Published on October 14, 2025 • 6-minute read
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Ronan Day-Lewis and Daniel Day-Lewis were present at the screening of “Anemone” during the 69th BFI London Film Festival at BFI Southbank on October 14, 2025. Photo by Kate Green / Getty Images for BFI.
It has been eight years since Daniel Day-Lewis declared his retirement from acting, expressing a desire to “explore the world in a different way.”
However, the absence of the actor often regarded as the greatest alive comes to an end with “Anemone,” a new film directed by his son, Ronan Day-Lewis, which they co-wrote. What started as a modest project without grand ambitions evolved into a full-length feature film, marking Day-Lewis’ long-awaited return to the screen.
In an interview with his son, Day-Lewis reflected, “It saddened me that I had perhaps ruled myself out of that when I decided to work on something else for a while. As we progressed, it became increasingly clear that this was going to require the full scope of a film production, which I wasn’t particularly eager to re-enter.”
“But we just kept moving forward to see what would happen,” he continued. “And this is what happened.”
“Anemone,” now showing in theaters, showcases Day-Lewis, now 68, as intense and magnetic as ever. The film tells a father-son story, though it is not autobiographical. Day-Lewis plays Ray Stoker, a reclusive hermit living in a remote cabin, whose brother, Jem (Sean Bean), attempts to persuade him to reconnect with his teenage son.
Since his last film, “Phantom Thread,” in 2017, Day-Lewis has engaged in various pursuits, including studying violin making in Boston. He has also come to view his retirement announcement as a mistake or at least not entirely reflective of his intentions. Ultimately, it did not prevent him from collaborating on a film with his son.
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“I know it’s been imagined on my behalf by numerous commentators, people who don’t know me, that somehow the way I work has left me so debilitated I can barely open my eyes in the morning.”