Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the finest actors of his generation--as well as one of the most selective.   Born in London, the son of actress Jill Balcon and the Irish Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis, and grandson of legendary head of Ealing Studios, Sir Michael Balcon, Daniel Day-Lewis made his debut in SUNDAY, BLOODY SUNDAY at the age of 14, as a vandal.   It was, he recalled, "heaven"--vandalizing expensive cars parked outside his local church, and being paid £2 for his trouble!
After experience with the National Youth Theatre, he joined the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.   He had a small role--as a thug--in Richard Attenborough's GANDHI, before his breakthrough stage performance, taking over the lead in ANOTHER COUNTRY.   Later he appeared in THE BOUNTY with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins.
Two very different views of the actor confirmed his growing versatility--Stephen Frears' film MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE that opened simultaneously with A ROOM WITH A VIEW as the effete fiancé to Helena Bonham Carter's character.   In the late 1980s Day-Lewis starred in Philip Kaufman's film of Milan Kundera's novel THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING with Lena Olin and Juliette Binoche.
Then came his first Academy Award nomination and win for his role as Christy Brown in Jim Sheridan's film MY LEFT FOOT.   He returned to the stage to play "Hamlet" at the National Theatre, but ended his run early, and was replaced by Ian Charleson and later Jeremy Northam.    Day-Lewis has not appeared on the stage since.
He returned to the cinema in the early 1990s in THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, and then by contrast, Martin Scorsese's adaptation of Edith Wharton's THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, with Winona Ryder and Michelle Pfeiffer.
Next he played Gerry Conlon, victim of a cruel miscarriage of British justice, in Jim Sheridan's IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER.   He was nominated for an Oscar® for his work in the film.  Then he starred in the film version of Arthur Miller's play THE CRUCIBLE opposite Winona Ryder, followed by Jim Sheridan's THE BOXER.
After a five-year absence--some of it spent in Italy training as a cobbler--he returned to film with Martin Scorsese's GANGS OF NEW YOR as Bill the Butcher.   He was nominated for his third Oscar for his performance.  Then Day-Lewis made THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE, with his wife, director Rebecca Miller, daughter of playwright Arthur Miller,
Day-Lewis starred in THERE WILL BE BLOOD for Director Paul Thomas Anderson.  Based on Upton Sinclair's novel Oil!, Day-Lewis' performance earned Day-Lewis his second Academy Award.
Day-Lewis lives in Ireland. 

Q: So Daniel, talk about the opportunity to be part of the cast of "Nine."
DDL: It was, it was--it's one of those moments where when Rob first started talking, to talk to me about it, and I was at that time looking for any excuse I could find not to go back to work, and I just couldn't think of one. But Rob started to--and when he told me about the cast, and his plans for the film, I did understand that no matter what the result of this piece of work could be, that the period of time making it would be unforgettable. And it was, it was. It was uh, this was a very happy time. And that is largely thanks to him and the group of people that he chose to surround himself with.

Q: Talk about having the chance to sing and dance in this.
DDL: Well sing… the dancing, I was excused the dancing which saved us all from that. Uh, the singing was something we were all terribly anxious about. One or two of the girls, obviously Marion, knew what it was like to do that, and Nicole, Fergie had a bit of experience. Kate I think too probably, but nonetheless we were all very nervous about it, and uh… and yet there is something there, something--the opportunity to express something through music, to try and contribute something to a story, to a scene, through music rather than the spoken word, the heightened quality of music is a special thing. And so we, we were glad to work at it, yeah.

Q: Talk about your two songs and how important they are for driving your character.
DDL: They are very in the moments, in the moments when, when they happen in the film, they really--they have completely different energy, both, both the songs, and they, they propel Guido through the story in that moment in the way that uh… uh, in a way that I think is entirely suggestive of his state of mind. There's something about that music, it's kind of the same answer to your last question, but it's something about that music, and that part of the story that does something which you couldn't do in a different way. Do you know what I mean?

Q: Talk about Guido's struggle.
DDL: Yeah, he's in the desert. You meet him, he's in the desert, he's a dry stick in the desert. He doesn't know how to move forward, and because he's lived close to that edge of self destruction for a long time through the work, and there is something in creative work which has to be anarchic, that has to be where you have to be close to the abyss for there to be something of value there, and yet you're playing with that distance all the time. And he had played with it to the point where, as his producer says to him later on, the camera is your pen right with the camera. They're used to him living that close to the edge They expect him to just be able to conjure something out of nothing. But what they can't know is just how tempting his spirit is in that moment. He has nothing, nothing there.

Q: Talk about the women who he loves, who drive him crazy, who he fails.
DDL: Yeah, all of them in both respects, yeah. Nicole, most obviously, is the muse, the person who he's calling on to try and rescue him from this, from this turmoil whereas in fact of course it's his wife that Marion plays, Louisa, is the person that he needs to, that he needs to uh, to find a reconciliation with. That's where--that's where the truth of the dilemma lies, but he's looking for it elsewhere. Judy of course in her song, my god… so fabulous I can't even think about it. But she's the friend, she's his friend who--we all need a friend that's going to tell us what we don't want to hear. You've got to have one like that, and she's that person that can't lie to him. Penelope as Carla is the… is the irresistible mistress who yes, who's completely disrupting his life. It's hard to give them--I don't want to turn each one of them into a sound byte, it's so unfair because they're all so much more than a sentence. Paragraphs, they deserve.

Q: I found some of the most moving moments from Sophia Loren as your mother. Talk about being able to share the stage with her.
DDL: It was very--I found it very uh… affecting to be with her, to be working with her, uh, I discovered, rediscovered her through her work before we started to make the film. I was so staggered by her quality as an actress, particularly in Italian films. She's most known over here for the American films that she made, and she made some wonderful films here too like "House Boat" which is beautiful, beautiful--Cary Grant. But nonetheless, to see her in her own language in films like De Sica's film, "Yesterday,  Today, and Tomorrow," and "Two Women" which she won the Academy Award for is--her work is absolutely sublime. "Divorce Italian Style," uh, or "Marriage Italian Style," rather with Mastroianni. She's just wonderful. And there she was, there she was. And my Mum was so thrilled when I told her about the cast. But when I told her that Sophia was playing my mother in it she was utterly delighted by that.

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