December 2009 By Philip Berk
Daniel Day Lewis is as charming as ever. When I tell him an actor we recently interviewed told us that after watching There Will Be Blood he seriously considered giving up acting (Ewan McGregor) he is amused.
So what made him decide to do this film?
“When Rob first started talking to me about working with him on the film, I had the same response all the actors have, which was a tremendous desire, but at the same time, that lurking fear that comes with trying to express yourself in any way that was completely outside of your usual frame of reference. Everybody sings, but to try to attempt to express something through music seemed to be a real challenge. We all made a fool of ourselves more or less on day one, which you have to do when you’re unsure of things. Rob is one of those men who makes everybody feel that it’s safe to do what they need to do. He literally pulverized us with compliments, all day long.”
What was it like working with all the incredible women?
“First and foremost, Judi I have loved and admired for as long as I can remember. So the chance to work with her again, the first time in about 25 years, since we did Hamlet together. I sent her a note saying, ‘I promise not to run out on you this time.’ So that was such a treat.”
(He did in fact walk off the stage in mid performance vowing never to return to the theatre, and he’s kept his promise. Judi claims he had a nervous breakdown. He ended up in Buenos Aires where me made a dreadful film.)
“And Sophia – when I told my mum that Sophia was going to be playing my mum in this film, she was so excited about that. Marion I met for the first time last year at the Palm Springs Festival, where I was invited to present an award, having just seen her in that unforgettable performance (Piaf.) Penelope and each and every one of them I’ve admired and hoped to work with again.”
Although this is not the story of Fellini, it’s about a director somebody like Fellini. Did he research his life and films, or did he just depend entirely on script?
“I certainly spent some time discovering and rediscovering the films of all the great directors of that period. Visconti, De Sica, Antonioni – all of them. That was one of the great joys, a great excuse to look at those films again and try and think about that period of time. Because you begin from the outside until you have a sense of the world that you’re moving towards, there’s no point in trying to move towards it. That was the beginning. Yes, Fellini. And his own writing is so wonderful about himself and others. I guess that is where the journey started. But his shadow would be an impossible shadow to emerge from. If you chose to dwell too long in that, it would be fatal. So I tried to forget, at a certain point, about his influence on everything that we were trying to do.”
Fellini’s Guido (in 8 1/2) doesn’t believe that you can change reality. His Guido is more of a tragic figure. How did you invent your Guido?
“I don’t know. First of all I certainly didn’t begin the work in opposition. I didn’t dwell upon 8 1/2 because it’s a masterpiece. It always will be. Even we can’t destroy the legacy of that film, which has influenced every filmmaker since it appeared. I adore Mastroianni and I saw him a lot. I would have been utterly paralyzed if he had been the starting point for my journey. I really watched his work on its own merits and tried to think. Luckily, I was able to put him in a box and close the lid. So I don’t know how to answer your question.”
Has he any idea what his next project might be?
“No.”
So he just waits until something comes along?
“I’m not really, in a sense, waiting. I don’t have the sense of waiting. Something will fire my curiosity, but I’m not waiting for it.
Is there any director that he would like to work with?
“Well, there are quite a number of directors that I’ve already worked with that I would happily work with any time in the future. I’m in touch with quite a number of the directors who’ve remained solid friends over the years. We always know what we’re doing, what we’re working on. I like to believe in the accident of a coincidence in time where two people feel the need to do a piece of work in that moment.”
Any thoughts about Martin Scorsese?
“He is and remains for actors working today a man of supremely indescribable gifts as a director. His body of work speaks for itself. The discovery of Martin’s work when I was still a kid came with Mean Streets and subsequently Taxi Driver. Taxi Driver was a seminal film for all of us. I was living at that time in South East London. I wanted to know every single thing about not just those people in that world that he was describing, but the man behind that story – Scorsese. Long before I ever got to meet him, he’d already taken on proportions in my imagination. One of the great joys I never had expected in my life was to meet and get to work with him. Then again. That will always remain the great, great joys of my life. There’s nobody like him.”