He may have retired seven years ago – but Daniel Day Lewis remains one of the world’s most famous and widely respected actors.
Over the course of his forty-year career, the British legend, 67, has appeared in blockbuster hits including Gangs of New York, The Last of the Mohicans and There Will Be Blood.
In 1990, the father-of-three – who has stepped out of retirement to appear in his son’s new film – bagged his first Oscar for the fairly low-budget biographical movie My Left Foot – but in today’s world, the film’s reception would drastically differ.
While the casting decision may have been a no-brainer at the time, the fact that Daniel is an able-bodied man would have impacted whether he secured the role of an artist with cerebral palsy by today’s standards.
As disabled and neuro diverse actors have gained more visibility and representation in the film industry in recent years, there is a growing demand for disabled actors to play disabled roles – a call that has even been echoed by My Left Foot’s director, Jim Sheridan.
Pictured: Daniel Day Lewis with co-star Brenda Fricker at the 1990 Oscars, where they both won awards for My Left Foot
Speaking to Sky News in 2021, Sheridan said he no longer thinks ‘it’s right’ for non-disabled actors to play disabled characters like Daniel does in My Left Foot, adding that today is a ‘different world and you’d be duty bound’.
It’s a phenomenon that critics today refer to as ‘cripping up’, including the co-editor the opening ceremony for the 2021 Paralympic Games, Jenny Sealey, who said deaf and disabled people should get to play those roles instead.
And today, Sheridan believes similarly to Sealy, telling the news outlet: ‘I don’t think you could make it today. I don’t think you could make it without trying to find someone physically impaired.’
While his thoughts have shifted, the 75-year-old director is still under the impression that method actor Lewis did an ‘amazing’ job in the film, adding that he showed respect to the ‘disabled kids’ on set by staying in character throughout the 20 weeks of filming.
The drama tells the real-life story of Irish artist Christy Brown, who was born in Dublin in 1932 and later diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
Although his family were initially told Christy would be completely disabled, the artist later developed the use of his left foot and displayed great talent for painting and writing.
When it was published in 1954, Christy’s autobiography – which detailed his upbringing as one of 13 surviving siblings in a working class family – became an instant bestseller.
Riding high off the success of A Room with a View and My Beautiful Laundrette, Daniel was cast as the lead in the adaptation of My Left Foot, which was released in February 1989.
In his early life, Christy’s cerebral palsy was so severe that he couldn’t speak and instead communicated by making rasping noises – something that is conveyed in the film.
Pictured: Fiona Shaw and Daniel Day Lewis in the 1989 film My Left Foot, which is based on Christy Brown’s 1954 autobiography
Riding high off the success of A Room with a View and My Beautiful Laundrette, Daniel (pictured) was cast as the lead in the adaptation of My Left Foot
The drama tells the real-life story of Irish artist Christy Brown (pictured), who was born in Dublin in 1932 and later diagnosed with cerebral palsy
As a result of this, Christy’s doctors initially believed that he was also mentally disabled.
However, Dr Eileen Cole worked with Christy to develop his speech skills, which eventually led to him also starting a career as a writer.
Following its release, Daniel was widely praised for his sensitive performance – and proved sceptics wrong had questioned if he could fully portray the difficulties Christy faced accurately.
The New York Times praised the South London-born actor for his ‘beautifully acted’ portrayal of the artist and hails the film itself for its ‘polite’ and ‘nonjudgmental’ depiction of cerebral palsy.
In preparation for his role, Daniel – who is famous for his method acting approach – spent months studying children with cerebral palsy in Dublin and taught himself to paint using a palette knife held between his toes.
During filming, he always remained in his wheelchair. By day, the crew had to pick him up and carry him over cables.
At night, they had to spoon-feed him and help him with his drinks in the local pub. And as they began to treat him with less and less dignity and respect, so he began to understand his character’s humiliation.
According to The Guardian, Daniel also injured two ribs from spending weeks hunched in a wheelchair.
The film was nominated for a total of five Oscars – including Best Picture and Best Firector for Jim Sheridan – and secured Day-Lewis’s name as one of the most dedicated and talented performers working in cinema.
His co-star Brenda Fricker – who played Christy’s mother Mrs Brown – also won an Academy Award for best supporting actress.
During filming, Daniel (pictured) always remained in his wheelchair. By day, the crew had to pick him up and carry him over cables
The film was nominated for a total of five Oscars – including Best Picture and Best Firector for Jim Sheridan
Appearing on The Late Late Show with Gay Bryne in 1989, Daniel explained how his film producer friend Noel Pearson first told him about Christy Brown’s life – and from there, the artist became a ‘hero’ to Day Lewis.
He admitted: ‘I wasn’t convinced that I ought to do it. I thought that the film should be made and he was a great hero of mine but I didn’t know if it was the right thing for me to take it on. I just couldn’t resist it.’
What’s more, Daniel said that he was struck by how Christy’s disability wasn’t a ‘predominant feature’ of the script – but rather the artist’s ‘anger over the way in which he was perceived and misunderstood’.
My Left Foot’s director Jim Sheridan said of Daniel: ‘He feels like he’s betraying himself spiritually if he doesn’t give it 100 per cent. It’s not possible, the obliteration of the self, but he comes as close as anyone could.’
Before filming In The Name Of The Father, in which he portrayed Gerry Conlon, one of the Guildford Four falsely convicted for an IRA bomb campaign, he spent prolonged periods in a tiny prison cell without food and water while the crew hurled abuse and cold water at him.
This role earned him his second Oscar nomination, in 1994, with the 2002 epic Gangs Of New York securing his third place on the shortlist.
He learned Czech for the adaptation of Milan Kundera’s novel The Unbearable Lightness Of Being, even though the film, set in the Prague spring of 1968, was shot in English.
And for his role in The Boxer, he trained with former world champion Barry McGuigan, twice a day, seven days a week for nearly three years.