Daniel Day-Lewis Beginnings & Origin Story [ENGL 3210]

Everybody! Hello there AGAIN! I am both humbled and honored to be giving another post to you all about one of my favorite performers to ever grace this planet (or any others): Daniel Day-Lewis.

Essentially, as I have mentioned previously in other, older blog posts, to finish this Fall Semester of 2012, my English class was tasked with completing a lengthy writing assignment, of which we (the students) were to choose the topic. With this free reign, the topic I chose to explore was the careers of Daniel Day-Lewis and Peter Sellers - two actors I admire greatly. As both a performer and lover of film, I decided the optimal way to integrate these ideas was to focus on characters and films each has done by writing a film review and character analysis for each. This past week, my focus has been on Peter Sellers, and with those posts completed, my focus shifts to Daniel Day-Lewis, and his impressive-yet-brief repertoire of film.

In focusing on Day-Lewis, I then had to rigorously choose which film/character to review. As I have seen most of his films, I decided to choose from those I had seen already. Though this seemed foreboding, it was a pleasant surprise. "THERE WILL BE BLOOD" (2007) is my personal favorite film Daniel Day-Lewis has appeared in, and the integral driving force behind this decision was, conveniently, Day-Lewis' performance as the central character - Daniel Plainview. "The decision" was made, and was not even done so disrespectfully on ESPN whilst I put down a friend who had always been there for me. (LeBron James parallel!) Also, in my quest to give perspective and relevance to my blog title, I do believe I have found the way - IN "THERE WILL BE BLOOD", Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis) exclaims "I drink your milkshake!.. I drink it UP!", hence the former half of my blog title. [SEE CLIP BELOW!]

 

[[The other half does derive from "THE PARTY" (1968) with Peter Sellers, when he innocently asks a large, exotic caged bird its food, which is designated by writing on the bowl as "Birdie Num-Num."]]

With all of that said, I will first start with a brief "origin story" of Daniel Day-Lewis, so as to lend perspective on his performance style and reward "close readers" with trivia points of interest. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!.

Brief 'Origin Story' on Daniel Day-Lewis - His Early Life & Career Overview

 In beginning to discuss the life of Daniel Day-Lewis, one must understand his upbringing & his natural disposition as a youth. Additionally, before beginning to discuss the early life of Daniel Day-Lewis, one must also know that I am not recalling all of this off of a jilted-boyfriend-like memory, & I will be employing various biographic sources that will be notated at the end of this series of posts. Now with those semantics out of the way, Daniel Day-Lewis was born "Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis" on April 29, 1957 in London, UK. Both parents were artists of varying genres, and in a strangely serendipitous twist to this project, his paternal grandfather - Michael Balcon - was the executive head of "Ealing Studios", known for their comedies chiefly featuring a renown British actor by the name of Alec Guinness. One of these films - "THE LADYKILLERS" (1955) - was known not only for the dark & macabre humor, but for being the film that provided then-little-known actor/comedian Peter Sellers with his first sizable (albeit supporting) film role.

But, I digress. Growing up, Day-Lewis was a trouble-maker, with an independent spirit and rebellious nature. He was sent away to boarding school on more than one occasion, and it was during his time spent at "Bedales Independent School" that we was able to make his first & uncredited film role in "SUNDAY, BLOODY SUNDAY" (1971) at age 14. While this provided a stimulating experience for a young Day-Lewis, his first love was wood-working. In 1975, he applied for an apprenticeship and was rejected due to lack of experience. As fallout, he applied to the British Old Vic Theatre School and was accepted; he studied there for three years, with the culmination of his hard work being performing at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre itself. Soon after his time here, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, and toured England for a number of years. In a 2005 interview with NYU film professor Richard Brown, Day-Lewis called this experience "tedious" and "the worst career choice I've ever made." Following his work at the RSC in the early 1980's, he accepted roles in both television and film, usually taking on small, supporting roles to gain recognition for his hard-work and application of "Method Acting" despite the smaller, supporting nature of his roles. This work paid off after his extensive research done for his role as a Czech surgeon in the 1988 film "THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING." In preparation, he learned to speak Czech, and refused to break character on and off-set during the entire 8-month shoot.

Daniel Day-Lewis as Christy Brown 
in "MY LEFT FOOT"

This preparation was made to look childish the following year when he accepted the role of Christy Brown in the film "MY LEFT FOOT" (1989). The film finds it's basis in true stories, and is based on the life of Christy Brown, a man so afflicted with cerebral palsy that he is paralyzed in all bodily extremities except his left foot, which he then teaches himself to use to write, paint, and even play albums. To prepare for this emotionally & physically challenging role, Day-Lewis spent much of his time at the Sanymount School Clinic in Dublin, Ireland, a facility for disabled citizens, and befriended many of those who were disabled. He remained in a wheelchair throughout the duration of filming, refusing to get up and break character; oftentimes, members of the set staff were forced to lift him over lighting and audio wires in order to get him onto the set and ready to film. The insights gained by doing this would prove to be invaluable, as the emotional turmoil and embarassment was portrayed in such an effective and gut-wrenching manner that he won nearly every award he was nominated for, including the Academy Award® for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

This provided a springboard for Day-Lewis. However, since "MY LEFT FOOT" was made, he has only completed 10 films; during this time, he went on film-hiatus for five years, eventually being coaxed back by director Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio to star in "GANGS OF NEW YORK" (2003). Though nominated for another Academy Award® for Best Actor, he eventually lost to Adrien Brody (who won for "THE PIANIST" (2002)).

With this background in mind, and more of a serious, "Bill the Butcher"-like tone (by virtue of the mentioning of Shakespearean acting; this adds melodrama by default), we can move on to the film review of "THERE WILL BE BLOOD" (2007).

AGAIN, thank you ALL for reading, and I will be posting again sometime within the next couple of days! Have a wonderful rest of your Tuesday, and enjoy Daniel Day-Lewis' interview with Richard Brown on "Movies 101" (the rest of the five parts are easily accessible):

Twitter: Chris_0Reilly

--Chris