12: Daniel Day-Lewis

Alex and Nick break down the full career of the great Daniel Day-Lewis. Topics include: Important actor choices, debunking the DDL lore, retirement, DDL as a comedic leading man, and much more!
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OK, wait. Before we go. How many impressions will you allow me in this episode? As many as you want. I don't give a fuck about your moral conundrum. You meat headed shit sack you whoopsy daisy Hey, everyone, welcome to. What are you watching? I'm Alex Withrow, and I'm joined by my best friend Nick Dostal. So, how you doing there, butcher? I'm excited to be here. Hell, yeah. We're going to have fun today, because today we are going to dove into the career of Daniel Day-Lewis. And, look, it's important to mention a few things up top. We're talking about DDL. We're talking about a big performer. He's delivered 20 performances, and we're going to touch on all of them, but we're not going to do deep dives into all of the movies. We'd be here all day. Similarly, we are not really interested in the Daniel Day-Lewis lore. Of course, he's known for his intensely dedicated research and preparation into his roles. And while he takes that method approach to acting to a completely singular, singular level, there's also, frankly, a lot of bullshit out there about the dedication to his roles and deeds is an incredibly private person. He's worked hard to keep his personal life personal, and I don't see the need to propel any more bullshit here. So, you know, we're here to talk about the work, right? That work is always about the work. Right, exactly. And obviously, Dido is a performer who needs no introduction. But just very briefly, Daniel Day-Lewis was born in London in 1957, the son of a poet and an actress. It sounds like he kind of struggled to find some career footing early on. Sounds like he was a bit rowdy a bit wild, which is a little fun to picture. But he was accepted into the Bristol Old Vic Theater School, where he studied under Pete Pistol Weight, which I did not know until researching this pod. That's who they played father and son in the name of the father, which we will certainly talk about. But Daniel Day-Lewis gets into the Old Vic and he starts delivering notable performances on stage, British television and certainly film. He gets national notice in 1985 for reasons we're going to get into and then launches into essentially permanent cinema notoriety in 1989 today he is objectively considered one of the finest actors who's ever lived. He's the most awarded male actor of all time. Being the only man with three Oscars for best actor. He's given us some of cinema's best characters and we're going to talk about them today. Daniel Day-Lewis. Yeah this is a huge, huge topic for me because I've been acting for 15 years now in my travels, so to speak. There is not one teacher or not one actor that I have ever come across that does not have the exact same feelings towards it. You know, Daniel Day-Lewis. Larry Moss is a very credited acting teacher, and he often says your talent is in your choices. And when you think about choices, Daniel Day-Lewis, the embodiment, the specificity, it's next level. It's I think that's why it's the his communicating ideas, which is what acting is. It's more than being truthful in this scene. It's about communicating ideas. And when he embodies that the way he does, we're not seeing Daniel Day-Lewis play some person we're watching that person. There's also a thing about acting is to give your heart away. He gives his heart away, man. Every performance, he gives it away no matter how restrained the performance might be. He gives that shit away, man, and it's fucking breathtaking. He really does resign himself fully to what he's doing. He's wholly committed at his job. And in terms of the whole landscape of film, if we're talking about the whole landscape of basketball, you can't have the conversation without mentioning Michael Jordan. And yeah, obviously art is subjective, but he certainly is in the conversation of the greatest of all time, not living just of all time. Yeah, I think that's a great analogy. If we were to use sports in that way, like there are there's, there's the, the pedestals, the ones that you just are like, nope, this is one of the greats. And I think Daniel Day-Lewis is probably I would venture to even say, in my opinion, he's probably the greatest actor. He very well could be. And we're going to get into a lot of those choices you were talking about, which I'm really excited that we're going to hone in on those. I watched all of his movies in order for this post, and he absolutely has a reputation of being ferocious, intense, angry, screaming, which he does in many of his most prominent roles. But this guy knows how to be sensitive. Yeah, Scott knows how to be tender. He knows how to be charming as all hell. He knows how to be reserved. And if people open themselves up to a little more of his work, as opposed to just, say, Bill the Butcher or Daniel Plainview, you're going to see a very different side of him before we get into the roles in chronological order. I wanted to hear your first exposure to D-Day. What if you can remember the first movie you saw? You know, how old were you? Where were you when you saw it and what impact did it have on you kind of going forward? My first idol was the Last of the Mohicans, and that was due to my mom. She I think probably had a crush on him in that movie. And I remember watching that movie and I remember being really taken with the score because I don't think I was really old enough to kind of like understand, you know, the French and Indian war aspect of that movie. But I did remember finding him captivating and I was too young to kind of because I think I watched it when it came out on video. So I don't think I really appreciated everything that was really going on in that movie and what he was really doing. But even as a young person, I was like, Who is this guy? I love that. So I was probably my in thinking about this question that it led me to a story about how I saw a lot of movies for the first time. So I grew up in a really small town, like really small, but we did have one video store. They had fewer movies in their inventory than I own now. But, you know, whatever, it's the mid-nineties. It was my only access to movies. So after a certain age, I got in so good with the staff there. I mean, like age eight or nine, I just started going in alphabetical order. Like I started at the A's and made my way down and watched pretty much everything. And the first one I got to that they had was in the name of the father I mean, I think if the timing is right, I think they would have had my left foot last Mohicans in the name of the father. They wouldn't have had age of innocence. They weren't that cool. They weren't that hip. And I is first alphabetically, so that's the first one. But I remember it really captivating me at a really young age. And it's not the easiest movie to understand for someone really young. But even at that age, I remember seeing this guy and going, This is something different to me. I haven't seen anyone doing this profession this way yet, but let's get into the performances. We start way back in 1982 where he has a brief kind of walk on part in Gandhi where he harasses a young Gandhi for a little bit and it's just you can look up the clip on YouTube. It's amusing. There's not really much more to say to it. It's just, it's nice. It it's nice to see him pop up so early and something like that. Yeah. The Bounty two years later. 1984. This is a good adaptation of Mutiny on the Bounty. DDL is like fifth or sixth on the call sheet behind Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins. It's really their show, Laurence Olivier, Liam Neeson. But it is fun to watch Doodle in the background because we, he's not a background performer. I mean from, pretty much from 89 on, he was always a leading man. So it's interesting to see him in a supporting part but decent movie. He's good in it as always but moving on to 1985 this is where this becomes a banner year I do think it's risky to reference IMDB trivia a lot we try not to on this podcast but there is a really good nugget of knowledge for Daniel Day-Lewis about 1985 and I want to read it verbatim my beautiful launderette and a room with a view both opened in New York on the same day March 7th 1986 both feature DDL and prominent in very different roles in a room with a view he played a repressed snobbish Edwardian upperclassman while in my beautiful launderette he played a lower class gay skinhead in love with an ambitious Pakistani businessman in Margaret Thatcher's London Jesus. When American critics saw the film, he was virtually unknown. Then in the US into such different roles. On the same day, many critics, including Roger Ebert, raved about the talent of seeing him play in two vastly different characters. And I think that says that's a good way to introduce us to both of those films. But why don't you take us off with My Beautiful Launderette? Because this is a movie DDL fans need to see and a lot of them haven't. It's exactly how that IMDB trivia piece described it. It's a really unique performance, but take it away with that one. Yeah, my beautiful launderette is a really, really cool example of something that kind of in acting is like an energy transference in terms of your physicality because when he is in a scene, just in his body at ease and you know, if it comes into a fight, he's not going to have a problem here at all. It's complete he's completely capable, and that's a very specific quality that someone has when you see them and you're like, Oh, he knows how to handle himself. It's just there. It's in him. And then balance that with this sweet. He is so sensitive with his lover, Barry, and it's so bold. He's not afraid to go into all of someone who is in love. And so to watch this polarizing dichotomy of, of these two very, very different personalities working at the same time is really cool to watch. Yeah. And it's a good movie. It's early. Stephen Frears So definitely I definitely want people to check that one out. Also, room with The View is a very specific type of genre. It's kind of the merchant ivory genre. And I really encourage everyone to go check this out because he'll only played a character like this once. His character Cecil is so impossibly proper that it's it's hysterical. I mean, if you think Daniel Day-Lewis cannot be funny, then you haven't seen Room with The View. I mean, it has to be that simple because he steals the movie. He's not it's not a starring performance. It's it's a supporting role. But his character is engaged to Helena Bonham Carter. She has much more of a carefree, open personality. Diddle is very stuck up, very proper. There's a great scene the first time they try to kiss. And it's genuinely funny how much how little he knows what to do it's just hysterical. And it looks like he had a lot of fun playing the part. So I really got a kick out of that one. Yeah, this was a delightful movie. I really, really enjoyed this, you know, with the way that he carries himself the nose up in the air. Like he's always kind of got that, you know, smugness to him. Yeah. It's not too snobbish. He's very innocent in his, in his character in that way because he's never been in love and he doesn't know what to do. So he falls on the ideals of his status and what that means. And he holds a lot of value in that. And at least to me, that's how it came off to me. And that's another thing, too, is like however you perceive that and talking again about choices, every movie like this has to have or I mean, almost always there's the new guy who comes in and he's charming at first, but he's really just this abusive prick underneath. And we all that's where I kind of expected this to go. But this guy is just a little boy, kind of he's sensitive and kind and a fish out of water and doesn't know what to do. And I like that spin on it because the snobby prick is something we see a lot. And he wasn't prick ish at all. He was just kind of aloof and didn't know what to do. Yeah. So the next year Nanu, this is our outlier. I unfortunately don't have much for everyone because I, we both try really, really hard to research the topics we talk about on this podcast a lot, but this movie is just not available. It's there's a seven minute clip on YouTube that seems to be all of his scenes put together. The movie, by my estimation, has never gotten released really anywhere. So I haven't seen it. I watched that clip. It seems like he was being very sweet and tender in it, but there's really not much out there on this movie at all. So we'll just move on from that. The Unbearable Lightness of Being 1988. This is his first full on starring role. And this was a film I always had in my back pocket because it was the only leading man DDL movie I hadn't seen. And I knew a time would present itself for me to watch it. And hurray for this podcast. What I suspected about the movie was partly true. It's a pretty tough set. It's a three hour love triangle set against the Soviet army's invasion of Czechoslovakia. When the movie focuses on the romantic tension between DDL, Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin it works and it works really well. And look, it was shot by my favorite cinematographers and Nyquist, who shot most of Ingmar Bergman's films. It was edited by Walter Mertz, who has three Oscars. So the movie knows what it's doing. But the thing I liked about it the most was that the character Thomas is an absolute prelude to Reynolds. What Reynolds Woodcock in Phantom Thread. There's a lot of that charm, dangerous charisma, a little bit, you know, manipulation, bullying. That was the thing I enjoyed most about it. So I think it was it was fun to go and watch it for that. And he's very it's a very sexualized performance, which is not a word I would apply to him very often. So if you're want to see that side of him, have folks I don't really know moving right along stars and bars. I'll keep this one brief, but this is really important. This is also 1988. Please go check this out this is Diddley's really first and only out and out comedy. It's a broad comedy he's really good in it. The movie isn't perfect. OK fine but if you only know diddle as the this and possibly ten screaming actor there's a lot of fun to be had with stars and bars really quickly. Diddle plays a British art expert who travels across the southern U.S. to buy a rare Renoir, and he plays the straight man. But he's really game for the ride and it's really cool to get to see acting in a modern setting against modern contemporary actors like Harry Dean Stanton, John Cusack, Keith, David Spalding Gray, Laurie Metcalf, Steven Wright. David stood there and it was great. He's funny in it. He's genuinely funny. It makes me almost wish he would have tried that again, because one thing we're going to get into with these more prominent roles is that he does tend to fuze in humor. Yeah. Even into his very, very intense performances. But 1989 is a very big turning point. He had two movies that year. The first one on the talk about his ever smile New Jersey This will also be quick because it's a really hard movie to find. It's a corky flick where Dido plays an Irish dentist who travels through Argentina doing free dental work, and that's pretty much it. There is a love story. There's like a love interest story that isn't really interesting, a political subplot that isn't really compelling obviously Didi is a really private guy, but one of the reasons it would be great for him to do interviews, which he probably never will. Not only to get the insight into how he approached his roles, but then to also hear, I'm interested why he took on a role like this. That's I'm not saying that from a place of judgment at all, but this is a really corky movie that the tone of it is unlike anything else he was in. So I don't know. It would just be curious to know that, you know, it's kind of to think about why he doesn't do interviews and to think of the benefits of that. To me, you know, he's sort of this mystery. He's this guy who, you know, when you're watching a deli do a Daniel Day-Lewis movie, that you're going to get this one of a kind performance that's sort of kind of the marketing, I suppose, that he's earned over the years. But to me, there's something very interesting about not knowing who the real man is, because now you just get to see the work. Exactly. Sometimes you see a performance that you've never known who that actor was, and they blow you away and you're like, My God, who was that? And maybe you'll never know but you're left with that performance. And I think if you know too much about somebody in the celebrity world, start to identify with them, you start to hold them in a certain way, a little bit too personal, and not as removed as one might need to be in order to truly take in a different type of person. Yeah, because then they are making choices that you don't agree with because you know them. I'm obviously doing air quotes and stuff, but it's a lot like Gene Hackman to me. No one knows anything about Gene Hackman except we later in his career, you heard he could be, you know, difficult on set, but that he wasn't big on interviews and then he just retired as we're going to get to with our subject today. But next up is, for me, the Daniel Day-Lewis turning point. I think there's everything before my left foot and everything after my left foot for sure. It was a game changing performance that genuinely shocked audiences and it DDL is wholly committed to playing Christie Brown, a real life writer and painter who had cerebral palsy. But I want to hear from you first on this one. I've been talking enough he is balancing determination and self-pity, the whole movie. And just an example of the specificity of his physical performance in this movie, which is something I have no idea how you would do it. I would imagine that you would just get to know what physical restraints that you have, that you just know what you can and cannot do. And then you fight with everything in your being to do the one thing that you can do. It's breathtaking to Washington. No point are you disturbed by this performance. You're never you're you're watching every move he makes with bated breath. You can't take your eyes off of him. Very first 2 minutes of this movie, which is just watching Daniel Day-Lewis, his left foot pick up a record, put it on the turntable and that's it. It's easy to write that in the script, but then to watch how careful what he has to do, what limitations are in his way and how he gets around them just by a simple task that sets you up for the whole movie. And that was the scene in the script that convinced DDL to do it, because he goes, That's something that a person can't do. OK, that gives me a jumping off point. I also read again IMDB trivia. So who knows that he was using his right foot the whole time because he's right footed and they had to shoot his stuff through mirrors. Whoa. Which I thought was interesting. But he's amazing. But you can't train yourself to be different. Like, you know, I really love it. You said it does kind of touch on what I wanted to say. I saw this movie and I was really young, and the thing that I loved about it from the beginning is that Christy Brown, as portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis, is not perfect. And that is a huge flaw in biopics. Especially moderate ones. They try to glorify their subject, make them appear flawless. And this movie doesn't. It shows Christy Brown getting angry, pissed off, lashing out drunk. OK, people do that. Yeah. These are things contained within a life in the movie is more honest for showing that. One final note, because Daniel Day-Lewis was nominated for six Oscars. And in a really rare feat every time he was nominated, the movie was also nominated for picture and director that's insane. I don't even know if anyone else has ever done that, but you know how much I like context so it's a 1989 Oscars and I reference my dad for this bit of trivia because he's always been a fan of the Oscars. The Oscar for best actor in 1989 was definitively going to Tom Cruise for born on the 4th of July. He'd done it he'd broken through as a leading actor of his generation. He played the iconic teen played the action leading man and he delivered a great dramatic role and it was a real life wounded veteran. He paid his dues and he was going to win. It was something everyone knew his competition. Kenneth Brannigan, Henry the Fifth, Morgan Freeman driving, driving the Daisy, Robin Williams Dead Poets Society and Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot, which not a lot of people knew who that guy was. Not a lot of people saw that movie. Everyone just go watch his Oscar speech because Jodie Foster opens that envelope, is very visibly stunned. And he Daniel Day-Lewis is very stunned, gets a standing ovation Tom Cruise, bless him, handles it like a champ. But people are shocked. Standing O's were very rare back then and they leaped to their feet. And I just love that story. Because right there, DDL announces himself as one of the most prominent actors in the most prominent way you can on the Oscar stage. And he really looks speechless to me. I mean, he just looks stunned. So that's important context that that was not his Oscar. He was really not in the running for it. It's it should have gone to him. Absolutely. So next he goes to the Last of the Mohicans. Here he plays Hawkeye, Nathaniel Poe. And because this movie is so popular, I just want to hit on another aspect really quick, an anti law aspect. Much has been made of the fact that Daniel Day-Lewis is an intense actor, OK? And Michael Mann is an intense director OK. I've always heard that the two did not get along while making this movie, that intensity versus intensity butting heads. And they had a falling out because of it. That's what I've always heard among the deadlier. So in researching this podcast, I finally listen to Mann's director's commentary for this movie. And on it he talks about doodles, full immersion process, and how that can be challenging to work with. But they both developed a lifelong Bond making that movie, and they remain best friends to this day. And the only proof of that that you need is that there is a making of featurette, a really good one on that Blu ray and DDL doesn't interview Daniel Day-Lewis does not contribute to special features at all. And this is clearly like years after the movies released because they're older. And I see that as Michael Mann just calling him up and going, Hey, Danny, buddy, like I need you for 20 minutes. Will come to a hotel wherever you want. We'll set up in like a conference room. I just need you to talk about Mohicans for 20 minutes. And he goes, All right, fine. It just goes to show you that this law is it's a lot of nonsense, a lot of the time. And people build up too. Much of a thing. And by him not talking about it, it makes this law fester and fester. But by all accounts, this seems like a very good, decent man and a an incredibly giving actor. So amen. That's all I have. I'm off my soapbox. No, absolutely. It's a great story, too. And it's really cool that he did that and maybe that conflict, because to me, whenever I watch that movie, he's an absolute leader in that movie. And so maybe you get like two leaders you know, coming up against each other in that way. But it's out of respect. But the thing that I like to kind of pay attention to in that movie is his voice. It's very it's a huge part of the character watching Last of the Mohicans in his voice because he learned the Native American language for this role. Like, he didn't just learn his lines. He learned the language. It's the rhythms, the speech patterns. And you can see it in the front of his lips. You can see where the sound lives. I always think that that looks different in every single movie. It's because when you speak like that, your face changes and it takes a lot of work and habits to develop that. So that way just comes that naturally. So next time you're watching Mohicans, just pay attention to that. It's cool. When you see an example of where sound lives. OK, the age of innocence. 1993, the brutality under the manners I had only seen this once and this is diddle as his most buttoned up. He's the gentleman lawyer, Newland Archer, and Martin Scorsese. These period film I like the quiet torture that Bruce within didn't hear the constraints of the genre and the film's PG rating I think are intentional. We know that Scorsese and Daniel Day-Lewis can push it as far and as hard as they want to go. They pare it down. I like that about it. This is a purposely careful and tediously proper film and I think diddle really grabs hold of the romantic turmoil of his character. He has incredible chemistry with Michelle Pfeiffer. Leading women have always been really important to most of the roles, which we're going to talk about later. But Pfeiffer is really great with him. They they have a rat a tat tat that balances really well. So how were you this is your first time watching this, right? Yeah, this is my first time watching it. And what I liked about this movie was one, it's beautiful. It's extravagance at its finest. But as far as the performance goes, I really like seeing the distinguished balance that he had to walk between what was demanded from him in the society and his almost childlike want for this woman. And he really is like a spoiled boy at times. Because he wants what he can have. And he has this old fashioned quality, like when he's looking for her at the sunset. Yeah. When the ships cross and he goes, if she looks then I'll know. It's, it's, it's real. And then she doesn't and he takes that as like the end all be all crush that's it. It's ridiculous. It is. And we're sitting here laughing about it, but like, he sells the stakes of that. Like, this dude's world is over. Yes. Brutality of manners. That's. Yeah, let that be your way into it. That's really all it's trying to do. It's not trying to, you know, it's just not some big, sweeping, violent epic that we're so used to from that. Maybe when he says, how can I endure this? Right? You really feel think if you're looking at it in that way because you're like God in man, like yeah, yeah. This dude dude is really going through it. All right, moving on. This is the last time we get to detail movies in the same year and it's a gift because also 1993 is in the name of the father. A very important movie for both of us. Here he is back with Jim Sheridan, who directed My Left Foot Deeds is playing another real life Irishman, Gerry Coughlin, who, along with his father and his two friends, were falsely imprisoned for 15 years for a terrorist bombing. They didn't commit. I touched on the film a little earlier is my first exposure to diddle. So just real quick, hugely impactful film for me. It was the first time I saw this new sort of intense style of acting and for I think I was nine years old when I saw it. For a nine year old, it's a dense movie. It's a two plus our prison courtroom biopic about the troubles. DDL held my attention even at nine and watching it again for this episode, I was really taken with his relationship with Persuade in it because he's gone now. As I was rewatching it, I was like, When you distill this movie down it's really about a troubled kid who grows to love his father and really unfortunate circumstances. And that was a that was a fun way into it. You know, you really you kind of start thinking like that. You I mean, me, I started thinking like that and seeing movies a little differently after my mom died. And it's it's interesting to look and that's that can be a very loud movie at times, purposely so. But it can also be very quiet. And one of the great endings of any film, it's I mean, it's just fucking great. So that's a YouTube clip for me. I'll go up, you know, I'm a free man. I'm walking out the front door. I'll watch that just on a loop. Big fan of in the name of the father. Well, in talking just specifically with that moment at the end, an earned moment, the whole movie is you're right, it is about watching a son grow to love his father. And in that way, it's about a little mischievous boy learning to become a man. And the way that he has to do that is not pleasant at all. I mean, this is the one movie for me where it goes. Everything you talk about, all the gamut of the human emotions. Oh, yeah. One thing I always like to talk about, too, is breath. It may sound very silly, but breath in an actor is everything. It's your life at the end. When he is walks up the courtroom and through it. Right. That's why that scene is so impactful. I'm getting goosebumps now just thinking about it because he feels it, that energy transference, it's coming through, man. We're getting it. And it's that's what that is. And that's why that finish to that movie is what it is. Oscar talk. This again is a IMDB trivia. I'm sorry if this is true. This is really cool. But apparently Jonathan Demme, his first choice for Andy Beckett in Philadelphia was Daniel Day-Lewis. And DDL was busy making in the name of the father. So to me offered Andy back at the Tom Hanks. Hanks wins the Oscar over diddle, which I think is actually fair. It's very rare that I'm going to vote against Idol but Hanks for me does went out there. I think it's a great towering performance. I do want to hear who you think would win. You have also Laurence Fishburne and what's love got to do with it, which is Holy shit, I could do a whole podcast about that one. Anthony Hopkins The Remains of the Day and Liam Neeson and Schindler's List. Personally, I would go with Dedeaux. It gives me goose bumps every time I watch the movie, so I got to go DDL on this one. No argument for me. Three years later, DDL takes on John Proctor, one of the most famous characters in modern American literature, and he seizes it. This is The Crucible 1996. The movie isn't perfect. It does suffer a little bit from the visual staleness that is found in some played a movie adaptations which we talked about in an earlier episode. But DDL this game from the beginning he's it's a steady train of a performance to me it chugs along and builds momentum with every scene getting angrier and angrier. And until he reaches a full on breakdown, which is really the moment of the movie, it's the moment of the play. I don't think we've ever seen diddle this physically dirty, and it's kind of interesting to see him be desperate and literally filthy at the same time. On that end. Yeah. Back to the breath, man. Watch his chest when he grabs that pen. It is just living in him. And you don't get that explosion unless you are that emotionally full. And it's really a breathtaking scene. You're right. It's it's it's leading to that moment. One thing I do want to say, this is a really interesting scene is the first scene he has with Winona, because in the movie, he has committed adultery with this girl. And he gives in to that lust that he has not fully, but it's so slight. But you see, it's there and it allows for you to now understand this man's conflict that he has within himself is because when she goes to kiss him, he could totally just be like, nope, nope, we're not doing that. He kisses back, he lets it in. That's the one scene in the movie where we never see him like that ever again. And from then on, it's just there. I don't know. I that that scene really struck to me upon completion of the movie. Joan Allen, another great costar with him, she really holds her own. She got nominated for the Oscar for it. She's great. One final thought. We're not getting really into his personal life here, but it's certainly worth mentioning that Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible and adapted the screenplay for this film. And during the making of this movie, Diddle met Miller's daughter, Rebecca and Rebecca. Indeed, l have been married ever since. And I love that one of my favorite celebrity couples, low key and discreet the next year. 1997. It's the boxer. He's reunited with Jim Sheridan. It's their final collaboration which is such a bummer and this he's playing Danny Flynn and this is a really fucking good movie that no one talks about it didn't get a big release when it came out which is odd because this is the nineties and every Daniel Day-Lewis movie was an event but this one really it really wasn't in the film. Diddle plays Danny Flynn, an Irish boxer and former provisional IRA member who has just served a 14 year bit in prison. Now he's out and he just wants to keep to himself. He wants peace, but the past won't leave him alone. And this leads to a really emotionally brutal and frankly, fucking terrifying ending that I don't want to reveal. But the final scenes of this movie are simply told. But if you're invested in Danny Flynn, they're really, really scary. And I do want to hear your thoughts on this one because I think you watch it for the first time for this post. But I'm a huge boxing fan and DDL trained tirelessly for this role, so much so that many real life boxers has said that his work as Danny Flynn is the most realistic portrayal of a boxer by an actor. And that plays his scene. Skipping rope is unlike anything I've seen an actor do. So to me, when I was watching it again, speaking to it, I didn't see Daniel Day-Lewis boxing in a ring. I saw a boxer in the ring. Yeah. And his trainer said, If you would have let me take him pro, I could have fought him at his division. No problem. I would have loved to see some real deadly fights because his form is flawless. His movements, everything. There's I'm never once going, that's an actor playing a boxer. Exactly. My favorite moment of the movie was when he first gets out of jail and he's talking with his trainer, but the bomb goes off. The trauma of that bomb the way that he it's the first time he's heard a bomb since being in jail. And what that does to him to me was just a complete, breathtaking moment. Of someone dealing with that trauma right before your eyes coming to terms with it, dealing with it, and then moving on from it. It's all in a matter of seconds. But you see everything go through him. Love it. Please go check out the boxer. It's one that doesn't get talked about a lot it should be seen. DDL takes a five year break. It's going venturing back into this law thing. It's a very infamous five years. Maybe he went off and became a cobbler. I don't know. That's what everyone always says. Scorsese convinces him to come out of retirement if that's whatever it was and take on maybe his most well-known role in terms of pop culture, in terms of what, you know, every normal person non movie freaks like us talk about. It's Bill the Butcher The Mad Man, the gang leader, the beast. That's a wound. This will always be one of the most iconic DDL performances. The anger, the voice. We can talk a lot about the voice the calm, because he can be eerily calm in this. Like when he accepts the challenge from Leo and he just looks at me, he goes, Challenge accepted. I love that. I read and when we cover such well-known performances like this one, I like to focus on something small. And this has a lot to do with choices, with what you're talking about. Rewatching this movie, I remembered a little gesture that I wanted to make mention of. When Leo is forced to shoot Henry Thomas, his friend, right after he pulls the trigger, we cut to the butcher who's inside, sharpening his knives very quickly. He hears the gunshot outside, stops sharpening, and kind of bumps himself up on his foot a little bit. It's a little bump a little step, a little shuffle. It's very minor and we don't see his face. The scene is played entirely off his back, but that little step signifies to me, OK, boy, so now you're ready. And there aren't a lot of actors who do this type of stuff anymore where every single fucking thing they're doing has character intention yes. Not a lot of people commit that wholly to it. And that little step of, oh, well, I didn't really think he was going to shoot his friend, but he did. It's going to be an interesting fight. Dude, you just gave me goose bumps. Just everything you just said. Hell, yes. Oh, my God, man. Yeah, watch it. I mean, there's not much to be said about that. You just. It's a feast. For everything with that movie props. Something we don't we haven't talked about yet, but this goes to every single movie that he's in. Occupation and what an actor does is a lot. And that's why you spend so much time learning these things, is because when you learn an occupation like that or a skill, you don't want anyone to look at you as as an audience being like, Oh, look at so-and-so. He learned how to do this. You just want to see them do it. So watching him work with knives, you don't for a second see an actor looking like with a knife. It's just that's it's an extension of his being. It's an extension of his body. And his physical performance in that movie is really something to behold. I'm almost curious to wonder because it always seems like he's moving like some type of animal, you know, what type of animal like that is. But it's in there for sure. And with the knives and the power that he has in that movie. Another Oscar recap. This is one of my favorite Oscars ever. It was a great Oscar year leading up to the show. Jack Nicholson and Diddle won every major award. Jack was a quiet revelation in About Schmidt, and DDL was more ferocious than ever in gangs. It was a very even split. Either Jack was going to become the first man to win three Best Actor Oscars, or DDL was going to win his second. Halle Berry opens the envelope, says Adrien Brody, his name. The place goes fucking wild. And it's that rare Oscar that no one saw coming but is completely deserved. And again, far be it for me to take Oscars away from DDL. But Adrien Brody, winning for The Pianist is. You know, many speculate, including myself, that Jack and DDL split the vote and that maybe Adrien Brody snuck in there. I'm fine with that. That's OK. But it did also win screenplay and director. So maybe not. Maybe enough people just naturally voted for Brody. But I love that win. If you go back and watch that Oscar clip, it's a great one because Jack DDL, Nicolas Cage, who was also nominated for Adaptation they're all thrilled for Brody. They're just ecstatic. And Michael Caine, who was nominated for the quite American. You agree with that win? I agree with the outcome of what happened with that win. But again, you're going to find me really hard pressed to personally ever go against Idol. But Adrien Brody I'm a huge fan and that's a great performance. Really good movie, too. Yeah. Good save. Yeah. Thank you, asshole. No, Ballad of Jack and Rose, 2005. I love this movie. I want everyone to go see it. Yeah. This is deadly and very rare form. He's giving a contemporary performance and a modern film that was written and directed by his wife, Rebecca Miller. I honestly don't want to reveal too much about this movie. And I kindly asked you don't either, because I really want a lot of people to go see this. It captures the complex, intentionally isolated relationship between a father and his teenage daughter Rose. The movie goes places I didn't expect. And DDL is really sweet here. He's really personal. It's a very personal movie. I liked it a lot. It premiered in Sundance in 2005 and was released in only a handful of theaters a few months later. Go check it out. You also get to see Dylan Paul Dano playing off each other a little earlier than most people might think. So thoughts on Ballad of Jack Rose. The specificity that he brings to everything, even though this is a much quieter movie, the choices are just as interesting and specific as anything he's ever done. Yeah, I agree with you. I love this movie. And one other thing too, talking about props pouring the coffee from the cup into the saucer and drinking out of the saucer. Yeah, it's such a ridiculous thing to do, but in no way steals the scene away is in full focus. Just an interesting thing, you know, how does an actor stay busy? It's perfect for his character because he is a steadfast environmentalist. And my read on that was Why on earth are you bringing me a saucer? And when the coffee's already in the cup? So since you brought it for me, I may as well utilize both. So I'm going to pour a little coffee into the plate and drink from it because you had no need to bring this plate. And that's great. I didn't think of it like that, but that's the beauty of it. It's like, you could take that action that he did that does not stop the scene, and it just adds to it in a way where you're like, That's exactly right. Or like, I took it as like, God he is like really losing it in his mind right now. And, and it's everything. Nothing's wrong. Exactly. So now we're at a whole boy who are at a huge milestone. There will be blood. Daniel Plainview. It doesn't get much better than this for me, folks. This may be the most iconic film character of the 21st century. To me. I'm dead serious. I love this movie. I love this movie a lot, and I love this performance. I'll watch this movie once a year for the rest of my life. And similar to gangs, I'd like to focus on one small thing here. Watch Daniel. Plane Views. First interaction with Abel Sunday. That's the dad. That's Paul Dano's dad. And listen to the words plane view chooses in the inflection he gives them. Here's a little sample. Daniel do you have bread? Abel We have potatoes. Daniel Potatoes would be fine. Thank you. Look what happened there. Abel did not offer bread, and he didn't offer potatoes. Daniel just assumed that he could have what? ABEL had, and he chose his words carefully as to convince Abel that it was Abel's idea to offer the fucking potatoes, which it wasn't. And this may seem small. But it's careful. Personality traits like this that have you end up building and running an entire fucking town in a couple of years. It's expert manipulation. I've always latched on to that. And you see him do this. That's just one example. You see him do this constantly throughout the movie. You know, I have a lot of allegiance to this movie. It's my favorite PTA thoughts on There Will Be Blood. I'm in full agreement. This is, for me, probably top three, top two performances of all time of any actor. Yeah. And yeah, it's a master class in terms of objectives, going after what it is you want. He has skills. He has ways strengths and attributes, too, that are true to his character. He says it. He hates people, which is a huge trait to have about your personality, but to know how to use that trait to get with what you want. He knows how to be polite. He knows how to convince people of things and it never gets in his way, to his detriment, to his great fault. And I have a question for you. Do you think in your heart of hearts, like honestly that he ever loved that boy the way that your mom loves you? My dad loves me? Was the boy just a commodity? Was he just a financial investment? Because when after he has his accident, you know, the scene when he puts him on the train to San Francisco and he looks really beaten up going away. And but then the first question he asks about him is how big is his room? It's not like, is he OK? Did he settle in? It's just how big it is. How big is this room? So then the kid comes back and they have that really warm embrace. And it's really something to grapple with. It's one of those great mysteries of it. I think if you were just asking me personally, my take on it is I think he did love him. I do, too. Daniel Plainview, the ambition the son got in the way of it. Yes. I think there's there's enough there to where I think it's the closest he had to some compassion and love for any other person and he just did away with it. I agree. And I've made this remark before and I don't mean to be flippant, but in some aspects I have always looked at There Will Be Blood as a movie about addiction, the addiction of greed, of money, whatever you want to call it. In all the best addiction movies, even shame, things start to go wrong when something is introduced that take that occupies you, that distracts you from your addiction. Yeah. So in shame, it's the sister here. It's not the son. The son helps. It's when the son gets hurt. Yeah. The whole time, you know, Eli's over there. That's a distraction to his addiction. It's fucking with him. But the kid getting hurt is just this crazy act that no one could see coming and that really disrupt, disrupts this addiction to greed. And I paid a really close attention to the jump cut when we go to the Tonys, this last viewing. And he's just shooting shit in that mansion. And then he signed something away with his butler. And I'm like, whatever he's signing there, he's making money, whether he's buying something or selling something. So here you go, buddy. Yeah. Here's what it was all for. Like, you got nothing. You got a few dogs, you got a butler who is probably you're going to pay well to literally clean up your mess. So and one of my all time favorite endings, too. Yeah. This is a top ten ender to me. No, I mean, the line, the way it's inflected, there's so much going on. The music. Yeah, Oscar talk. This was a no brainer deal. Really didn't have any competition. George Clooney and Michael Clayton, Johnny Depp and Sweeney Todd. Tommy Lee Jones. And in the Valley of Allah. Good movie that no one talks about. Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises. I remember reading one of those round table interviews before they film them and George Clooney essentially said that it was ridiculous for anyone else in the category to think they would win over diddle. And he said that sitting right next to Dana Day Lewis at the I remember that any argument from, you know, winning this. Yeah, absolutely not. I can't imagine so yeah. Let's jump ahead two years to nine it's essentially DDL playing Fellini and I was really, really excited. And while the movie didn't fully deliver for me, it was great here. He's extremely committed, obviously. And you know what the hell? I like seeing Daniel Day-Lewis sing. It's a novelty. It's fun. I mean, look, if you if you would have looked at me when Daniel Day-Lewis was accepting his Oscar for playing Daniel Plainview, and you go, What do you think that guy is going to do next? And I said, a musical like, no, of course not. My one final thought about nine DDL was very outspoken in his praise for Marianne Couture, its performance in Lovey and Rose. Two years earlier. She won an Oscar the same night. He did four There Will Be Blood, and it is a fucking gift to see the two of them play off each other here. Fun costars in the movie Fun to see him playing off that to me. What's the best thing about this movie is it's an exercise in listening. Listening is everything. It's just like the breath. Watching him take in these women because that's the movie and just watching what each one of them does to him specifically and individually. It's really cool. It's really interesting to watch that. Lincoln 2012. I have to hand it to Spielberg here because Spielberg wanted to make this movie for decades, but he wouldn't do it without DDL DDL turned him down repeatedly because he didn't think he could do it. So it's my understanding that Spielberg then went to Liam Neeson, and I remember being a kid and hearing the Spielberg Liam Neeson Lincoln movie was happening like it was a go. Neeson was pretty close to doing it, and he reached out to Diddle and basically said, It's got to be you. Steven wants you it's got to be you. Whether or not that is how it actually happened. DDL took the role and with it he became the most awarded actor in Oscar history. I had only seen this movie once and I was really glad I rewatched it for this episode. It's a good, strong, reliable performance. I was really ecstatic when I mean this was I'm stepping on the Oscar talk here. This was a no brainer. No one else was even mentioned once. And the fact that it is such a groundbreaking Oscar win and it was kind of easy for him to do it, not the performance wasn't easy. The competition, it just fell. Everything fell into place. It's a great Oscar moment. It's one of my favorite speeches of all time. He's really close to crying. The fact that Meryl Streep is the one who gave it to him, they give each other a little look right before DDL turns to talk. It's a great moment, but thoughts on Lincoln. I love what you said about reliable because I think that actually speaks to the character the choices that he made in his voice and the way that he took people in is is very slow, very with a lot of ease. But everything weighed on him. But he was reliable and he was really assuring. And you're kind of watching because the movie is paced a very specific way. And I think his performance is in complete alignment with that pace. Yeah, by that measure, it's a very, very interesting movie to watch. Because he's not very big even though he's Lincoln. Right. It speaks perfectly to this story. Yeah, I like that. Reliable. All right. Here we are. We're at the end. Sadly. Phantom thread. 2017. He's reunited with Paul Thomas Anderson. He's playing Reynolds Woodcock. Which was the character name was Daniel Day-Lewis his idea so if you don't think he has a sense of humor. There you go. Look, we've talked about this movie already a lot on this podcast because it was in my top ten of the decade. And if you listen to that episode, episode two, I briefly went into a story about why this film and performance means so much to me. And I, I didn't expect to talk about that stuff at the time, but just following up on that a little bit, I never expected this movie to be such a kind of brilliant capsule portrait. Of the lifelong effects of trauma because the death of his mother has affected him so greatly. And really the only woman he can maintain in his life is his sister. When Alma comes along, she sticks up to him, and she's really the only one to kind of do that. So I see him like, this is just a broken boy who had a really strong woman as a mother, and she's gone and a father's never mentioned. So for me personally, it did it help put all of that stuff into perspective and how trauma, loss, violence, whatever it is, can follow you and haunt you. But he does grow to be a more understanding man, I think, because this woman has allowed him to understand that, you know, it's OK to open yourself up. It's OK like she's gone, but you don't have to live by all these rules in this business. You can let love into your life. That's what that movie was about for me. And it'll always have a special place in my heart. It was a really I had a really emotional time watching it again for this Christ. I love that movie and I love that read from yours too, because that's such a profound, powerful take on that movie that speaks to you personally. And that's what we're doing here. You know, I want to say, like, in everything that we're talking about, we are in no way saying this is fact. This is what the movie's about, this is how this is or how it was. We are completely talking about what we take from what they give us and in particular what DDL gives us. And so I love hearing that and what he commands of particularly the women in his life and how they should be when, you know, that's too much noise to be making at breakfast. Everything is so particular and it makes for such an interesting guy to watch. It's like tennis, you know, you've got one actor who is completely full of their personality and then they're going to lob the ball over to the other person and Alma just completely levels him and watching him be shook by her to me is one of the most interesting parts of the movie. To me, this movie is like an allegory for a relationship. Oh yeah, yeah. You know, it's just sort of like I'm going to give into this madness because I'm in love. Yeah. And that's what love does. Love is poison, but God, it, I'm going to drink it. And then you can bring me back to health because we're in this together. I just want to do a quick Oscar talk. Gary Oldman won for playing Winston Churchill. I have no complaints about Gary Oldman having an Oscar, but this was a career when there's no way in hell the Academy was going to give DDL four Oscars for Best Actor trophies, but he absolutely would have gotten my vote. Oh, mine too. This is one of my favorite down Day-Lewis performances. I think it's very, very interesting how he does not. There's this idea that everyone needs to be likable in their acting, in their performances and their characters. As a matter of fact, I feel in a lot of them he chooses to go in the other way. It's not that he's choosing to make a despicable character, but he's dishonoring the truth roundabout way of saying, This is my Oscar pick. That was the filmography. I want to touch on a few trends really quick that I notice that I never noticed before. Dedeaux rarely did contemporary characters I encountered five My Beautiful Launderette Stars and Bars Ever Smile New Jersey, The Boxer and The Ballad of Jack and Rose no comment on that. I just thought that was interesting. As a leading man, DDL almost always had female costars. Here are a few exceptions in the name of the father, Emma Thompson was nominated for supporting actress, but they do have scenes together, but I don't think their scenes are reliant on their performances. Gangs of New York There Will Be Blood That's it. Those are the only movies without a female star to bounce off of. I was going to ask you what your favorite was. It sounds like we had the same favorite Miss Vicki crepes who is astounding as Alma and goes toe to toe with him in a way that we never really saw before. No. And and she did not get enough credit in my opinion. I don't think there is any nominations. If we're talking about the Oscars. It was a Tour de force performance from start to end. She was just as specific as he was. Their creativity and their choices, you know, in your choices lies your talent to talented people right there. Absolutely. So let's do our top five real quick. Like, five, four, three, two, one. I can go first. I thought a lot about this. It's really top heavy it's the way they landed five gangs in New York for my left foot three in the name of the father to Phantom Thread one. There will be blood. I'm going to go actually. It's probably actually similar gangs in New York, my left foot phantom thread in the name of the father, there will be blood so just our two and three was switched, which is still a tough call. So that's OK. That's cool. That's really cool. OK, we have to end on a somewhat sad final thought. Before the release of Phantom Thread, Dido publicly announced through his representation that he would be permanently retiring from acting and he wasn't going to be talking about it. So Phantom Thread was going to be it, and that's that. So the question is, do you think he'll say retired? I think it's always a situation in life. Never say never. But I'll just say to it that if I hope it's not because I think, you know, any time we get a chance to see Daniel Day-Lewis perform, it's worthwhile so I personally hope that we see him again. But if we don't, Phantom Thread is as good as a swan song as you'll ever get. Yeah. And I have this kind of crazy fantasy that maybe 15, 20 years from now he pops up in like a Burt Lancaster Field of Dreams type of role, or maybe something like Wild Strawberries, but a little smaller can old man reflecting, supporting part. I don't know. He's in it for like 10 minutes, like the final 10 minutes. And all the characters have been talking about him for the whole time. And then like some young woman opens the door, I swear I thought a lot about this. Like some young woman opened the door, maybe like a daughter he hasn't seen. And he's standing there and the camera pans into his back and he slowly turns and he says something like, I haven't seen you in quite some time. And they said to the room, they have a tidbit of conversation, and he wins best supporting actor. I don't know who. And it's directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It's what he's like. 75 or something. I don't know. Hey, why not? But yeah, you said it. If this could be similar to what Tarantino's talking about doing and if this is it, then we have these movies forever. I'll cherish them forever. And thank God, because I watch all of his movies in a row for this podcast. Anyone can do that any time. And that is a career that we just don't get a lot of. And if we don't get any more of it, it's a bummer. But I understand and we'll always have the 20 that he gave us. And to any actors out there that are listening, study him. Oh yeah, study everything he does. You know, it's hard to study voice and dialect because you have to learn that type of thing. But watch what he does with props. Watch what he does with his mannerisms. There is no wasted motion. Everything is full of lice. Watch his breath, my God, watch his breath. Whenever you get a chance to notice where he's at in the emotion and what that's doing to his breath. Because if you follow that, you will be moved. It's impossible not to. We've given everyone a lot of recommendations on stuff to check out, but more specifically, it's the end of our show. What are you watching? We're going to throw something out. I am deviating a little bit. This has nothing to do with what we've been talking about, and I'm not technically doing a movie for the first time. I have had the time of my life rewatching Twin Peaks The Return. That to me is definitely a show that should be binged. I had a much better time watching it in a week as opposed to 18 or 19 weeks, however long it took to air before. But here's the thing then, and I've completely fucking forgot about all this while I'm rewatching it, I was watching this show with my mom. Oh wow. And she fucking died before it finished and I did not remember this. And I think her and I were a few behind, but I remember her being frustrated. Like, when are they going to give us the real Dale Cooper? When are they bringing him back? And I guess I just put all of this out of my mind. So I'm rewatching it, and as the show starts to get up in its teen episodes, it's 18 episodes long. All this stuff starts coming back. And it's making me really emotional because obviously in part 16, there's that great character reveal of the real Dale Cooper. And man, it just it was like she never got to see that, you know? And it was really these are more than just movies, TV shows, whatever the things that you and I are talking about on here, they really can mean something to us and they can latch onto us to ways that we don't even remember. I mean, believe me, I did not expect to have this emotional of a reaction rewatching Twin Peaks that return because the show is just great on its own to rewatch for any reason. But now that I have this crazy emotional connection to it, I'm like, Fuck, I didn't. I didn't even know that was there. So now Twin Peaks, the return is always going to hold a special place in my heart. So if you haven't seen it, please go watch it. If you have, I promise it's worth it to watch it again. I was much more forgiving of it this time. There's a lot of scenes in it that don't really have to quote unquote, do with the overall story, but I was more forgiving in those and had a lot of fun with them this time. So Twin Peaks The Return. Oh man, I love that. That's so cool, man. Thanks for sharing that. It was really cool. Of course. Well, mine won't be nearly as poetic or profound, but I'm just going to double down because I thought about all the movies that we were watching and I'm not going to talk about which one I recommend in terms of the detail performance aspect, even though of course it's there. I was going to go with the movie that I don't think a lot of people know of enough and should, and it was my favorite one upon the rewatch during this A Room with a View. Nice. It's just an absolute fun, delightful movie. Performances all around are great. I did not expect to have the time that I had with this movie. I was really, really taken with it. So I recommend A Room With A View. I love that you picked that because we've talked about genres that necessarily we don't identify with. This is a tough genre for me. It always has been, but yeah, me too. I'm not really big into period pieces that much room. It The View was just it was a lot of fun. I didn't expect it to have as good of a sense of humor as it does, and I found it to be really enjoyable. So that's it. Go check out some performances. It's an incredibly rare career in my experience. If you haven't seen some of his movies, you're going to be surprised if you have seen them. There's really never a bad time to rewatch them. So thanks everyone for listening and happy watching hey everyone. Thanks again for listening. You can check out my flicks and my movie blog at Alex Witherow dot com. Nicholas Docile dot com is where you find all of Nick's film work. Nicholas Ali does the music for our show. I've made a few music videos with Nick. He's a great guy and we love his tunes. Big thank you to him. If you have any questions or comments, please email us at What are you watching? Podcast at gmail.com. Next time we're going to focus all of our energy on one film. Derek Seen Francis Haunting Modern Epic, The Place Beyond the Pines. Stay tuned. Your Bastard At a basket. The Bastard in a Basket. It's My Name. That was one goddamn hell of a show.