as “beautiful” as it was, turned out to be a logistical “nightmare”.
“We had hoped to find that way of working again where we would be self-contained, beholden to no one, and uninterrupted,” the actor explained at a New York press screening of the film. “We built a world we could create and just stay in, and no one could get into it.” However, the limited physical space of the townhouse meant that the cast and crew of Phantom Thread were “living on top of each other”.
The problem was not only that all the cast and crewmembers had to cram themselves into the small rooms of the townhouse, but they also had to house all the actual equipment required to shoot the scenes. “You work in a room, then you have to move all that shit into another room, and that space becomes a storage space,” Day-Lewis explained. “That entire house was like a termite nest.”
Day-Lewis’ co-star, Vicky Krieps, also admitted that the tight space of Phantom Threads townhouse ended up giving her a panic attack, in which “suddenly, [she] couldn’t breathe.” Day-Lewis also had to contend with his staying in character as per his method acting style and throw into the fact that his character is a living nightmare of a man; then it’s understandable that the crew might have found his efforts a bit too much during the interior scenes.
“You see, it’s hard to work with a crew that really hates you,” he said jokingly. “We must be fairly stupid because we didn’t realize it was going to be like that.” However, despite the struggles of the production, Anderson and Day-Lewis, plus everyone associated with the film, pulled through and saw the actor sign off his career with a flourish of excellence. Though many a swear word was likely uttered, Phantom Thread gave through the other side of production with the signs of master artists at work.
