The rap icon Daniel Day-Lewis truly “admires”
The case could easily be made for Daniel-Day Lewis being the singular greatest actor of all time. Throughout his career, the English film icon has delivered some of the most mesmerising character studies in cinema history, with a wide range of characters being portrayed in his uniquely emotional intensity.
The list of Day-Lewis’ masterpiece movies is seemingly endless. Following his early days on screen, Day-Lewis gave phenomenal performances in the likes of My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, Gangs of New York, There Will Be Blood, Lincoln and Phantom Thread, retiring after the latter.
Given the fact that Day-Lewis is indeed one of the most respected actors of all time, and with good reason, we may find one of his big inspirations something of a surprise. We might expect to find fellow actors among Day-Lewis’ influences, not one of the biggest rappers in the world.
But that’s exactly the case. Day-Lewis once claimed that he holds a deep admiration for Eminem and that he uses one of his legendary tracks to prepare himself for the day ahead. The last thing we can imagine the acting icon running through his headphones first thing in the morning is Em’s ‘The Way I Am’, but that looks to be true.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Day-Lewis was asked about his supposed infatuation with Eminem and was asked whether he listened to him a lot on the set of Gangs of New York. “Yes, every morning around five,” the actor admitted, “especially the song ‘The Way I Am’. I’ve admired him for a while.”
“I’m always on the lookout for music that might be helpful to a role,” Day-Lewis added. “It bypasses the intellect in a particular way. With this film, I realised I was listening to Eminem more than usual.” So there you have it: Eminem’s iconic track from his 2000 album The Marshall Mathers LP helped to inspire Day-Lewis’s equally memorable acting performance as Bill the Butcher in Martin Scorseses’ 2002 historical epic Gangs of New York.
Interestingly, Eminem is not the only rapper whom Day-Lewis has an admiration for; he also paid note to Snoop Dogg. When the journalist told the actor he was interviewing Snoop Dogg, Day-Lewis responded, “Are you! Will you, from this great distance, pay my respects? He won’t know who the fuck I am, but I think he’s very cool.”
Listen to ‘The Way I Am’ by Eminem to get into the morning mindset of Daniel Day-Lewis.
