Top 5 Daniel Day-Lewis Performances We COULD Have Gotten
Recently it was announced that Daniel Day-Lewis has retired from acting.
Many critics and fans are saddened by the prospect that we will never see one of his performances on-screen again. Now he has retired before, but was brought back. Who knows, maybe he will pull a Miyazaki. In the meantime while others make list of his best roles I thought it may be fun to look at the roles we could have gotten, but for one reason or another never happened.
Honorable Mention: “Hamlet”
I wanted to put this at number one, but figured that it doesn’t quite fit in with the rest. So I added it here. Mainly because some DID see it. You see in 1989 Daniel Day-Lewis was acting in a production of “Hamlet.” The works of William Shakespeare are often seen as the height of quality for most actors. If you’re considered a great actor then let’s see how well you perform Shakespeare. As there are few as great as Daniel Day-Lewis it would be amazing to see him interpret the words of the Bard. However, midway during a performance Day-Lewis had some sort of breakdown and left the stage. In fact, he has never acted in a play since. Some rumors suggest that he saw the ghost of his father on stage. This lines up well with his propensity for consuming himself in a role. So for those few who went to that performance they saw something unlike anything else he’s done before or since. Needless to say it’s something I’d love to see myself.
5.) Jesus in “ Passion of the Christ”
If there’s one actor that can be considered a God among other actors it is Daniel Day-Lewis. So with that in mind this is rather appropriate casting. It is said that Mel Gibson ultimately decided against the casting as he thought Lewis had too European looking of a face. So, he cast Jim Caviezel instead. It is also rumored that Gibson warned Caviezel that playing Jesus would hurt his career and in the years since it’s not hard to see his point. Still, given how popular/powerful of an actor he is it’s hard to see this really messing him up. I fail to see “There Will Be Blood” NOT being offered to him just because he played Jesus previously. Although Caviezel may have him beat for dedication after surviving getting hit by a lighting bolt on the cross… just saying.
4.) Lestat in “Interview With the Vampire”
This role had an interesting ride going from the author denouncing Tom Cruise’s casting, but later (with most everyone else) praising it. Supposedly being the front-runner for the role he was busy filming on another film at the time. Not only was he filming something else, but refused to even be sent scripts. That didn’t stop the producers from trying to contact him over and over. Eventually he just turned them down and they went with Cruise. I’ll admit that it’s one of Cruise’s better performances, but I’d still classify it as just OK. I haven’t read the book so I can’t speak to how accurate it is. I would wager a guess that if Daniel Day-Lewis had played the role then young (child) Kirsten Dunst wouldn’t be known as the best performance of that film.
