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.
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3.) Vincent Vega in “Pulp Fiction”
What’s interesting about this is that this is one case where Daniel Day-Lewis was pursuing the role and not the other way around. In the 90s he was very much in demand. The kind of actor that most filmmakers would be elated to learn he was interested in acting in your film. However, Daniel Day-Lewis didn’t count on one thing… Quentin Tarantino. He has VERY specific ideas on the casting and will pass on big stars the studios want. Now I can’t say that I disagree as he’s rarely ever wrong with his casting choices. I also can’t really imagine anyone else in that role beside John Travolta (even though it was originally written for Michael Madsen). This entry is really more because I would love to see someone like Lewis and Tarantino team up on something. His intensity of acting paired with Tarantino’s writing and directing would just be a match made in bloody, f#@*ing heaven.
2.) Batman in “Batman Forever”/“Batman Begins”
Daniel Day-Lewis was considered for the Cape Crusader… twice! It is said when Michael Keaton left the role and Joel Schumacher had to cast a new actor for Bruce Wayne, one of the actors on his list was Daniel Day-Lewis. It’s also said Ralph Fiennes and Billy Baldwin were on that list before Val Kilmer’s performance in “Tombstone” sealed the deal. Needless to say while those are interesting ideas for casting they don’t seem quite right. Also, needless to say is that this doesn’t seem like the kind of role Day-Lewis would be into.
That didn’t stop them years later again trying to get him in “Batman Begins” although he seems like an odd choice at that time when they were trying to reboot the series with his early days as Batman. I remember after Heath Ledger died there were fans throwing out his name as a replacement for the Joker. It never would have happened. However, I was happy to see the idea that the role of the Joker should die with Heath Ledger go away. I’m not saying I wouldn’t want it to happen as I’m sure he could really bring a lot of depth to the role or make a great Batman villain, but he doesn’t seem the least bit interested in these kinds of films.
1.) Aragorn in “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy
Out of all of the entries this is the one I can most clearly imagine Daniel Day-Lewis in. Especially if you’ve seen “The Last of the Mohicans.” Also I feel like this is something more likely than Batman, not by much but still. The words of Tolkien do have a weight and power to them. I can only imagine if he HAD played this role it may have killed him to have been in character for at least 3 years of production. That’s what I would have to guess was his deciding reason to not play Aragorn. He’s stated in interviews that his wife has had to endure some pretty crazy characters coming home each night while he works on different movies (I feel so bad for her during “Gangs of New York”). Now Viggo Mortensen got fairly deep into his role as well. To the point that he kept Aragorn’s sword with him at all times even on his days off. I think it’s fair to say he probably would have been fluent in elvish and slept in the wild all during production. However, with all these entrees I don’t think any of these were bad performances by the actual actors. Although I would love to see what Daniel Day-Lewis could have done with them.