On the set of Gangs of New York, Daniel Day-Lewis was already thinking about retirement

“How can you discover anything while hanging out on movie sets?” asked the actor in Première, in 2003.

In 1846, the Five Points neighborhood was the scene of a bloody gang war between Irish emigrants and Native Americans. Father Vallon and Bill the Butcher are at the head of their respective gangs, when the Butcher assassinates Father Vallon and takes sole control of New York. Sixteen years later, Amsterdam Vallon has a desire for revenge…

Martin Scorsese recently proclaimed his admiration for Daniel Day-Lewisthat he would like come out of retirement for a new collaboration. Never two without three ?

“Thank you, Daniel, for giving me this prize, said Martin Scorsese as he took the stage at the National Board Review Awards last January. It particularly honors me that it is you who is here. You know, we made two films together, and they were two of the greatest experiences of my life, I must say. Maybe it’s time to make a new one?”

In 1993, the two artists actually collaborated on The Time of Innocencethen it was necessary to wait two decades for them to team up again on Gangs of New Yorkrebroadcast this evening on Arte – and visible for free in replay on the channel's website until May 5. At the time, it had been 8 years since Day-Lewis had drawn a line under his acting career. A long break during which the director of Taxi Driver ended by offering him the role of Bill the Butcher opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz.

This character was initially proposed by Scorsese to his favorite actor Robert de Niro, after having considered hiring for this historic film… Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi!

When Martin Scorsese wanted to reunite the Blues Brothers in Gangs of New York

“He was Bill the Butcher and not Daniel Day-Lewis”

When it was released in 2003, Daniel Day-Lewis explained in First (No. 311, with Eminem on the cover for 8 Mile) to have been excited by “a role as exciting and frightening as that of Bill the Butcher”but Martin Scorsese confirmed that he still hesitated before signing: “Daniel wasn't sure he wanted to make the film. He knew it was going to be long and that there would be changes to the script. So when he asked me why I had thought of him, I I replied that he was one of the few people who could understand the nature of Bill's anger.”

“There are always so many things we wish we had done differently, then explained the actor, then aged 45, to journalist Tom Roston. I fear that the public will find my interpretation of Bill incomprehensible.”

Then he added, about this violent and multifaceted character:

“The more I delved into Bill's personality, the more fascinating I found it. Part of my job was to share Bill's conviction, and it is much easier to live in conviction than in doubt. Bill's conviction is unshakeable It is a very dangerous state of mind although very pleasant and strangely relaxing. He nevertheless has a sense of honor pushed to the extreme, an ideal of himself which, in life as in death,. pushes him to question his own value (…) It's difficult to explain, but I have a certain sympathy for Bill. He had certainly gone astray but lived according to a particular moral code which corresponded to the brutality of. his time and his neighborhood I found his character, full of humor, interesting to explore.

If the richness of Bill's personality was obviously not an obstacle, Daniel Day-Lewis recounted during this same interview that he sometimes experienced filming as an ordeal. Famous for immersing himself 100% into his roles, he learned how to cut meat from real butchers for this film and took knife throwing lessons. Staying in character on set, he was fully invested in this Scorsese project.

“There always came a moment when everyone asked themselves: “What am I doing here? Am I going to make it?” People were silently cracking up in every corner of the set.”, he said, just before the director praised his courage: “I could always rely on Daniel. He was as solid as a rock. Because at that moment, he was Bill the Butcher and not Daniel Day-Lewis. During the filming, he lived in anger, in rage , who was not pleasant to live with, and not just when the camera was rolling, but all day long. I chose Daniel because I knew he would go through with it.”

“I have trouble continuing to do this job”

Beyond the intense experience that was Gangs of New Yorkwe understand by reading his memories of filming that Daniel Day-Lewis was already thinking of retiring during the making of this film, a little over 20 years ago. “Nothing happened during the filming of Gangs… which leads me to think that I should make films more often”he replied when asked about his future projects as an actor.

“Life is an infinite mystery. How can you find out anything by hanging out on movie sets?”, he added on this subject. If he did not clearly use the term “retirement”he fully embraced his wish to live as discreetly as possible, far from movie sets:

“I've thought about this a lot over the years, and it's obviously affecting my perspective on work. It's probably one of the reasons I'm having trouble continuing to do this job. . But it's an exaggeration to think that it completely inhibits me.”

If the manufacture of Gangs of New York was complicated, in particular because of the conflicts between Martin Scorsese and his producer Harvey Weinstein, its main actor was praised for his performance. He has since returned to film sets, but only for five films in 20 years, including The Will Be Bloodby Paul Thomas Anderson, and Lincoln, by Steven Spielberg, which each earned him an Oscar for best actor. In 2017, he officially announced his retirementexplaining that he no longer wanted to make films after the noticed Phantom Thread.

Martin Scorsese almost left Hollywood after Gangs of New York

21 years after the release of Gangs of New York in the cinema, will Daniel Day-Lewis finally come out of retirement once again for Martin Scorsese? Nothing is less certain: shortly after the filmmaker's declaration, the director of The Boxer And In the name of the FatherJim Sheridan, explained in the press that the actor was disgusted by the streaming era :

“He says it's over for him. I continue to talk with him. I would love to work with him again. He's like everyone else. He looks at the streaming offer, there are 7,000 choices and none is no longer good. The films have left the public domain to join the private domain. With your remote control, it's no longer the same experience. It would be great if Daniel came back to play in a film. talented.”

Here is the trailer for Gangs of New York :

25 (real) Daniel Day-Lewis facts