After an eight-year absence from the screen, Daniel Day-Lewis is stepping back into the spotlight in Anemone, a film that may prove as layered off-screen as it is on. Slated for a limited release on October 3rd, right in the thick of awards season, Anemone not only marks the actor’s first role since Phantom Thread (2017), but also serves as the directorial debut of his son, Ronan Day-Lewis — a painter by trade, now taking his talents to film.
In a turn of events that sounds scripted in itself, the Day-Lewis duo co-wrote the screenplay, described as an exploration of the "complex and profound ties that exist between brothers, fathers, and sons." Plot specifics remain tightly under wraps, though the personal nature of the project suggests we’re in for an emotionally textured drama. The cast also includes Sean Bean, Samantha Morton, Samuel Bottomley, and Safia Oakley-Green, with Ben Fordesman (Love Lies Bleeding) behind the camera as cinematographer.
For Day-Lewis, a man known as much for vanishing as for vanquishing roles, this marks his second return from self-imposed exile. Following 1996’s The Boxer, he famously left acting to apprentice as a cobbler in Italy — not a metaphor, but literal shoemaking under the guidance of Stefano Bemer. His returns are rare, deliberate, and, if history is any indication, unmissable.
Rumours of another reunion with Martin Scorsese still linger in the air — the director recently mused on stage about doing 'one more' with the actor — but for now, Anemone stands as the next chapter in a career defined by intensity, selectivity, and a deep-rooted passion for craft, both familial and cinematic.
