With Lincoln, Day-Lewis Ponders His 3rd Oscar

Penelope Poulou
February 22,2013

British-born actor Daniel Day-Lewis is a front-runner to win the Academy Award for his portrayal of the 16th U.S. president in Steven Spielberg’s movie Lincoln.

In the film, Abraham Lincoln, as played by the two-time Oscar winner, forcefully sums up the absurdity of slavery.

“Euclid’s first common notion is this: things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other," he says. "That’s a rule in mathematical reasoning. It’s true because it works.”

Apart from Day-Lewis' Oscar-worthy interpretation of Lincoln, critics have been awed by his unflappable performances time after time.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, an adaptation of Milan Kundera’s novel, was Day-Lewis' first lead role. He played the Czech doctor Tomas during the 1968 Prague Spring.

Day-Lewis offered a masterful rendition, down to the accent. To prepare, he learned Czech and stayed in character during the eight-month shoot.

During the filming of My Left Foot in 1989, Day-Lewis, playing paraplegic Christy Brown, refused to leave his wheelchair and had crew members carry him everywhere. It paid off. He won his first Oscar.

He received his second Oscar nomination for 1993's In the Name of the Father, as a small-time thief falsely implicated in the IRA bombing of a London pub.

In 2002, after a five-year hiatus, Day-Lewis returned with an acclaimed performance as Bill the Butcher in Martin Scorcese’s Gangs of New York.

His second Oscar win came in 2008 for his performance as the misanthropic oil prospector Daniel Plainview in the turn-of-the-century drama There Will Be Blood.

It took two years for Day-Lewis to research and prepare for the role and, at the time, the idea that he could best that performance was unimaginable.

Now, five years later, the Oscar winner is again on the world stage for his interpretation of the 16th president of the United States.

Day-Lewis says his reward was having the opportunity to experience the life of one the world’s greatest men.

“There’s never been a human being that I never met that I’ve loved as much as him, ever," Day-Lewis says. "I doubt there ever will be.”

Accolades aside, for Day-Lewis, one of the great actors of our time, getting to interpret extraordinary characters is what really matters.