Daniel Day-Lewis names his movie heroes: “An extraordinary actor”
When we consider the best actors of the past few decades, it’s hard not to name Daniel Day-Lewis as one of the finest. He has crafted an impressive career since emerging on the scene in the 1980s, scooping up many Academy Awards in the process. From the early days of his career to his final roles before retirement, Day-Lewis hardly made a misstep, maintaining a solid and highly praised reputation from beginning to end.
These days, Day-Lewis prefers to stay out of the spotlight, believing that he has achieved all he can as an artist. Yet, he still inspires many due to his fantastic body of work, with a plethora of stars citing him as a significant influence over their own approach to acting.
He rose to prominence by portraying the complex character of Johnny in My Beautiful Laundrette, one of his first proper movie roles. Playing a young gay man who begins a relationship with a Pakistani man during the height of Thatcher’s Britain, Day-Lewis earned significant praise. There was so much praise, in fact, that the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures gave Day-Lewis the award for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for his stunning performance.
He has subsequently starred in many more acclaimed films, like A Room With A View, My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread, with the latter becoming his final ever performance. He won three Oscars for ‘Best Actor’ during his career, cementing him as a cinematic hero.
Yet, who are Day-Lewis’ own idols? “No role models. Many heroes,” he once told Interview Magazine, adding, “I have an enormous capacity for hero worship. Right down to the Millwall terraces.” He listed some of his biggest acting heroes, beginning with “Spencer Tracy. Montgomery Clift. [Marlon] Brando—how can you not worship Brando? [Alec] Guinness. [Ralph] Richardson. Paul Scofield.”
These iconic Hollywood actors evidently inspired Day-Lewis’ approach to acting, with most of these stars receiving various Academy Award nominations and wins, with Day-Lewis soon joining them in the ranks of acclaim. In another interview with American Cinema, the actor shared his love of Clift, who made a name for himself as a star of movies like From Here to Eternity and A Place in the Sun. “Everyone has been influenced by Brando; fewer people have been influenced by Clift,” he claimed, adding, “But for me, he was an extraordinary actor.” Still, Day-Lewis highly admires Brando too, of course, citing On the Waterfront as one of his favourite films.
As for female actors, he explained to Interview, “I’ve got many heroines, too. Katharine Hepburn—she’s my ideal woman. Sissy Spacek. Meryl Streep. Audrey Hepburn. In my own country, Peggy Ashcroft is a most divine woman.” Hepburn holds the record for the most acting Academy Awards, helping her to become one of the greatest actors of her generation. She starred in films such as The Philadelphia Story, Bringing Up Baby and The African Queen. The star also had a screen partnership with Tracy, one of Day-Lewis’ other favourite actors.
Spacek and Streep are the only actors Day-Lewis selected as heroes who could be considered his contemporaries, with both stars just a few years older than him. Still, their work in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, such as Streep’s performances in Kramer vs Kramer and Spacek’s roles in Badlands and Coal Miner’s Daughter, undoubtedly left an impression on him as he was starting out.