The Martin Scorsese movies that opened Daniel Day Lewis’ mind: “It was the beginning of my discovery”
If there’s anyone who can convince Daniel Day-Lewis to end his retirement and return to acting, then Martin Scorsese probably has a better than everybody else in the industry, not that there are any guarantees it’ll happen.
The legendary filmmaker even admitted that he’s holding out hope of collaborating with his The Age of Innocence and Gangs of New York star one more time, but Day-Lewis has never shown even the slightest inclination of backtracking on his vow to step away from the profession entirely.
Comfortably among the most respected and lauded practitioners of their respective disciplines in modern cinema, it was virtually a foregone conclusion that the actor and director would make magic together. They’d been admiring each other’s work from afar long before then, though, with Day-Lewis having first become enamoured by Scorsese’s work when he was a teenager.
After a childhood spent regularly getting into trouble, Day-Lewis made his screen debut at the age of just 14 when he played an uncredited vandal in John Schlesinger’s Sunday Bloody Sunday. At around the same time, he found himself being introduced to the work of Scorsese, which turned out to be a formative experience for the aspiring thespian.
“When Mean Streets came out, I was 16, and you cannot imagine the effect it had on me, a young and slightly wayward guy from south London,” he told The Independent. “It was like a light going on in my head. It was so influential for me as a young person, never mind as a young actor.”
Despite being born, bred, and raised in London, Scorsese’s classic crime story set on the rough streets of New York City was an eye-opener for the impressionable Day-Lewis, opening his eyes to the endless possibilities of American cinema. Mean Streets remains one of his favourites, but he explained in the book You Gotta See This that he views it as the genesis of the iconic director’s evolution into an all-time great.
“What can I say about Mean Streets? It’s one of my favourite films of all time and the first film I ever saw of Martin’s,” he said. “It was the beginning of my discovery of the whole world of possibilities on the streets of America. I can also sit back and realise now how this film led to Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and the De Niro films.”
The two have been friends for well over 30 years at this point, and even though they may never get the chance to work together again, it’s clear that Scorsese had a monumental impact on Day-Lewis not only as a cinephile, but a performer as well. With Mean Streets being a favourite since his teens, standing side-by-side on the same set would have been a dream come true.