Daniel Day-Lewis has spent decades cementing his reputation as one of cinema’s most devoted performers, the kind of actor who disappears so completely into roles like There Will Be Blood, Lincoln, My Left Foot, and the 2025 movie release Anemone, that you forget there’s a person behind the performance. Yet for all the awards and reverence, he’s always seemed a little uneasy about the “method actor” label people love to toss around. Which is why I can’t get enough of him lately, calling out folks “gobbling off” about his process like they’ve got it all figured out.

In his recent New York Times interview, as part of that larger profile on his return to acting after announcing his retirement eight years ago, Day-Lewis pushed back hard on the modern misuse of “Method." Specifically, on how people casually toss around phrases like “gone full Method,” as though acting and lunacy are interchangeable. He told the outlet:

He doesn’t stop there. According to the beloved English actor, most people completely miss the point when it comes to what truly goes into embodying a character. He explained:

There’s something surprisingly grounding in the Lincoln star’s perspective. For years, the industry, press, and social media have been obsessed with what it means to be a so-called “method actor.” Just look at the mythology surrounding stars like Jared Leto, who famously “went method,” reportedly sending bizarre gifts to co-stars while preparing to play The Joker. We’ve come to romanticize those outward displays of “I suffered for my art,” or worse, “I made others suffer,” as if endurance itself equals excellence. But Day-Lewis isn’t buying into any of that.

The Last of the Mohicans star's comments expose a long-standing misconception that true acting genius must come packaged with a touch of madness. By challenging that idea, the Gangs of New York actor isn’t rejecting discipline or preparation, and is questioning the audience's fixation on spectacle over substance. Why do we focus so much on the external theatrics and so little on the quiet, internal transformation that real performance demands? It’s a fair question, and likely part of why he’s so selective about his roles. If you’re going to dig that deep into a character’s soul, you’d better make sure it’s one worth inhabiting.

After a long hiatus, Daniel Day-Lewis has stepped back into the spotlight with Anemone, a film he co-wrote with his son. The drama opened in limited theaters on October 3, 2025, and critics have strong feelings about Day-Lewis’ return. Still, this is one worth experiencing firsthand, so be sure to check your local listings and see it for yourself.

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains light spoilers for Anemone. If you have not yet seen the film and don’t want to know anything about it before doing so, proceed at your own risk!

It should surprise exactly nobody that Daniel Day-Lewis delivers one of the most earth-shaking performances of 2025 in Anemone – his return to the big screen after eight years of retirement – but I nonetheless found myself shaken by one particular monologue in the movie’s second act. Early in the reunion between Day-Lewis’ Ray and Jem (his brother played by Sean Bean), the former tells a story that is so tragic and disgusting that I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. It’s such a staggering emotional tightrope walk of a kind that I’ve rarely experienced, and I thus felt compelled to ask about it specifically later that week while interviewing the film’s co-writer/director.

I spoke with Ronan Day-Lewis (who is Daniel Day-Lewis’ son) along with Sean Bean virtually during the recent press day for Anemone, and I told the pair how conflicted I was while watching the scene unfold. I asked about how the filmmaker went about crafting the immensely complex scene, and he explained that it was most definitely the intention to both make you chuckle and then feel horrible for doing so. He told me,

(I’m about to describe the scene in discussion here, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet and have a sensitive stomach, you may want to click away to another one of our wonderful articles here on CinemaBlend)

The monologue sees Ray recounting to Jem his experience reuniting with their childhood priest – who invited him into his home without recognizing him. Ray told the elderly church leader that he was there for a collection, but it was actually a ruse for revenge. To get back at the priest for repeated encounters of sexual abuse, he filled his stomach with a mix of Guiness, curry, and laxatives, and after seducing the priest into submission, he proceeded to defacate all over his face.

It’s “funny” in the extreme scatalogical sense, but the context in which everything is wrapped is immensely horrible and traumatic. Hence, even if you let yourself smile, you ultimately feel awful for it.

As Ronan Day-Lewis described, it’s a hyper-focused dose of the emotional punch that Anemone carries as a whole – but he also noted that it is also a reflection of the relationship between the two brothers at the center of the story. Like the monologue, they run extremely hot and cold. Said the writer/director,

While I don’t personally have a brother, I do have a sister, and I feel it very much reflects the sibling experience.

Also starring Samantha Morton, Samuel Bottomley, and Safia Oakley-Green, Anemone is now playing in theaters – and while the film has gotten a mixed response, if you find reading about the monologue even moderately staggering, you’ll be blown away by Daniel Day-Lewis’ remarkable performance.

It’s been eight years since decorated actor Daniel Day-Lewis retired from acting, but now he’s returning for a project he wrote with his son. Anemone — a psychological drama hitting the 2025 movie calendar on October 3 — is the directorial debut of Ronan Day-Lewis, who co-wrote the movie with his father. Critics have screened the film ahead of its release, and while their opinions vary, most agree on the talents of its stars and the potential of its director.

Anemone’s trailer promises a tense atmosphere, as Daniel Day-Lewis plays Ray Stoker, a shut-in whose visit from his brother Jem (Sean Bean) dives into complicated family dynamics. In CinemaBlend’s review of Anemone, Eric Eisenberg says Day-Lewis hasn’t lost an ounce of his dramatic skill and gravitas during his hiatus. The actor and his co-stars give phenomenal performances, Eisenberg says, rating it 4 out of 5 stars and writing:

Jeremy Mathai of SlashFilm rates it 6.5 out of 10, saying Daniel Day-Lewis gives an “acting showcase for the ages” in a movie full of powerhouse performances. In the end, though, we may remember Anemone as the promising first step in Ronan Day-Lewis’ great career to come. Mathai continues:

Ryan Lattanzio of IndieWire calls Anemone “a miserable movie top to toe,” with an ending that doesn’t quite come together, but between Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance and the promise shown in his son’s talents, you can forgive some missteps. Lattanzio gave the movie a B, writing:

Owen Gleiberman of Variety is less impressed with the project overall, though he does note flashes of talent in Ronan Day-Lewis. In the end, he says Anemone just sits there, and Daniel Day-Lewis’ return to acting means a lot less than it should. Gleiberman continues:

Monica Castillo of RogerEbert.com rates Anemone just 1.5 out of 4 stars, saying that while Daniel Day-Lewis and Sean Bean are “practically incapable” of delivering a poor performance, Ronan Day-Lewis’ first attempt at the helm leaves much to be desired. The critic says:

Critics overall feel mixed about this one. From more than 40 opinions shared on Rotten Tomatoes, Anemone has garnered 56%. If Daniel Day-Lewis’ first movie in eight years has you intrigued, be sure to catch it when it hits the big screen on Friday, October 3. After that, we’ll have to see if Daniel Day-Lewis sticks around for more or goes back to retirement.

This is perhaps a little overzealous to say, but I never believe it when an artist says that they are retiring. If a true talent exists, I don’t think that the artistic impulse can simply be flicked off like a switch; real passion cannot be killed, and the urge to create cannot be permanently ignored. Case in point: I was never convinced that Daniel Day-Lewis’ final performance was going to be in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2017 film Phantom Thread, and with the creation and arrival of Anemone, I am thrilled to be proven correct, as the legendary actor has not lost an ounce of his dramatic skill and gravitas in the last eight years, and his turn in the film is simply phenomenal.

A story about fathers and sons fittingly co-written by the three-time Oscar winner and his son, first-time director Ronan Day-Lewis, the film is an onion: it presents as being very simple, but the progression of the story peels back layers and unveils something potent below. You can count all of the characters on one hand, and it volleys back and forth between just two principal locations, but it’s lean, raw, and powerful, and the script demands exceptional the performances that it gets from not just Day-Lewis but also Sean Bean, Samuel Bottomley, and Samantha Morton.

Anemone’s subject is the Stoker family – a fractured clan with a complicated history. Jem Stoker (Sean Bean) is married to Nessa (Samantha Morton) and together they have raised their teenage son Brian (Samuel Bottomley), but Brian is the biological child of Jem’s brother Ray (Daniel Day-Lewis), who abandoned Nessa when she was pregnant to live a life of solitude in the wilderness. There is no communication between Ray and the family for years, but circumstances change when Brian is involved in an altercation that sees him nearly beat another boy to death and is on the verge of being declared AWOL from the military.

While the teen stays at home at grapples with what he has done, Jem decides that it is finally time to reunite with his brother, and he travels out to Ray’s home in the wild to see if he can’t get him to meet his son. Disturbed from a lifetime full of experienced horrors and irrepressibly obstinate, Ray furiously rejects the opportunity, but over the course of days spent together, Jem gets him to open up about the terrible secret that drove him away from the world after his time in service during The Troubles.

Anemone works with a very simple structure that ends up having great emotional weight.

On one side of Anemone, there is the simple-yet-immensely-complicated question of “Why did Ray abandon his family?” and it deals blow after emotional blow as it paints a portrait of an extremely complicated and broken man, with Jem growing to understand who his sibling has become. Ray is a bona fide sonofabitch, with a temper foul enough that you expect him to eventually start spitting acid – but he is captivating, and his brother’s persistence reminds that there is a human in there made of more than just trauma and rage.

The other half of the film is the examination of the power of a father in a son’s world – whether he is actually a part of it or not. We only get a snapshot of Brian’s life, but we understand him as a young man who not only is plagued by the mystery of not knowing his father, but also clearly has inherited some of his traits (the standout being his anger).

It’s an immensely heavy cinematic experience to be sure, but part of what’s fascinating about the work is how it manages to not drown you in misery. This is in part a tribute to the tonal complexity of the film’s script – a perfect example of this being a disgusting tale of scatological revenge that Ray tells… about getting back at an elderly priest who sexually abused him as a child. (You truly do not know whether to laugh or cry.) Another part of this is the film’s remarkable beauty, as Jem and Ray spend their days ensconced in stunning forests and running along expansive beaches. And then there is the tremendous cast doing tremendous work.

Daniel Day-Lewis alone is worth the price of admission, but the entire cast is spectacular.

The intimacy of the work demands actors who melt into their roles, and the stars prove up to the challenging task. It will surprise nobody to learn that Daniel Day-Lewis is the showstopper, in the grand scheme injecting his character with pathos as powerful as his spite, but Sean Bean is a powerful pilot for the emotional journey, not only drawing out Ray’s truth emotionally but confronting him physically.

Samuel Bottomley and Samantha Morton are brilliant in their own right on the other side of the plot. The former effuses a lifetime of confusion and pain in his eyes and hung shoulders, long tortured by both his father’s absence and left behind reputation, while the latter offers a potent blend of love and fear, wanting what is best for her son but having many questions of her own about why Ray left.

Anemone is worth seeing for the return of Daniel Day-Lewis alone, as he is a singular artists and one of the most gifted men to ever perform in front of a camera. But the bonus is that he and his son also happen to make tremendous collaborators and have together made a movie that is deep, challenging, beautiful, dark and ultimately optimistic.

Daniel Day-Lewis isn’t really known for doing half measures. The man is super selective in choosing parts, and once he does, he disappears into roles. He also vanishes between films, and when he announced his retirement eight years ago after Phantom Thread, it felt final. But now he’s back with a 2025 movie release Anemone, and it's a film he’s not only starring in but also co-wrote. He calls the return a “lovely gift,” but does that mean he’s officially done with retirement? Here’s what he had to say on the matter.

In a new feature with Empire Magazine, the Lincoln actor opens up about what pulled him back into the spotlight. And it wasn’t some long-lost dream project or a blank check from a streaming giant. It was something deeper, more personal. He explained:

Ronan Day-Lewis, Daniel’s son and a New York-based painter and Yale-trained filmmaker, makes his directorial debut with Anemone, his first collaboration with his father. News of the project surfaced last October, revealing a personal story about estranged brothers that lured Daniel Day-Lewis out of retirement.

As you can see from the Anemone trailer, the flick follows a former British soldier (Day-Lewis) who’s estranged from his family until his brother (played by Sean Bean) comes searching for him. The film isn’t autobiographical, but, as father and son wrote it, personal themes slipped in. “Those aspects started to creep up on us,” Ronan admits. “There was a certain point where we both realised that, and started to embrace it.”

Watching his father shape-shift back into a character brought an eerie kind of magic to the process. “It was a really interesting paradox,” Ronan said. “Where it was my dad, but then also Ray, superimposed over him.”

It’s clear Anemone wasn't just a creative endeavor—it was a deeply intimate one. And that intimacy may have re-lit a fire in the Academy Award winner that he thought he’d extinguished. Day-Lewis continued about his return to the screen:

That’s a sharp pivot from the resolute tone he struck post-Phantom Thread, which was even touted as his “final performance, as he insisted at the time he was done with acting. Since then, he’s spent time with family, kept out of the spotlight, and went full artisan mode again—this time not cobbling shoes in Florence, but learning violin-making at the North Bennet Street School in Boston. (Because of course he did.)

So is this a comeback or a one-off? If you read between the lines, Day-Lewis is no longer talking like a man who’s “retired.” He’s talking like someone who’s waiting to be enticed by the next role. About coming back for another project, he added:

Well, there you have it. It sure sounds like the legendary performer isn't ruling anything out. If he returns, let’s hope it doesn’t take another eight years for his "appetite" to be reignited.

Anemone will release in limited theaters on Friday, October 3, 2025. Be sure to check your local listings.

If the question is, what's your favorite Scorsese movie of the ‘90s, then the obvious answer is, “Goodfellas!” But that's not my favorite Scorsese movie of the decade, because my answer would be, “The Age of Innocence!”

Who picks ‘93's The Age of Innocence as one of their favorite Scorsese movies? Well, the same person who would put Silence in his top 5, thinks Casino is better than Goodfellas (it is!), and who believes the ‘80s is Scorsese's best decade, that's who!

The Age of Innocence is one of Scorsese's best movies that people rarely talk about, and you can watch it with a Netflix subscription. That said, it leaves the streaming service on September 30th. So, here's why you should catch it before it's gone!

Scorsese's The Age Of Innocence Does A Great Job Of Adapting An Excellent Novel

Have you ever heard the idiom, “Keeping up with the Joneses”? It basically means that people will buy expensive stuff to exude a higher social status, and that other people will do the same so that they don’t look poor in comparison. Well, the “the Joneses” were an actual New York family. In fact, it was Edith Wharton’s – the author of The Age of Innocence – family. So yeah, before she was a Wharton, she was Edith Jones.

I bring all this up since the novel toys with the idea of trying to uphold a social status, and actually bucking that trend (or at least wanting to). The title, you might not know, is actually sardonic in that the Gilded Age (No, not that The Gilded Age. The actual time period) wasn’t an “age of innocence” at all, but rather, society pretended that it was. Deep stuff, and the great thing about the Scorsese adaptation is that it captures all of this, which couldn’t have been easy.

The story mostly focuses on three characters, Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis), May Welland (Winona Ryder), and Countess Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer). Archer is a prominent lawyer, and he wants to marry into Welland’s family to improve his status. All seems auspicious at first, until he meets May’s cousin, Countess Olenska, who is not only getting a divorce, but actually slept with her cheating husband’s (male) secretary out of revenge.

This is a big no-no in their society (it’s scandalous!), and Archer feels sympathy for Olenska at first, but then lust, even despite marrying May. And, in that way, the book and movie go hand-in-hand, making this one of the best movies based on classic literature ever!

Daniel Day-Lewis Is A Fantastic Newland Archer, Of Course

No surprise here, but Daniel Day-Lewis is phenomenal in The Age of Innocence (I’m especially looking forward to seeing his return to acting in Anemone). Newland Archer is a complex role since we feel a number of things about his character, and DDL captures all of those emotions.

For example, at the start of the film, we understand why Archer wants to marry May (it’s for status), but we also get a sense that he’s a modern gentleman. And we feel this way because he’s upset that Countess Olenska’s husband could cheat on her, but she can’t cheat on him without being ostracized. We also understand that he feels like society’s norms aren’t all what they’re cracked up to be, once he regrets marrying May after he falls in love with the Countess, who wants to get a divorce.

Daniel Day-Lewis plays Archer as both sympathetic and selfish. He finds his new wife, May, to be boring, and is willing to have an affair with her cousin once he realizes (what he feels is) the error of his ways in marrying May. Wharton did such a good job of creating his character that we actually want him to leave May because we know it will ultimately make him happy, and Daniel Day-Lewis does an excellent job of capturing that character, making us feel bad for everybody involved.

And, by the end of the film (which I won’t spoil for you), you still feel bad for him, which could have been hard to capture on film if DDL wasn’t up for the challenge, which of course he was.

Michelle Pfeiffer Steals This Movie As Countess Olenska

Speaking of challenging performances, Michelle Pfeiffer steals this movie from all of the other actors (and that’s saying something when it costars Daniel Day-Lewis). In the book, we get a sense that Countess Olenska is a character out of time. She sees the modern standards, but doesn’t see why she needs to follow them. Her family tries to get her to stay in her marriage since it would look bad for everyone if she got divorced, but she’s all like, I don’t care. It’s my life, and I want to be happy.

And, if anybody can play, “It’s my life, and I want to be happy,” it’s Michelle Pfeiffer. She shows no remorse for her actions, and if anything, merely shows restraint. Because even though her character loves Newland, she won’t consummate the relationship because she doesn’t want to hurt her cousin. Pfeiffer could have played this role a lot of different ways (She could have vamped it up, or been more seductive), but that’s not what she’s like in the book, so that’s not what she’s like here.

She’s a free spirit who knows her boundaries. She’s educated, but makes decisions that are only going to hurt her in the long run. And, I think a lot of this goes to Pfeiffer being able to play both a romantic interest and somebody who is entirely unobtainable, due to society’s norms.

The Age of Innocence probably wouldn’t be my favorite Scorsese movie of the ‘90s if not for the excellent acting of Daniel Day-Lewis and especially of Michelle Pfeiffer. She’s exceptional.

It's Also Probably My Favorite Period Piece Of Scorsese's As It Nails The Era

When ranking Scorsese’s best films, a lot of people would likely put 2002’s Gangs of New York on that list, and look, I get it. Gangs of New York is a great movie, and the way Scorsese captured the Five Points was really quite something to see.

That said, while I like his recreation of 1862 New York, I much prefer his interpretation of 1870s New York. That's only because I’d rather see high society than the slums (Which just goes to show how talented Daniel Day-Lewis is, since he could portray somebody from both ends of the spectrum).

I like seeing lavish paintings of families, women dancing in ball gowns, and people living with unfettered privilege. I like tall staircases and horse-drawn carriages. In other words, I love being transported to old-time New York, but not the seedy underbelly side. No, I just want to see high society (Not what’s being hidden by high society), and I think Scorsese did a better job doing this with The Age of Innocence than any other movie of his.

Because every time I watch it, I truly feel like I’m an outsider looking in and seeing all of high society’s scruples, which I think was Wharton’s intention when she wrote the book in the first place.

In that way, similar to Scorsese’s own After Hours, I think The Age of Innocence is the director’s overlooked masterpiece, so watch it on Netflix while you still can!

Daniel Day-Lewis is widely and appropriately recognized as one of the greatest actors to ever grace the silver screen. While never one to be described as prolific, being very super selective in choosing parts, he spent decades as one of the film industry's most reliably brilliant stars, and he was nominated for six Academy Awards between 1990 and 2018 (winning three of them). His absence from the movie world since his retirement eight years ago has been felt, his last performance having been in Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread – but at long last he is back, and fans everywhere can now preview his upcoming 2025 movie Anemone via the feature's first trailer.

It was back in October of last year that we learned that Daniel Day-Lewis was making a new movie, and it wasn't wholly surprising to learn that his comeback project was very personal. He co-wrote the screenplay for Anemone with his son Ronan Day-Lewis (who is also directing), and the work is an exploration of family with a focus on a pair of adult brothers.

Set in Northern England, the story follows a man (Sean Bean) who ventures into the woods with the intent of reconnecting with his estranged brother, who lives in the wilderness as a hermit (Daniel Day-Lewis). As they reconnect, they try to heal wounds caused by a life-changing event that happened decades earlier. The cast also incudes Samantha Morton and Samuel Bottomley.

While Daniel Day-Lewis' work in the movie industry goes back to 1971 when he had an uncredited role in the John Schlesinger-directed drama Sunday Bloody Sunday (his first credited part in a theatrical film was 1982's Oscar-winning Gandhi), Anemone will mark only the second time that he has been credited with a behind-the-scenes role after producing the original score for 2005's The Ballad of Jack and Rose. This screenwriting credit is his first.

For Ronan Day-Lewis, Anemone is his debut as a feature writer and director, though he previously directed a short film titled The Sheep And The Wolf in 2018, and he directed the music video for the song "Snow And Sun" by the band Sargasso in 2019.

The movie is already set for distribution from Focus Features, and it will be arriving in theaters on October 10, but Anemone will first start to build hype on the festival circuit. A specific premiere date has not yet been announced, but the film will be making its world premiere at the New York Film Festival, which is set to be held between September 26 and October 13. After that (assuming the word of mouth is strong enough), we can probably expect the title that is repeated a lot throughout awards season.

Some of the most extraordinary performances in movie or TV history have seen the actor completely disappear into a role, not only changing their appearance but also adopting a voice almost entirely different from their own. Take a look at some of the most impressive voice alterations that an actor took on to perfect their unique portrayal of a now iconic character (or characters).

Robert De Niro (Cape Fear)

One thing that makes the 1991 remake of Cape Fear one of the most amusing Martin Scorsese/Robert De Niro collaborations is the actor's approach to playing Max Cady. The Academy Award-winning Italian-American dons a thick, over-the-top Southern accent but is still no less chilling as the sadistic, recently released convict seeking revenge on the defense attorney (Nick Nolte) who put him away.

Lupita Nyong'o (Us)

One of the scariest modern horror movie villains is Red (Lupita Nyong'o) from writer and director Jordan Peele's 2019 sophomore feature, Us. The Academy Award winner brilliantly differentiates the vengeful, "tethered" person from her above-ground double, Adelaide, and gives her an even more unsettling presence, with a raspy voice inspired by a condition called spasmodic dysphonia, which inhibits airflow and is commonly a symptom of traumatic experiences.

Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

As he would with any other role, Daniel Day-Lewis went to great lengths to become the sixteenth President of the United States for his Oscar-winning performance in Steven Spielberg's 2012 biopic, Lincoln. He even made sure to match Honest Abe's voice, which was high-pitched and reedy (according to the Library of Congress), as opposed to the low bellow many previous portrayals mistakenly attempted.

Mel Blanc (Looney Tunes)

To this day, it is almost shocking to learn that most of the original Looney Tunes characters were brought to life by just one actor. Until he passed away in 1989, Mel Blanc provided the diverse voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and plenty more favorites under the Warner Bros. animation umbrella.

Austin Butler (Elvis)

The key to portraying Elvis Presley is nailing his distinct Southern drawl, which Austin Butler went to great lengths to perfect when he was cast as the influential musician in Baz Luhrmann's 2022 biopic. The work he put into the voice seemed to have a lasting effect on the actor, whom audiences could not help but notice continued to speak in the same accent during public appearances.

Seth MacFarlane (Various)

In addition to being one of the creative forces behind two of TV's longest-running hit animated shows for grown-ups, Seth MacFarlane is also responsible for bringing many of their most important characters to life. He voices Peter, Stewie, and Quagmire on Family Guy and plays Stan and Roger on American Dad – all of whom require him to be completely unrecognizable, while Family Guy's Brian is no different from his real voice.

Catherine O’Hara (Schitt's Creek)

What makes Moira Rose (Catherine O'Hara) one of the funniest characters on Schitt's Creek is the way she pronounces certain words with her over-the-top, posh accent. Classic examples include "baby" (beh-beh) and "enchiladas" (ahn-chuh-lah-dahs).

Jim Carrey (How The Grinch Stole Christmas)

It is still sometimes hard to believe that it is Jim Carrey playing the title role in Ron Howard's live-action adaptation of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas from 2000. Not only is he covered head-to-toe with green skin and matching fur in the Christmas movie classic but the comedic mastermind disguises his voice with an accent that earned comparisons to Sean Connery, as he told Entertainment Weekly.

Eddie Murphy (Coming To America)

Eddie Murphy started a career staple of playing multiple roles in the same movie with 1988's Coming to America. He dons an African accent to play Prince Akeem and brings his voice to higher octaves as Randy Watson and Clarence, but he undergoes the most intensive alteration of both his appearance and voice when playing elderly barber shop patron, Saul.

Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

The Dark Knight is a superhero movie that won Oscars for Sound Editing and for Heath Ledger's astonishing, transformative performance as The Joker. No matter how many times you watch Christopher Nolan's acclaimed 2008 sequel to Batman Begins, it is always shocking to hear that wheezy, menacing voice coming from the late Australian actor.

Dan Castellaneta (The Simpsons)

If you have ever seen any of comedian Dan Castellaneta's live-action acting credits, it might shock you to learn that his most famous role is Homer Simpson. However, the Simpsons cast member provides the voice of plenty more characters than the infantile, Duff-swilling family man, including Grampa Simpson, Krusty the Clown, and Groundskeeper Willie.

Bill Skarsgård (Nosferatu)

Bill Skarsgård is no stranger to dramatically altering his appearance and his voice for the sake of scaring the living daylights out of audiences, having played Pennywise in back-to-back creepy clown movies, It and It Chapter Two. However, his transformation into Count Orlok for Robert Eggers' 2024 reimagining of Nosferatu was an even more challenging process, requiring a month-and-a-half of vocal training to perfect the vampire's dread-inducing growl.

Joaquin Phoenix (Walk The Line)

Joaquin Phoenix did all of his own singing when portraying Johnny Cash in James Mangold's acclaimed music biopic, 2005's Walk the Line. While appearing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien that year, the future Oscar winner told the late night talk show host that he worked with a dialect coach to replicate the Man in Black's deep baritone voice as authentically as possible.

Amanda Seyfried (The Dropout)

For her Emmy-winning performance on the Hulu original true crime miniseries, The Dropout, Amanda Seyfried had the challenge of imitating the infamous low voice of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and CEO of the fraudulent blood-testing company Theranos.

Hugh Jackman (X-Men)

Many have been shocked to learn that Hugh Jackman is an Australian as his most famous role is the Canadian-native, Adamantium-clawed mutant, Wolverine. Of course, the Tony winner does more than just drop his natural accent for the X-Men movies but also incorporates a deep, nigh-animalistic growl.

Stephanie Beatriz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

When Stephanie Beatriz debuted in the Brooklyn Nine-Nine cast, she used her natural, higher-tone voice to play Det. Rosa Diaz. However, over time, the character's voice became progressively deeper until the actor settled on a low, more gruff tone that better suited the cop's hard-edged exterior.

Christian Bale (The Dark Knight Trilogy)

To play the lead in Christopher Nolan's beloved live-action Batman movies, Christian Bale pulled double-duty on changing his voice. In addition to dropping his Welsh accent when appearing as Bruce Wayne, he adopted a gravelly, identity-concealing growl when patrolling Gotham as the Dark Knight.

Kristen Stewart (Spencer)

Kristen Stewart did more to earn her Academy Award nomination for portraying Princess Diana in the 2021 biopic, Spencer, than donning a blonde hairdo and an English accent. The actor revealed to Howard Stern that she went so far as to dramatically evolve her vocal inflection by opening her mouth more widely than she normally would and, as a result, practically altered her physical appearance in the film.

Phil LaMarr (The Adventures Of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius)

Prolific voice actor Phil LaMarr, in addition to his transformative characters as a MADtv cast member, has made himself unrecognizable for countless iconic animated roles, such as John "Green Lantern" Stewart on Justice League or the title hero of Samurai Jack. However, no blip on his resume is nearly as surprising as the recurring role of foreign exchange student Bolbi Stroganofsky on Nickelodeon's The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.

Mark Hamill (Batman: The Animated Series)

There are two different kinds of Mark Hamill fans. There are those who know the actor as Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars movies and then there are those who know him as The Joker on Batman: The Animated Series and many subsequent animated Batman movies. The voice he puts on for the role – a wonderful mix of comically over-the-top theatrics and scintillating intimidation – has been recognized as the definitive portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime in the eyes of many DC fans.

Robin Williams (Popeye)

Robin Williams proved that he was the perfect choice to lead director Robert Altman's live-action adaptation of the Popeye comic strip. He matched the brave, spinach-swilling sailor's fast-paced growl, as originated by voice actor Billy Costello, to a tee in the 1980 film.

Maggie Wheeler (Friends)

Maggie Wheeler stole the show from the Friends cast with her recurring role as Janice Hosenstein, who was famous for her signature catchphrase, "Oh. My. GAWWWWWD!" What sold the character was her thick, nasally Brooklyn accent, which the actor came up with when she auditioned to play the character, as she revealed to Access Hollywood.

Idris Elba (Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom)

Idris Elba earned rave reviews for his portrayal of Nelson Mandela in the Oscar-nominated 2013 biopic, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. Being raised by West African immigrants helped the English-born actor develop an appropriate dialect to play the influential South African President, as he revealed to Oprah Winfrey.

Mia Goth (X)

Mia Goth played dual roles in Ti West's acclaimed A24 horror movie, 2022's X – both of which required her to conceal her mousy English accent. She spoke with a raspy Southern drawl as young aspiring starlet Maxine Minx and sounded similar, but significantly aged up, when playing homicidal elder, Pearl.

Megan Mullally (Will & Grace)

Megan Mullally absolutely earned her two Emmy Award wins for her committed performance as Karen Walker on the classic TV sitcom, Will & Grace. The key to the spoiled socialite's scene-stealing presence was her ear-piercing voice, which truly sounds nothing like the actor in real life.

Ana De Armas (Blonde)

Cuban-born actor Ana de Armas is known for having a strong accent, which she concealed in order to portray Marilyn Monroe in Blonde. Her commitment to matching the Hollywood icon's dialect in the 2022 Netflix original biopic would earn her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Billy West (Various)

Billy West could be called the Mel Blanc of his generation as he can claim to have played about as many memorable animated characters as the iconic voice actor behind much of the Looney Tunes line-up did. To list just a few of West's best-known credits, he was both of the title characters from The Ren & Stimpy Show, took over as Popeye at one time, led Futurama as Fry, and plenty more.

Nicole Kidman (Being The Ricardos)

Nicole Kidman's Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Lucille Ball in 2021's Being the Ricardos was achieved with more than just makeup. The actor shed her Australian accent and added a smokiness to match the I Love Lucy star's natural voice but was also challenged to imitate the more high-pitched tone of the comedy icon's onscreen alter ego.

Melissa Rauch (The Big Bang Theory)

Dr. Bernadette Maryann Rostenkowski-Wolowitz easily boasts one of the most impossibly high-pitched voices in sitcom history. However, The Big Bang Theory cast member Melissa Rauch actually sounds nothing like Howard Wolowitz's bride, yet maintained the façade convincingly for 10 seasons on the hit CBS comedy.

Chris Pratt (The Super Mario Bros. Movie)

Despite making "total sense" to the directors of Illumination's The Super Mario Bros. Movie, fans of the original Nintendo video game series had some initial hesitation over Chris Pratt's casting as the older Mario brother. However, the actor wisely avoided the plumber's stereotypical Italian dialect from the games in favor of a Brooklyn accent that effectively masked his natural voice.

Robert Pattinson (Mickey 17)

Robert Pattinson plays the title role of Bong Joon-ho's 2024 sci-fi comedy Mickey 17 with an entirely unrecognizable and, admittedly, kind of goofy voice. According to IndieWire, the English actor based the voice for his "expendable" character and his many clones off of comedian Steve-O.

Johnny Depp (Charlie And The Chocolate Factory)

Say what you want about Tim Burton's 2005 adaptation of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but you have to admit that Johnny Depp did try something amusing with the role of Willy Wonka. To play the eccentric chocolatier, he adopted a high-pitched wheeze that almost makes you question if it really is the same guy who played Capt. Jack Sparrow under that top hat.

The Academy Award for Best Actor has been handed out every year since 1929 — fun fact, it was awarded to German actor Emil Jannings for not one but two acclaimed roles, in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh — and in the near-century since, it's been presented 97 times to 86 actors. But while taking home that coveted statuette is definitely a career highlight for any performer, the honor does add a little extra pressure on the actor's next project. Will it be as beloved and acclaimed as the role that won them the gold? Here are 32 films that Oscar-winning actors did after taking home the Academy Award, and how they were received.

Cillian Murphy

After the enormity of portraying famed physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan's billion-dollar blockbuster Oppenheimer, and taking home the 2024 Oscar for Best Actor in the process, Cillian Murphy went small for his next film — literally. In the 2024 adaptation of Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These, Murphy returned to his native Ireland to play Bill, a quiet coal merchant and father of five internally struggling with the harsh realities of the infamous Magdalene Laundries. While Murphy didn't replicate the awards dominance of Oppenheimer with SMTLT, his internal and affecting performance was widely praised by critics.

Joaquin Phoenix

After four nominations throughout his decades-spanning career, Joaquin Phoenix finally took home that Best Actor statue in 2020 for his engrossing portrayal of the nihilistic clown Arthur Fleck in Todd Phillips' Joker. Following that iconic role, Phoenix next appeared in the 2021 Mike Mills dramedy C'mon C'mon, an improv-heavy performance that saw the actor play a middle-aged radio journalist tasked with babysitting his nephew (Woody Norman) while on the road for work. Phoenix was nominated for Outstanding Lead Performance at the Gotham Awards, and the film was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the Top 10 Independent Films of the year.

Will Smith

Will Smith had quite an, um, eventful evening when he took home the Oscar for Best Actor in 2022 for King Richard after two prior nominations (Ali, The Pursuit of Happyness). Winning an Oscar means that a spotlight is already bright on an actor, but the added publicity from the ceremony means his post-slap comeback would be even more scrutinized than usual. His follow-up was 2022's Emancipation, in which he played a runaway slave in 1860s Louisiana. Though the drama received mixed reviews overall, Smith won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture for his performance.

Anthony Hopkins

Though he's garnered six Oscar nominations across his illustrious acting career — with his most recent win being for 2021's The Father — Anthony Hopkins' first Academy Award was for that scene-stealing villain, psychiatrist turned serial killer Hannibal Lector in 1991's The Silence of the Lambs. Following up such an iconic performance is no small task and unfortunately, Hopkins' next film, 1992's Freejack opposite Emilio Estevez and Mick Jagger, was a sci-fi dud, bombing both with critics and audiences. During an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, Hopkins himself called the film "terrible."

Leonardo DiCaprio

Five-time nominee Leonardo DiCaprio had a bit of "always the bridesmaid" syndrome where the Academy Awards were concerned, until he finally took home the Best Actor Oscar for his emotionally raw and physically punishing performance in Alejandro G. Iñárritu's 2019 Western epic The Revenant. His next big-screen role was, graciously, a bit less cold and blustery, trading the frosty American Midwest for starry Los Angeles in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The latter received 10 Oscar nominations at the 92nd Academy Awards, including a nod for DiCaprio's individual work.

Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington had already taken home a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing a Civil War soldier in the 1989 war drama Glory, but he got his first big Best Actor win for portraying corrupt LAPD officer Alonzo Harris in the 2001 crime thriller Training Day. His next performance was another memorable Denzel role: as the title character in the 2002 Nick Cassavetes-directed drama John Q, which saw Washington play a desperate father who takes a hospital emergency room hostage in order for his son to receive a heart transplant. Alas, despite some praise for Denzel's performance, the film itself boasts only a 26% critics' rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Robert De Niro

Six years after taking home the Best Supporting Actor statue for The Godfather Part II, Robert De Niro got his Best Actor win for his iconic and intense work as boxing champion Jake LaMotta in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull. A year later, De Niro put away the boxing gloves and picked up the Bible to play a Roman Catholic monsignor in 1981's True Confessions, opposite fellow The Godfather great Robert Duvall. Though reviews for the neo-noir were largely positive, the National Review's William F. Buckley, Jr. panned it: "Robert De Niro is badly miscast. He is never entirely convincing."

Matthew McConaughey

After acclaimed turns in 2011's Lincoln Lawyer and 2012's Magic Mike, the so-called "McConaissance" was officially solidified a year later with Matthew McConaughey's Oscar-winning portrayal of Ron Woodroof, a cowboy diagnosed with AIDS, in the biopic Dallas Buyers Club. Despite not having nearly as much screentime, the actor's next performance was just as memorable: a chest-thumping, meme-inducing extended cameo as Mark Hanna in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street.

Tom Hanks

Beyond being one of the most beloved actors of all time, Tom Hanks also holds a piece of cinema history: he's one of only two actors to win back-to-back Academy Awards for acting. Yes, that means after taking home the Best Actor Oscar for his heart-wrenching performance as HIV-positive lawyer Andrew Beckett in 1994's Philadelphia, Hanks struck Oscar gold yet again with his very next performance, as the titular lead of 1995's Forrest Gump.

Rami Malek

Rami Malek belted his way to an Oscar as legendary Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in the glossy 2019 biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. His first post-award performance also revolved around his voice — voice acting, that is, as Malek portrayed a mountain gorilla named Chee-Chee in the 2020 fantasy-adventure film Dolittle, with his future Oppenheimer co-star Robert Downey Jr. as the titular doc. The family-friendly flick received abysmal reviews from critics, with Courtney Howard of Variety writing: "What should have been an awe-filled adventure quickly curdles into an awful one, thanks to a pedestrian formula and the filmmakers' fixation on fart jokes."

Adrien Brody

In 2003, Adrien Brody made Oscar history when he won the Academy Award for Best Actor at age 29 for his portrayal of Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski's war drama The Pianist, becoming the youngest actor ever to win in that category. Later that year, he followed up his historic win with the musical crime comedy The Singing Detective, about a mystery writer (Robert Downey Jr.) who relives his detective stories through his imagination and hallucinations. The film scored a 39% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Jamie Foxx

Jamie Foxx had one hell of a 2004, serving up not one but two award-worthy performances: He took home the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as soul great Ray Charles in the 2004 biopic Ray and also received a Best Supporting Actor nod that same year for his work in the crime film Collateral. It would be near-impossible for any performer to hit that kind of stratospheric high again, especially with Foxx's follow-up Stealth — the 2005 military action flick co-starring Josh Lucas and Jessica Biel was dubbed a "stink-bomb" by Roger Ebert.

Daniel Day-Lewis

Acting legend Daniel Day-Lewis deservedly holds the record for the most Best Actor awards ever, with three wins out of six nominations, but his first was for playing Christy Brown, a writer-artist born with cerebral palsy, in the 1989 drama My Left Foot. And though he would later follow that iconic role up by playing famous figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Bill the Butcher, his immediate next performance was as an Irish-American dentist traveling around Argentina in the forgettable 1989 dramedy Eversmile, New Jersey.

Jack Nicholson

The first of three Academy Awards for the legendary movie star, Jack Nicholson's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest performance as Randle McMurphy nabbed him the Oscar in 1976. Later that year, he would star as cattle rustler Tom Logan opposite Marlon Brandon in the Arthur Penn-helmed Western The Missouri Breaks. Coming hot on the heels of not only his own Oscar win but also Brando's for The Godfather, the film was highly anticipated — however, it failed to live up to those expectations and became a notorious critical and commercial flop.

Marlon Brando

One of the most iconic cinema stars of all time, Marlon Brando was nominated for eight Oscars across his decades-spanning career. He won two, the first being for his electrifying role as prizefighter turned longshoreman Terry Malloy in the 1954 crime drama On the Waterfront, widely considered one of the greatest acting performances of all time. His next role as Napoleon Bonaparte in the historical romance Désirée didn't win him any awards, but Variety reportedly called his performance "a masterful exhibition of thesping" at the time.

Philip Seymour Hoffman

The late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman had already solidified himself as a vibrant and vital supporting actor with films like The Talented Mr. Ripley, Almost Famous, Magnolia and 25th Hour, but his Oscar-winning portrayal of author Truman Capote in 2005's Capote officially upped him to leading man status. He would receive another three Oscar nominations in the years to follow, but his very next role was more of a crowd-pleaser than an awards grab: as arms dealer Owen Davian in Mission: Impossible III.

Russell Crowe

Audiences and critics alike were very much entertained by Russell Crowe's performance as Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 Rome-set epic Gladiator, which earned the New Zealand-born star the Best Actor Oscar at the 73rd Academy Awards. Crowe would go up for the same award only a year later, for his portrayal of American mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. in the biographical drama A Beautiful Mind, but he lost to Training Day lead Denzel Washington.

Jean Dujardin

Jean Dujardin rose to international fame with his performance as George Valentin in the 2011 silent movie The Artist — his Oscar win was a historic one, as he was the first French performer to ever take home the Best Actor statue. Despite his newfound Hollywood status, however, the actor-comedian returned to his native France for his next film credit: The Players, a 2012 comedy anthology co-starring Gilles Lellouche, with each man also directing and writing a segment.

Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage's filmography is a wild ride, from critically acclaimed fare like Raising Arizona, Moonstruck and Adaptation to straight-to-video shlock. Thankfully, his 1995 drama Leaving Las Vegas falls into the former category, winning Cage the Best Actor Oscar for his role as alcoholic screenwriter Ben Sanderson. (Funnily enough, it's not one of Nic Cage's favorite Nic Cage movies.) His next movie was the 1996 action thriller The Rock, which also won Cage an award: the Best On-Screen Duo statue at the MTV Movie Awards alongside co-star Sean Connery.

Eddie Redmayne

British star Eddie Redmayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking in the 2014 biographical drama The Theory of Everything. But that career high was immediately followed by a career-low: a Golden Raspberry Award — a parody award honoring cinematic failures — for Worst Supporting Actor for his work in the galactically goofy 2015 space opera Jupiter Ascending. Even he admitted his performance was bad!

Sidney Poitier

A movie icon through and through, Bahamian-American actor Sidney Poitier made history in 1964 as the first Black performer to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Lilies of the Field. A year later, he moved on from that seminal role with the 1965 Cold War thriller The Bedford Incident, as a civilian photojournalist aboard a U.S. Navy ship that gets into some messy business with a Soviet submarine. Though Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that "the whole thing transcends plausibility," other critics clearly disagreed — the movie has an 86% Certified Fresh rating.

Sean Penn

After a trio of Best Actor nominations, Sean Penn's haunting performance as a grieving, vengeful father of a murdered Boston girl in the Clint Eastwood-directed neo-noir Mystic River finally got him the Academy Award in 2004. Later that year, Penn starred in yet another crime thriller, The Assassination of Richard Nixon, based on the story of the POTUS's would-be assassin Samuel Byck in the mid-1970s. The latter film didn't share the award-worthy gravitas of Mystic River, though, per Rotten Tomatoes, critical consensus said: "A fascinating true story and compelling Sean Penn performance are worthy compensations."

Roberto Benigni

Few Oscar wins were as memorable as Roberto Benigni's, what with presenter Sofia Loren's passionate declaration of "Roberto!" to Benigni's literal victory lap up to the stage. The Italian actor-director took the Best Actor trophy in 1998 for the Holocaust tragicomedy Life is Beautiful, making him the first honoree for a non-English language performance. A year later, he would appear in a very different movie: French-Italian-German comedy adventure flick Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar opposite Gérard Depardieu and Christian Clavier, which was a box office success.

Al Pacino

One of the most influential actors in modern cinema, Al Pacino was nominated for eight Academy Awards — including for The Godfather films, Serpico and the crime drama classic Dog Day Afternoon — before finally taking home the Best Actor statue for playing Frank Slade in 1992's Scent of a Woman. That Oscar win gave viewers an extra critical eye on his next role, as Nuyorican criminal Carlito Brigante in the De Palma crime drama Carlito's Way, however, reviews were largely positive.

Ben Kingsley

It's a daunting thing playing any famous figure in movies based on true stories, especially when the subject is so famous, that they need only one name. Case in point: Gandhi, the 1982 bio epic about the Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi, directed by Richard Attenborough and performed by English actor Sir Ben Kingsley. Luckily for them, the film won Best Picture and Kingsley took home the Best Actor award. Though his next project, the 1983 film adaptation of Harold Pinter's play Betrayal, didn't get Oscar acclaim, it was well-received by critics.

Humphrey Bogart

It seems surprising that Humphrey Bogart didn't win the Oscar for a role as iconic as Rick Blaine in the 1942 classic Casablanca. No, it would actually be another eight years until ol' Bogie won Best Actor for The African Queen, starring as Canadian mechanic Charlie Allnut opposite Katharine Hepburn's Methodist missionary Rose Sayer. His post-Oscar follow-up was the 1952 noir Deadline – U.S.A.: Variety said "Bogart gives a convincing performance all the way" as a big-city newspaper editor who exposes a gangster's crimes.

Forest Whitaker

Forest Whitaker was ferocious and formidable as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 2006 historical drama The Last King of Scotland, one of his best performances that got the performer a Best Actor Oscar in '07. Later that year, the actor appeared in the ensemble crime drama The Air I Breathe alongside Kevin Bacon, Julie Delpy and Brendan Fraser. Though reviews for the film were overwhelmingly negative, several singled out Whitaker's performance. Annabelle Robertson at Crosswalk wrote: "Whitaker, in particular, is extremely sympathetic in his role—a feat that is all the more outstanding after his turn as the evil dictator in The Last King of Scotland."

Dustin Hoffman

After three Best Actor nods, New Hollywood icon Dustin Hoffman received his first Academy Award for playing half of a couple going through a devastating divorce (alongside an equally great Meryl Streep) in Kramer vs. Kramer in 1980. His next movie role is just as much of a classic: as Michael Dorsey-slash-Dorothy Michaels in the beloved 1982 comedy Tootsie, which nabbed the star yet another Best Actor nomination.

Gary Oldman

Gary Oldman was nearly unrecognizable in his prosthetics-heavy performance as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the 2017 historical drama Darkest Hour. The Academy Awards honored the quintessential Oldman role with a Best Actor award, his second nomination after Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. His next role was just as transformative, if not nearly as acclaimed: Oldman voiced an artificial intelligence in the 2018 sci-fi thriller Tau, which holds a woeful critical rating of 27% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Laurence Olivier

One of the most celebrated Shakespearean actors in film history, cinema icon Laurence Olivier starred in and directed adaptations of three of the Bard's best-known words, Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948) and Richard III (1955), and earned a Best Actor Oscar for playing the Prince of Denmark. After portraying one of the most famous characters of all time, Olivier switched it up by cameoing as a no-name policeman in the 1951 drama The Magic Box, a "distinguished" bit of stunt casting that The New York Times praised as a delightful "extravagance."

Casey Affleck

Casey Affleck's devastating performance as a father grieving the loss of his three children in Kenneth Lonergan's gut-wrenching Manchester by the Sea clearly broke the collective hearts of the Academy, which voted to give the Boston-bred performer the Best Actor award in 2017. That year, he would tackle another exploration of love and loss with the supernatural drama A Ghost Story, which was a hit with critics — Richard Brody of The New Yorker included the title on his list of the decade's best films.

Brendan Fraser

Brendan Fraser experienced quite the career comeback when he took the Best Actor Oscar for his acclaimed performance as a morbidly obese, housebound English teacher in the 2022 Darren Aronofsky-directed melodrama The Whale. He kept those high-profile projects going with his next film credit, as attorney W. S. Hamilton in Martin Scorsese's stunning American crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon, which was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

The 2025 movie schedule will finally see Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck released into the wild. And with that picture’s debut will also come the big screen return of actor Karen Gillan, whose last major film release happened to be 2023’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Though to be fair, the successful Doctor Who vet has kinda been busy, what with making other projects…as well as a new tiny human she’s just given birth to. The timing was enough to not only see baby Clementine make an adorable debut through Karen Gillan’s Instagram, but it also left the Douglas is Cancelled star a chance to make an A+ Daniel Day-Lewis joke.

That’s because, as you’ll see in the carousel below, Gillan happened to be making the movie Let’s Have Kids! as she learned of Ms. Clementine’s existence:

It was around the time of the September 2024 TIFF premiere for The Life of Chuck that the world first saw Karen Gillan’s pregnancy announcement. But of course, with celebrities being able to control the secrecy around such things, that news hit the public stage late in the game.

For all we know, by time Ms. Gillan and her husband Nick Kocher had decided to let us all in on the event; they'd already picked out those awesome “Best Dad/Mom Ever” mugs they showed off in the post above. In which case, I commend the happy family even more on their blessed arrival, as to even be able to remember where those items were in the midst of producing a human life is also pretty magical.

Turning back to Karen Gillan’s acting career for a moment, another current event now becomes an even bigger question mark. As Jumanji 4’s announced 2026 release date looms ahead, does this mean that we’ll see Ruby Roundhouse rejoining the party when director Jake Kasdan returns to his successful legacy-quels? Or could little Clementine be the perfect reason to hit pause for a little while, allowing the Dual actor to undertake her motherhood adventure?

It’s all up in the air, but isn’t that one of the best parts of parenthood? A new life is in play, and you’re one of, if not the party to help nurture its growth. Memories will be shaped, embarrassing stories banked, and love shared with all who partake in the journey. It’s in that spirit that we here at CinemaBlend send our best wishes to Karen Gillan and her husband Nick Kocher, upon the arrival of their new traveler Clementine.

If you’re a Karen Gillan fan wondering how to watch Douglas is Cancelled, don’t worry. Anyone with access to ITVX can stream the entire series at the moment, with BritBox set to bring the series to its subscribers starting March 6, 2025. As for The Life of Chuck, the upcoming Stephen King movie will be one of several to drop this year, thanks to its May 30, 2025 release date.

In 2017, one of the greatest actors of his generation decided to proverbially hang 'em up. Daniel Day-Lewis, fresh off reuniting with There Will Be Blood director Paul Thomas Anderson on the film Phantom Thread, decided that the fashion-centric film would be his last.

It turns out, however, that his retirement was short-lived. Seven years after the release of Phantom Thread, Daniel Day-Lewis is set to return to the big screen – specifically in the upcoming film Anemone, which is being directed by his son, artist Ronan Day-Lewis.

It has been announced that the movie is being produced by Focus Features and Plan B, with Universal Pictures International set to distribute worldwide. What makes Anemone particularly interesting as a project for Daniel Day-Lewis' unretirement is the meta quality to the story. The father and son wrote the screenplay together, and, according to a press release, it's about "the intricate relationships between fathers, sons and brothers, and the dynamics of familial bonds."

It marks the first time that the three-time Oscar winner will receive a screenwriting credit.

In addition to Daniel Day-Lewis, Anemone has also filled out its supporting cast with Sean Bean, Samantha Morton, Samuel Bottomley and Safia Oakley-Green. None of the actors have previously worked with Day-Lewis before, and no details about their specific roles have been revealed.

Anemone will be the first feature that Ronan Day-Lewis has directed, though he does have a pair of shorts on his resume. He is set to collaborate with a number of veteran filmmakers on the film, including Love Lies Bleeding cinematographer Ben Fordesman, The Crown costume designer Jane Petrie, and Zone Of Interest production designer Chris Oddy.

Prior to his temporary retirement, Daniel Day-Lewis earned recognition as one of the most talented big screen performers in the history of the medium. As noted, he won three Academy Awards between 1990 and 2018 – for My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood and Lincoln – but he was also nominated for his turns in 1994's In The Name Of The Father, 2003's Gangs Of New York, and 2018's Phantom Thread (his hope of capping off his career with Hollywood's highest honor was spoiled by the prize going to Gary Oldman for Darkest Hour).

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Anemone will be seeing what kind of material Daniel Day-Lewis the writer provides for Daniel Day-Lewis the actor. Given his collaboration with his son, we can assume that he is going to be crafting something intimate and personal, but what form will that take? Given the man's immense talent, it's easy to be optimistic.

While Anemone has clearly made some great strides in pre-production, we unfortunately don't know when the film is planning to start principal photography, and a release date has not yet been carved out. If the movie is able to start rolling cameras before the end of the year, it's easy to imagine that the title becomes part of the prestigious festival circuit next year in advance of an award season run.

Stay tuned for more details about Anemone, and check out all of the films set to arrive in the remaining weeks of the year with our 2024 Movie Release Calendar.

Whether it's in biopics or in other historical movies, playing an important person often leads to some of the most amazing performances put on film. There are far too many to count, much less list here, but we do think you'll agree that this list of 32 actors playing famous people rank among the best. 

Ben Kingsley - Gandhi

The 1982 epic Gandhi starring Ben Kingsley as the revered leader of India and icon to peaceful protestors all over the world is an amazing movie. At the heart is Kingsley's amazing, transformative performance. He looks and sounds just like Gandhi, it's almost uncanny. 

Margot Robbie - Tonya Harding

When the news first broke that Australian Margot Robbie was cast to play controversial US Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya, it's safe to say that many were skeptical. It took the actor all of about 30 seconds of screen time in the movie to prove those skeptics very wrong. Robbie is fantastic as the troubled skater with a family life that you wouldn't wish on anyone. 

Paul Dano - Brian Wilson

The Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy seems to have been overlooked by many, but if you're a fan of The Beach Boys, you need to see it. John Cusack plays the older Wilson in the 1980s and it is fantastic. Paul Dano, who plays the Pet Sounds-era Wilson, is simply amazing. He completely disappears into the role. 

Reese Witherspoon - June Carter Cash

Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix are both amazing in Walk the Line as June and Johnny Cash. Really both deserve to be on this list, but we've the honor to Witherspoon if only because she won Best Actress at the Oscars in 2006. 

Robert Downey, Jr - Charlie Chaplin

It took a long time for Robert Downey to win an Oscar, which he finally did for Oppenheimer. More than 30 years before that win, he earned his first nomination for 1992's Chaplin for playing the legendary actor and Hollywood trailblazer. It's a movie that doesn't get talked about much these days, but it's still great. Especially Downey's performance. 

Natalie Portman - Jackie Kennedy

Jackie Kennedy has to be a tricky person to play. She is so iconic and so well known to so many people that the scrutiny would be stressful. Luckily for all of us, Natalie Portman hit it out of the park when she played the former First Lady in Jackie. 

Meryl Streep - Margaret Thatcher

It's hardly surprising to see Meryl Streep's name on any list of great performances. She has been arguably the best actor in Hollywood for 50 years. One of her finest performances came in 2011's The Iron Lady where she played the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher. 

Rami Malek - Freddy Mercury

You knew we couldn't have this list without including Rami Malek's incredible performance as Freddie Mercury in the biopic about the late Queen singer, Bohemian Rhapsody. It's not all about the prosthetic teeth, as Malek nailed so many nuances and mannerisms of the icon rock star. Just as in real life, the performance at Live Aid at the end of the movie brings down the house. 

Val Kilmer - Jim Morrison

If you grew up in the '90s, The Doors was probably a seminal film for you. Val Kilmer blew audiences away as the late Jim Morrison. It was so good you'd swear you were watching the real Morrison as he rose to fame and then burned out quickly before tragically becoming a member of the "27 Club" in 1971.

Denzel Washington - Malcolm X

A powerful personality takes an actor with equal strength to pull off and in Malcolm X, Denzel Washington is more than up for the task. Playing the combative, controversial civil rights leader could not have been easy, yet Washington brings him back to life in every way. It's the reason everyone should see this biopic. 

Faye Dunaway - Joan Crawford

Faye Dunaway gives the performance of a lifetime in Mommie Dearest. It's scary and mesmerizing. Joan Crawford was one of the most beloved actors in Hollywood in the Golden Age in Hollywood, but this movie changed the public's opinion of her forever - and not for the better. 

Jennifer Lopez - Selena

Before played the murdered superstar Selena in the movie of the same name, Jennifer Lopez had had a few roles in movies, but after Selena, she was the legend we all know today. It's a groundbreaking performance. 

David Oyelowo - Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Everyone in America has heard the powerful voice of Martin Luther King, Jr. hundreds of times. His speeches are part of everyone's education. That makes David Oyelowo's turn as the civil rights leader that much harder - and that much more impressive. It's just fantastic. 

Cate Blanchett - Bob Dylan

Okay, we admit, technically Cate Blanchett is playing a character named "Jude Quinn" in I'm Not There, but c'mon, let's be real, she's playing Bob Dylan. It's an uncanny performance as well. There is actual footage of Dylan from that time in his career in the excellent D.A. Pennebaker-directed Dont Look Back. Compare that to Blanchett and you'll realize just how great she was. 

Daniel Day-Lewis - Abraham Lincoln

Of all the amazing performances on this list, Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln just may be the best. It frankly could be the greatest acting performance of all time. There's an argument for it, at least. He's simply incredible and brings the tragic president to life like no one else has before or since, and likely never will. 

Cillian Murphy - J. Robert Oppenheimer

Cillian Murphy won a well-deserved Best Actor Award for playing J. Robert Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer. It's a subtle, smoldering performance, just like the personality of the real Oppenheimer. Playing the scientist in his greatest moments in life and his lowest, it's a fantastic showing by the Irish actor. 

Cynthia Erivo - Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman is one of the most important people in US history, but one that hasn't been explored on film nearly as much as you might expect. Luckily, when someone did decide to finally tell her full story on the big screen in 2019's Harriet, they had the good sense to cast Cynthia Erivo as the former slave-turned-freedom fighter. She's amazing. 

Forest Whitaker - Idi Amin

Forest Whitaker is pretty great in everything he's in. He cranks his talent up to another level in The Last King Of Scotland as the brutal dictator of Uganda, Idi Amin. He's so good there are even moments where viewers might feel compassion for the man, despite his worst tendencies as the leader of the country. 

Jessica Chastain - Tammy Faye Bakker

If you were around in the 1980s, you remember all the insanity around Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Jim Bakker crying on TV with Tammy Faye right next to him is something no one will forget. Jessica Chastain's turn as the evangelical preacher's wife is just as memorable. 

Philip Seymour Hoffman - Truman Capote

it's hard to imagine anyone will ever play Truman Capote as well as the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote. The role completely takes control of the actor in the best way. It might as well been the writer himself. You completely forget there is even an actor behind the role. 

Daniel Kaluuya - Fred Hampton

Fred Hampton was a controversial and complicated leader in the Black Panther Party in the 1960s. Casting a Brit like Daniel Kaluuya in the role was a daring choice by the filmmakers of Judas and the Black Messiah, but it paid off brilliantly as Kaluuya nails the role. 

Gary Oldman - Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill has been played on the big and small screen by plenty of great actors. John Lithgow (The Crown), Brendan Gleeson (Into the Storm), and Albert Finney (The Gathering Storm) have all garnered praise for playing the legendary prime minister. Gary Oldman, who won an Oscar for playing Churchill in 2017's The Darkest Hour may just be the best. His reading of those famous speeches is just mesmerizing. 

Angela Bassett - Tina Tuner

Tina Turner was a fierce woman, who deserved a fierce performance and she got one with Angela Bassett in What's Love Got To Do With It. Bassett's performance is transcendent and certainly deserved the Oscar nomination she received. She should've won it! 

Austin Butler - Elvis Presley

Austin Butler got so caught up in his performance as Elvis Presley in Elvis that critics of the actor complained that even months later he was still talking like the King of Rock and Roll. he wasn't, but that does say something about how good he was in the Baz Luhrmann-directed bio flick. 

Jesse Eisenberg - Mark Zuckerberg

When The Social Network was first announced, many were confused as to how someone could make an interesting movie about the founding of Facebook. It turns out, that if you get a great writer like Aaron Sorkin, a great director like David Fincher, and someone like Jesse Eisenberg to play the Mark Zuckerberg, you can make it look easy. The movie is great, and Eisenberg's performance is pitch-perfect. 

Leonardo DiCaprio - Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes is one of the most mercurial and odd celebrities in US history. In The Aviator, Leonardo DiCaprio fully embodies everything about the director and businessman. He takes on his greatest triumphs and sinks to the depths of Hughes' despair in the lowest points of his mental illness with the same gusto. 

Charlize Theron - Aileen Wuornos

Serial killer Aileen Wuornos was a terrifying person. A true monster, as the name of the movie about her is called. That's not to say a viewer can't have some sympathy for the circumstances that brought her to the point of murder, but you can't excuse her. Charlize Theron does an incredible job bringing all of that to the role in Monster. 

Sean Penn - Harvey Milk

Milk is one of the great political movies of the last few decades and the biggest reason why, besides the inspiring story, is Sean Penn's performance as Harvey Milk. Like Penn has done so often in his career, he completely disappears into the character. It is Harvey Milk.  

George C. Scott - George Patton

George S. Patton was a great, and complicated leader in World War II. He was responsible for some of the greatest military gains in the war, and he couldn't keep himself out of trouble with his controversy. George C. Scott's portrayal of the general in Patton is amazing. Even though the opening scene of him making a speech in front of the flag is fictional, it sets the tone perfectly and the movie never lets up. 

Cate Blanchett - Katharine Hepburn

Leonardo DiCaprio is fantastic in The Aviator as Howard Hughes, but he's not the only great performance in the movie. Cate Blanchett as the iconic Katharine Hepburn is, well, iconic. There's just no better word for either. It's not only a spot-on impression, the portrayal nails everything that was great about Hepburn. 

Robert De Niro - Jake LaMotta

Jake LaMotta was one of the toughest prizefighters of all time. His incredible story and Robert De Niro's performance are the two things that make Raging Bull legendary. Scorsese's direction is pretty great too. 

Helen Mirren - Queen Elizabeth II

it's really hard to play a person who has been on television screens all over the world for decades. Helen Mirren takes on that difficult task in Queen Elizabeth II. The late Queen was an icon in every sense of the word and playing her could not have been easy, yet, when you have the talent of Helen Mirren, it looks easy. It surely wasn't. 

After wrapping production on Phantom Thread in 2017, Daniel Day-Lewis put out a statement announcing his retirement from acting. This came as a shock to many, as fans were hoping for more films starring the Oscar winner. And hasn’t done another movie since though, as of late, rumors have suggested that Day-Lewis ould potentially sign on to another film. However, according to director Jim Sheridan, these rumors are unfounded, and the actor remains firm on his retirement. Apparently, streaming and the "seven thousand choices" it offers may be partially to blame for that stance.

Jim Sheridan was one of Daniel Day-Lewis’ most frequent collaborators. He worked with the actor three times, on In the Name of the Father, The Boxer and My Left Foot. The third entry in that lineup won him his first Academy Award. Sheridan is apparently one of the many filmmakers who have tried to talk Day-Lewis out of his retirement, and he has not been successful. Sheridan revealed that while he would love to make another movie with the Crucible actor, Day-Lewis doesn’t want to return to his craft in the age of streaming, which features a wide range of content options. Sheridan told Screen Daily:

Streaming has been cited as a major frustration for many creatives, so much so that it has led to a lot of veterans leaving the industry. Quentin Tarantino has expressed his own displeasure with streaming, and the practice is seemingly one of the many reasons the director will retire himself after helming his tenth film. As for the Lincoln star, he previously stated many times that he planned to retire, before he actually went through with it. But it's now interesting to hear that streaming seems to be an additional factor holding him back from returning to his craft.

One of the reasons previously accepted as to why Daniel Day-Lewis decided to retire was his famous association with method acting. The actor has gone through extreme lengths for a role, having remained in character throughout the entirety of production on a movie. The practice is controversial, but Day-Lewis is the only actor to have three Best Actor Oscars. So you can’t argue with the results. However, this method can take a toll on the mind of a performer, as each role becomes a massive undertaking emotionally. 

While some may not have believed the celebrated performer would stay away from the silver screen forever, based on these comments by Jim Sheridan, it seems like the actor’s mind has not been changed. Director Paul Thomas Anderson said that he believed the actor was serious about his retirement in 2017, but some hoped a great role or a script could lure him back. The era of streaming doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon, so it's likely that fans (unfortunately) can’t expect another movie from the star anytime soon, no matter who the director is. 

Even if Daniel Day-Lewis’s acting career has really come to a close, fans thankfully still have an incredible catalog of films to look back on. He has delivered some of the most memorable acting work of all time, including central performances in movies like Gangs of New York and There Will Be Blood. His career began in the 80s, he became a star in the '90s, and was in some of the best movies of the 2000s. Day-Lewis has become an icon, and his work is something that needs to be seen to be believed. And, if he ever does ever return to the craft, he will surely be welcomed back with open arms. 

A lot of actors in Hollywood are kids of famous parents, some scions we know well, like Zoe Kravitz and Kate Hudson. Others, though, you might be surprised to learn grew up on the inside of show business. Here's our list of actors you might not realize are the children of stars.  

Mariska Hargitay

Mariska Hargitay has carved out an amazing career in television as the iconic Olivia Benson in 25 seasons of Law & Order: SVU. That's over 500 episodes! She is also the daughter of 1950s legend Jayne Mansfield and former Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay. Tragically, Hargitay barely knew her mother. Mansfield was killed in a car crash when Hargitay was just three years old. Hargitay was in the car too, but survived with only minor physical injuries. 

Tom Holland

Tom Holland's fame exploded when he was cast as Spider-Man in the MCU, though he's been acting since he was a kid. It makes sense he'd find his way into show business, as his father, Dominic Holland, is a comedian and TV and radio star of some renown in the United Kingdom. 

Lenny Kravitz

Sure, everyone knows that Zoe Kravitz is Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet's daughter, but did you know Lenny Kravitz is also the child of a star? Lenny's mother is the legendary Roxie Roker, who played Helen Willis on The Jeffersons.

Benedict Cumberbatch

With the massive amount of talent Benedict Cumberbatch brings to every role he plays, it's not surprising he comes from a talented family. His father, Timothy Carlton, is a BBC legend, and his mother, Wanda Ventham is also a TV legend in the U.K. (and appeared as Sherlock's mother on Cumberbatch's Sherlock). 

Tracee Ellis Ross

Black-ish star Tracee Ellis Ross took a slightly longer road to fame that many other scions of stars, but Girlfriends eventually made her one. Her mother is one of the biggest stars in pop music of the 20th century, Motown legend Diana Ross, who also dabbled in acting with roles in The Wiz and Lady Sings the Blues.

Jordana Brewster

Jordana Brewster has built her own name and reputation in Hollywood, mostly through her work in the Fast franchise, but she also comes from a very accomplished family. Her mother, Maria João, is a Brazillian legend, as she was the first Brazillian model to appear on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, in 1978. Brewster's grandfather, Kingman Brewster, was a giant in academia, serving as the president of Yale University from 1964 until 1977.

Zooey Deschanel

Of course, Zooey Deschanel has a famous sister, Emily, and together they have a couple of pretty famous parents. Zooey's father, Caleb Deschanel is a cinematographer who has been nominated six times for an Oscar, for his work on films like The Right Stuff and The Passion Of The Christ. Zooey and Emily's mother, Mary Jo, is also an actor, known best for playing Eileen Hayward in the Twin Peaks franchise. 

Vanessa Kirby

From starring as Princess Margaret in The Crown to playing a baddie in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Vanessa Kirby has shown she can do just about anything on screen. Her father, Dr. Roger Kirby is a renowned doctor in the U.K., so while it might not be a Hollywood connection, Vanessa does come from a very prominent family. 

Alfie Allen

Game of Thrones star Alfie Allen has a pretty famous sister, singer Lily Allen, and a pretty famous father, Keith Allen. Keith is very well known in his native England, but American audiences will recognize him from his roles in Trainspotting, and Kingsman: The Golden Circle, among others. Alfie and Lily's mother, Alison Owen, is a movie producer as well, including the 2024 Amy Winehouse biopic, Back to Black.

Josh Brolin

Josh Brolin made his film debut in The Goonies when he was 18, in 1985. After a solid, but far from remarkable, run for the next 20 years, Brolin became a legit superstar in the 2010s, eclipsing the fame of his father, James Brolin, but probably not his stepmother, Barbara Streisand.

Louisa Jacobson

If you haven't watched The Gilded Age, you need to, and when you do, you'll likely love the performance from Louisa Jacobson. Of course, you wouldn't expect less from the daughter of one of the greatest actors of all time, Meryl Streep. 

Zoey Deutch

Zoey Deutch is known for movies like Everybody Wants Some!! and Something from Tiffany's, as well as TV shows like The Politician and Ringer. Her mother, Lea Thompson is known for classics like Back To The Future, and Some Kind of Wonderful, where Thompson met Zoey's father, Howard Deutch, who directed the film. 

Lewis Pullman

Lewis Pullman has received widespread acclaim for his performance in Apple TV+'s Lessons in Chemistry. As you may have guessed by his last name, his father is none other than the great Bill Pullman, who, of course, made one of the most inspiring speeches in movie history in Independence Day. 

Jamie Lee Curtis

Jamie Lee Curtis is a true legend and she also has two legendary parents, father Tony Curtis and mother Janet Leigh. Jamie Lee is also married to a famous actor, This is Spinal Tap star Christopher Guest. One more fun fact? Jamie Lee carries an English nobility title. The Right Honourable the Lady Haden-Guest, because Christopher's full title is Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest.

Ben Platt

Marc Platt has been nominated for an Oscar three times as the producer of Best Picture nominees Bridge of Spies, La La Land, and The Trial of the Chicago 7. Surely, he's most proud of being a father to Pitch Perfect star Ben Platt. 

Laura Dern

Over five decades now, Laura Dern has crushed on the big and small screen. Her father, Bruce Dern, is in his incredible seventh decade of his career and her mother, Diane Ladd, has been a star for just as long. In fact, Ladd and Laura were both nominated for Oscars for their respective performances together in Rambling Rose, one of Laura Dern's best performances. 

George Clooney

It's to imagine there was ever a time when George Clooney wasn't the most famous person in the world, much less his own family, but that was the case once. George's father, Nick Clooney, was a long-time TV news anchor all over the country, including in LA. He was also a game show host in the mid-'70s. George is also nephew to the iconic Rosemary Clooney, which also made Betty Clooney an aunt to George as well. Rosemary's son, the late actor Miguel Ferrer, was also more famous than his cousin George in the '80s, after starring in Robocop and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. 

Daniel Day-Lewis

Even the great Daniel Day-Lewis comes from a famous family. The legendary actor's father was Cecil Day-Lewis, who was the one-time poet laureate of the United Kingdom, and his mother, Jill Balcon, was a well-known stage actor in the UK. Daniel Day-Lewis' maternal grandfather, Michael Balcon, helped launch the British film industry in the 1930s and '40s, as well. Acting is in his blood, for sure. 

Rob Reiner

There's no bigger name in Hollywood than Rob Reiner. Whether as an actor, director, writer, or producer, Reiner has made his name across the board. Before all that, his father, Carl Reiner, made his name doing many of the same things. Rob's mother, Estelle Reiner, is also pretty famous, having delivered the line, "I'll have what she's having," in When Harry Met Sally. 

Zosia Mamet

From Girls to The Flight Attendant, Zosia Mamet has shown herself to be quite the ensemble player on screen. Her father, iconic playwright David Mamet, is really more famous for what he's written for the stage. David has found plenty of success writing for the screen as well, penning movies like Glengarry Glen Ross (based on his play of the same name), The Untouchables, and 2001's Hannibal.

Billie Lourd

Billie Lourd got her start working with her mother, Carrie Fisher, in the Star Wars sequels. As Fisher's daughter, she's a part of a family of Hollywood royalty, with Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher as her grandparents. It's an impressive lineage! 

Bessie Carter

Bessie Carter's star turn as Prudence Featherington in Bridgerton is right on par with not one, but both of her famous parents. Bessie's father, Jim Carter, is most famous in the U.S. for playing the stern butler, Mr. Carson, on Downton Abbey. Her mother is none other than the great Imelda Staunton, who, among many other things, has starred as Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter series and Queen Elizabeth in the final two seasons of The Crown on Netflix. It's a lot to live up to for Bessie, but she's showing she's up to it. 

Timothée Chalamet

Dune star Timothée Chalamet's father may not be as famous as some of the parents on this list, but in some circles, he's very famous. Marc Chalamet is a French reporter who worked for Le Parisien as a correspondent and for the United Nations as an editor for UNICEF. His mother, Nicole, was also in show business for a time, as a dancer on Broadway. 

Phoebe Dynevor

Bridgerton is one of the most popular streaming shows ever and among the excellent cast is Phoebe Dynevor, who plays Daphne Basset. U.S. audiences may not be familiar with her mother, Sally Dynevor, but in the U.K., she's one of the most famous people on TV, having played the role of Sally on the long-running Coronation Street soap opera. Sally has played the role since 1986! Phoebe's grandmother, Shirley Dynevor, was also an actress in the United Kingdom. 

Melanie Griffith

When you talk about the legendary Hollywood families, you have to mention Melanie Griffith. She is mother to Dakota Johnson, of course, with her ex Don Johnson. Griffith is also the daughter of a famous actress, the great Tippi Hedren, star of The Birds, among many other films. 

Jennifer Aniston

Friends star Jennifer Aniston comes from famous stock. Her father, John Aniston, played the character Victor Kiriakis on Days of Our Lives for an amazing 37 years, right up until his death in 2022. The Morning Show star's mother, Nancy Dow, was also an actress, though she never quite had the career of Aniston, but then again, few do. 

Jessica Capshaw

For over 200 episodes, Jessica Capshaw played Arizona Robbins on Grey's Anatomy. Before that, she started out in Hollywood working with her stepfather, Steven Spielberg. Her mother, Kate Capshaw, is also an excellent actress, of course. Talent runs in the family, like all the others on this list. 

Margaret Qualley

You might think "Margaret Qualley" does not have a last name I recognize. That's fair; her father, Paul Qualley, was a model for a time, but it's her mother, Andie McDowell, that lands Margaret on this list. She and her sister, Rainey, weren't raised in Hollywood, but instead in Asheville, NC. She still found her way into show business after attending NYU and studying ballet in New York. 

John David Washington

Denzel Washington's son, John David Washington, wasn't going to follow in his famous father's footsteps, trying his hand at professional football in the St. Louis Rams organization. Luckily for film fans, his football career didn't take off, but his Hollywood career has. BlacKkKlansman and Tenet definitely got John David out from under his father's substantial shadow, and that is a really impressive thing to even attempt, much less succeed in doing. 

Riley Keough

Anyone who is the granddaughter of the King of Rock and Roll deserves to be on this list. That's right, Riley Keough is Elvis Presley's granddaughter, and daughter to Lisa Marie. After Lisa Marie died in 2023, Keough also became the sole owner of the legendary Graceland, Elvis' home, in Memphis. It's an impressive legacy to uphold, but Keough is clearly up for the challenge. 

Hannah Einbinder

Hannah Einbinder is one of the brightest up-and-coming comedic stars in Hollywood, starring in Hacks as well as her very funny stand-up act. The apple doesn't fall from the tree, as her mother is SNL legend Laraine Newman, who was part of the original cast from 1975-1980. 

Nico Parker

Nico Parker's star is just starting to rise, having received acclaim for playing Sarah in HBO's The Last of Us. Her mother is the iconic Thandiwe Newton, so again, the apple doesn't fall from the tree in this family. Her father, Ol Parker, wrote and directed Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

As this list shows, it's not really fair to use the term "nepo baby" all the time, as all of these stars have forged their own path and careers. Sure, it helps to have the connections, and the DNA, of some talented parents, but that's far from all it takes, as these stars have shown.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been around for more than a decade-and-a-half, and after 30-plus movies, TV shows, and specials, we’ve seen a ton of great actors play fan-favorite comic book heroes and villains. There are even actors who have played more than one character in the expansive franchise. But at the same time, there’s an even larger group of talented big-screen stars who haven’t donned a cape, mask, or spandex in the best Marvel movies. Here are 32 actors we still want to see in the MCU…

Ryan Gosling

For one reason or another, Ryan Gosling has yet to play a character in the MCU. One of the most talented and beloved actors of his time, the Barbie star would be perfect to play several characters ranging from Nova to Mr. Fantastic to even Earth-616’s Norman Osbourne if they wanted to have a younger actor take on the role of the famous Spider-Man villain. 

John David Washington

John David Washington has previously said he’d be open for an MCU role, and it’s probably going to happen sooner or later, considering the son of Oscar winner Denzel Washington is an incredibly talented and versatile actor. The Tenet and The Creator star has the range to handle just about everything thrown his way, be it as a villain or the next great Marvel hero.

Margot Robbie

It wouldn’t be all that surprising to see Margot Robbie join the list of actors to appear in the MCU at some point down the line, it’s just a matter of finding the right character for the beloved actress to play. There have been rumors about a Sue Storm role over the years, but Robbie would also be great playing villains like Lady Deathstrike.

Dev Patel

Dev Patel has established himself as one of the most interesting actors in Hollywood thanks to outstanding performances in movies like The Green Knight, Slumdog Millionaire, and his 2023 work with Wes Anderson. Watching the Lion star take on someone like Reed Richards or even Doctor Doom would be awesome, and he could honestly handle both.

Keanu Reeves

Throughout his career, Keanu Reeves has played iconic action characters like Johnny Utah, Neo, and John Wick. How cool would it be to see the eternally young actor join the MCU as someone like Dracula, Ghost Rider, or even Silver Surfer? We would even settle for a small voice role as a random one-off character.

Cillian Murphy

Cillian Murphy showing up in the MCU would be a massive get for the cinematic universe as it works towards the two upcoming Avengers projects, especially if he were to play Doctor Doom. While other actors would probably be better suited for the physicality of the iconic Marvel villain, Murphy would be perfect for the psychological aspects of the character. Add in his experience from playing Scarecrow in the Dark Knight trilogy and you have a perfect fit.

Vanessa Kirby

Vanessa Kirby has said in the past that it would be an honor to play Sue Storm, but the Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning actress could also handle a more sinister role if given the chance. Just imagine Kirby playing someone like Lady Death or even Black Cat if we get another Spider-Man movie.

Cynthia Erivo

How Cynthia Erivo hasn’t landed a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is somewhere between a travesty and a mystery, because the multi-talented actor has everything you want in an actress to play your next comic book star. Just imagine the Harriet and Bad Times at the El Royale actress showing up as Storm whenever the X-Men are eventually introduced to the franchise. That would be electric to say the very least.

Antonio Banderas

Though Ant-tonio Banderas, Scott Lang’s ant in Ant-Man and the Wasp is already a thing in the MCU, the actor on which the flying arthropods was based has not had a chance to appear just yet. This needs to change and we need to see Antonio Banderas show up at some point down the road. He’s got the skills and intangibles to pull off someone as big as Galactus, a character comic book fans have been dying to see for years now.

LaKeith Stanfield

LaKeith Stanfield has been one of the more interesting actors of the past decade thanks to unforgettable roles in movies like Get Out, Judas and the Black Messiah, and The Book of Clarence, and the MCU would be better off if he joined the fray. There was talk in early 2024 of Stanfield replacing Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror, which could work, but he could also bring to life X-Men staples like Cyclopes or even Gambit.

Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise flirted with the idea of playing Tony Stark way before Robert Downey Jr. rejuvenated his career in the MCU-launching Iron Man, but we never got to see the Top Gun: Maverick star play the iconic billionaire playboy philanthropist. Though it never came to fruition, we’d still love to see the Hollywood legend show up in the MCU, even if he only briefly played an alternate version of Iron Man.

Christoph Waltz

Christoph Waltz has played great villains in everything from the James Bond movies to Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, but he’s never played a big bad in the MCU. That should change, sooner rather than later, and he could be a great fit for someone like Norman Osborn or Doc Ock if we get more Spidey movies. He has the charisma, skill, and look for either of those roles.

Jessica Chastain

Jessica Chastain showed up in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, but since that’s outside of the MCU (for now, anyway), she’s fair game. There’s been the Sue Storm talk over the years, but the Interstellar star could also take on someone like Jean Grey and try her luck with the Dark Phoenix character.

Alan Ritchson

Okay, imagine Alan Ritchson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Doctor Doom. In addition to having a ridiculous physique, the Jack Reacher star can also be cerebral and mysterious, kind of like his character from Fast X. He would be a formidable foe, that’s for sure. And if not, we’d love to see Ritchson take on someone like Rhino or Juggernaut and breathe new life into those characters.

Pedro Pascal

There’s been a lot of talk about Pedro Pascal being the frontrunner for Reed Richards in the Fantastic Four’s eventual MCU debut, and that would be awesome. The star of The Mandalorian and The Last of Us has shown over the years that he has what it takes to lead a successful franchise, and he has enough talent and charisma to pay one of Marvel’s most iconic heroes.

Amber Midthunder

Amber Midthunder became a star-in-the-making after the 2022 release of Prey, and the star of the Predator spinoff prequel could very well make an impact in the MCU if given the opportunity. Lady Hellbender, Lyja, and Silver Fox are just three of the Marvel characters she would be well-suited to play.

Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington has long stayed out of the superhero realm, though he has made a career out of playing characters who are pretty much comic book characters. That being said, we’d love to see the two-time Oscar winner take on a role like Magento or Bahsenga, the warrior shaman who was the first to adopt the Black Panther mantel.

Emily Blunt

Her husband, John Krasinksi, has already appeared in the MCU, albeit briefly, as Reed Richards in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, so it wouldn’t be crazy to see Emily Blunt show up at some point, either for a similar-sized role or in a larger capacity. According to Deadline, the Oppenheimer star turned down a chance to play Black Widow in Iron Man 2 and was reportedly approached to play other famous characters in the years following. 

Gary Oldman

We’ve seen Gary Oldman play Jim Gordon masterfully in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, but the Academy Award-winning actor has yet to show up in the MCU. It would be so cool to see the legendary actor enter the fold as Dr. Xavier in the eventual X-Men movie, and it would be just as awesome to see him play a more villainous role like Mephisto or even Dracula, with the latter being a throwback to his turn in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Jesse Plemons

Jesse Plemons has been everywhere for the past few years. Well, everywhere besides the MCU. The Breaking Bad and Killers of the Flower Moon star has shared the screen with Marvel actors like Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Christian Bale over the years, and it’s only a matter of time before he follows suit and shows up as a comic book character. This guy has Sabretooth written all over him…

Paul Giamatti

Paul Giamatti has already been in Sony’s Marvel movies thanks to his portrayal of Rhino in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but we’d love to see more of the beloved actor. It doesn’t have to be anything over-the-top like a mech suit, but instead something like a government official who tries to get in the Avengers’ way or is tempted by a big bad.

Glen Powell

Glen Powell has "superhero" written all over him. The Physique, the charm, the million-dollar smile, he has it all. It’s only a matter of time before someone swoops him up and makes him the next great comic book hero, and that someone could be Marvel. Nova, Cyclops, or even a young Magneto would be great fits for the Anyone But You star.

Tati Gabrielle

Since making her acting debut a decade ago, Tati Gabrielle has given commanding performances on shows like You, Kaleidoscope, and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, to name a few. The actress, who also has experience in video game adaptations like Uncharted and the upcoming Mortal Kombat 2, would be perfect for the MCU in the coming years, especially if she could land a role like Storm, Black Cat, or other fan-favorite characters.

Javier Bardem

Javier Bardem is an actor with an incredible skillset and the ability to play both nuanced and over-the-top characters, which would make him perfect for something in the MCU. The No Country For Old Men star would be a great fit for the iconic Galactus whenever the villain is introduced in the future.

Rosamund Pike

Rosamund Pike has played all manner of characters over the years, and that makes her a perfect fit for the MCU moving forward. Her dynamic range and ability to play both good and evil roles masterfully would be perfect for comic book staples like Emma Frost and Liandra Nermani, both of whom are tied to the X-Men franchise.

Lily Gladstone

Lily Gladstone became an overnight sensation upon the release of Killers of the Flower Moon, and rightfully so. We’re not saying it’s going to happen, but the Golden Globe-winning actress would be perfect in the MCU. Imagine Gladstone playing Indigenous characters like Silver Fox or Kushala.  

Iwan Rheon

Iwan Rheon technically appeared on Inhumans back in 2017, but this doesn’t mean we don’t want to see him show up in an MCU movie at some point in the future. The Game of Thrones actor, who didn’t appear in as many episodes as you’d think, played Maximus on the short-lived ABC series, so he could reprise his role or he could take on something new. However, it wouldn’t be nearly as intense as Ramsay Bolton.

Viola Davis

Viola Davis has already made her mark in the comic book world with her portrayal of Amanda Waller over in the DCEU, but this doesn’t mean she can’t jump over to the MCU and play an equally menacing character. The Oscar winner has already led a blockbuster with The Woman King, so she is more than capable of doing the same in a Marvel movie.

Naomie Harris

Naomie Harris has already shown up in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe with her portrayal of Shriek in Venom: Let There Be Carnage where she was crushed by a falling cathedral, but there’s no reason she couldn’t just play another version of the character in the MCU or take on a completely different role entirely.

Brendan Gleeson

Brendan Gleeson is appearing in Joker 2, and it would be really cool if the legendary actor also landed a role in the MCU somewhere down the road. The Harry Potter and The Banshees of Inisherin star would be perfect for a role if the Thor franchise is to continue, even if it meant voicing someone like Beta Ray Bill. 

Iko Uwais

Iko Uwais, star of the phenomenal Raid movies, has the acting ability and fighting skills to be a big hit in the MCU if given the chance. In the event this does happen, we’d hate for Uwais’ talents to be wasted like they were with his extremely small role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Daniel Day-Lewis

Three-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis retired after 2017’s Phantom Thread, but we’d love to see him step in front of the camera again in an MCU movie. The There Will Be Blood and Gangs of New York star would be a killer option for a character like Galactus and drink up all the planets like a big milkshake.

Who knows if we’ll see any of these actors show up in any of the upcoming Marvel movies, but with the way the MCU has shown us over the years, don’t count anyone out.

Many Hollywood stars don't actually live in California these days. While some of the stars on this list might have a home in LA, they certainly seem to prefer to spend their off time very far away from the glitz and the glamour. Here are just some of the many stars that live outside of the Golden State. 

Nicole Kidman - Nashville

Nicole Kidman and her husband (and fellow Aussie) Keith Urban have quite a few homes around the world, including LA and their native Australia, but it's the greater Nashville area that they call home most of the time. 

Meryl Streep - Connecticut

21-time Oscar nominee Meryl Streep was born in New Jersey, went to school at Vassar and Yale, and certainly strikes me as an east coast type of person. While she's lived in LA at times throughout her career, it's Connecticut that she's called home for most of her adult life. She's lived in Salisbury for decades now. 

John Goodman - New Orleans

John Goodman spent years living in LA, but in the '90s he'd had enough of California and he and his Louisiana-born wife made a choice between his hometown of St. Louis, and her home state. They moved to New Orleans, where they've been ever since. 

Matthew McConaughey - Austin

You can take the boy out of Texas, but you can't take the Texas out of the boy. Matthew McConaughey was born in Uvalde, TX, went to school in Austin, and has long lived on a ranch near the Texas state capital and getting fed up with the paparazzi in Malibu.

Bill Murray - Charleston, SC

Bill Murray has lived all over the place, LA, NYC, and Chicago... but he's a known fixture around Charleston, South Carolina and even owns his own restaurant in town called Harold's Cabin. He's also invested in the Charleston minor league baseball team. 

Harrison Ford - Jackson Hole, WY

Harrison Ford moved to LA in the '60s to follow his acting dreams, but once he hit it big, he bailed out. While he does own a home in Brentwood, he spends most of his time at his 800-acre ranch outside Jackson Hole, WY. The ranch has been his primary residence since the 1980s and it seems he prefers to call that home. 

Demi Moore - Idaho

When Covid hit in early 2020, Demi Moore and her daughters holed up together in her longtime house in Sun Valley, Idaho. They were soon joined by her ex-husband and father to her daughters, Bruce Willis. Eventually, Willis' current wife Emma Heming, and her child with Willis also joined the big happy family. Moore has lived in Sun Valley for years and it's often featured on her Instagram page.

Jeff Daniels - Chelsea, MI

Jeff Daniels grew up in the small town of Chelsea, Michigan and as soon as he could after finding success in Hollywood, he moved back. He's a true small-town kind of guy and it makes perfect sense. While he makes his money in Hollywood, his heart is always in Michigan. 

Chris Rock - New Jersey

Chris Rock has always been an East Coast guy. Though he was born in South Carolina, his family moved to Brooklyn when he was a baby. He grew up in Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy. He started his comedy career in New York City, and for a couple of decades has lived in Alpine, New Jersey.

John Travolta - Ocala, FL

John Travolta loves to fly and is a first-class plane spotter. As such, he seems to have found the perfect place to live. The Pulp Fiction star has called Ocala, FL home for decades now. While that might sound odd, it's not when you find out his house backs up to an actual airport, so he can park his planes right at home. Sounds pretty awesome. 

Tom Cruise - Clearwater, FL

Superstar Tom Cruise actually has houses all over the world. LA and London, for starters. The most surprising place he's owns property though has to be Clearwater, FL. Cruise has what's described in the Tampa newspaper as a "sprawling penthouse" just blocks from the headquarters of the Church of Scientology, to which he has long been an outspoken member, so it makes sense. 

Taylor Swift - Nashville

Music star Taylor Swift grew up in Pennsylvania and Nashville and still has a home in the latter, where she seems to spend a lot of her time when she's not on the road. In fact, she has homes all over the place, including LA, Rhode Island, and New York City. 

Chris Evans

Chris Evans grew up just outside of Boston in the suburb of Sudbury, MA. Even though he's become one of the biggest stars in the world, he's stayed close to home. He and his new bride live nearby where he grew up in Massachusetts, after getting married in Boston. 

Chris Hemsworth - Byron Bay

The Australian native Chris Hemsworth couldn't ignore the siren call of home. After years in Hollywood becoming one of the biggest stars in the world, he decided it was time to move home. He and his wife Elsa Pataky settled in a small surfing community south of Brisbane called Byron Bay in 2015 and have never looked back. 

Tommy Lee Jones - Texas

Tommy Lee Jones doesn't seem to care much for the trappings of fame, though he has used some of the money he's earned as an actor to buy a huge tract of land in Texas. Jones might be Harvard-educated and work in Hollywood, but he's Texas through and through. 

Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani - Tishomingo, OK

Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani might be Hollywood's most unlikely couple, at least until you see them together. Less surprising is that they split time between her home stomping grounds in LA and his in Oklahoma. The two built a house on Shelton's ranch in Tishomingo, OK, where they spend most of their time. 

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds - Bedford, NY

The enduring couple of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds don't seem to be interested in big city living, instead opting for the small upstate town of Bedford, NY They maintain a couple of other houses, but their real home is in Westchester County, NY, where they live a quiet, but luxurious life in a small enclave with some celebrity neighbors including Martha Stewart and Micheal Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. 

Mark Ruffalo - Callicoon, NY

Mark Ruffalo is another actor who prefers the peace and quiet of small-town America to the bright lights of Hollywood. The Avengers star and his wife Sunny live in the tiny berg of Callicoon in the Catskill mountains of New York State. 

Elijah Wood - Austin

Elijah Wood doesn't actually live in a shire, like his Lord of the Rings character, but he doesn't live in a huge city, either. Wood has called Austin, TX home for years and a when he was on Hot Ones, he explained where to get all the best meals in town. 

Dave Chappelle - Yellow Springs, OH

Yellow Springs, Ohio might be the last place you'd expect to find a celebrity living among us, but when you understand Dave Chappelle's background, it makes perfect sense. The legendary comedian grew up in Yellow Springs and though he's made a name for himself in Hollywood, the Ohio town is clearly the place he calls home. 

Julia Roberts - Taos, NM

Many years ago, Julia Roberts bought a ranch in Taos, NM, and it seems every year, she spends more and more time there. She even married her husband Danny Moder there. While she does split time in a house in Malibu, closer to work, she seems to prefer the peaceful life of Taos, as she's explained in the past. 

Daniel Day-Lewis - Ireland

Long before Daniel Day-Lewis decided to retire from acting, he had settled into living in Ireland’s County Wicklow. It's hardly surprising that an actor like Lewis would shun the spotlight, after all, he really only worked when the part really fascinated him, and he retired in 2017 despite unparalleled success as a performer. 

John Cena - Land o' Lakes, Florida

Don't confuse John Cena's hometown of Land o' Lakes, Florida for a stick of butter. The Fast X star has lived in the town outside Tampa for a long time. Even as his star has risen in Hollywood, with a major role in the DCEU as Peacemaker both in The Suicide Squad and his own show, The Peacemaker, Cena has resisted moving to California. 

Vera Farmiga - Woodstock, NY

Upstate New York is a popular place for stars to escape the public eye and Vera Farmiga is one of the stars that prefers it that way. The Many Saints of Newark actor lives in the famous artist colony of Woodstock in the Hudson Valley, following in a long tradition of celebrities retreating to the woods to get out of the spotlight, even when she's popping into rock shows in Woodstock to play Iron Maiden covers in a bar band. 

Woody Harrelson - Maui, HI

Woody Harrelson is definitely a man who moves to the beat of his own drummer, so the fact that he lives in Hawaii is hardly a shock. He even semi-retired for a while at the height of his career. While he's not "off the grid", he's certainly off the beaten path. Thankfully, his home was unaffected by the tragic wildfires earlier this year. 

John Mayer - Livingstone, MT

John Mayer has settled down into a much quieter life in recent years. The Dead & Co guitar player has found peace and quiet in the small Montana town of Livingstone. While life on the road certainly has its wild times, one would think, it must be nice for Mayer to get back home for some relaxing peace. 

Ken Jennings - Seattle, WA

Despite being named co-host of Jeopardy! a couple of years ago, and really taking a shine to the gig that shoots in LA, Ken Jennings does not seem to have plans to permanently relocate to Southern California. Jennings and his family have long called Seattle home and it seems he's happy to commute when it's time to shoot new episodes of the legendary game show. 

Robert De Niro - New York City

It's hard to imagine Robert De Niro living anywhere but New York. He just doesn't seem to be a California type of guy at all, right? He even helped get the Tribeca Film Festival off the ground, which bolstered not only NYC but the actual neighborhood he lives in in Manhattan as it struggled to recover from the 9/11 attacks. 

Jennifer Lawrence

Jennifer Lawrence is bi-coastal, for sure. She does have a house in LA, but her husband Cooke Maroney is an art dealer whose business and gallery are in New York City, so she seems to spend most of the time she's not working in the Big Apple. 

Dan Aykroyd - Sydenham, Ontario

Dan Aykroyd has always been proud to be Canadian and he's been a longtime resident of Sydenham, Ontario, near Kingston, ON, not too far from where he grew up in Ottawa. 

Jennifer Hudson - Chicagoland Area

Superstar Jennifer Hudson is a Chicago girl and as such, she's stayed close to home. She may be a worldwide star, but Chicago is what made her who she is today and despite the means to live anywhere, Hudson chooses to live in the suburb of Burr Ridge, outside Chi-Town. 

Nikki Glaser - St. Louis, MO

Despite being the hometown of a lot of huge stars like John Goodman, Sterling K. Brown, Jenna Fischer, and Jon Hamm, most don't stay in town. The exception to that rule is comedian and comedy roast specialist Nikki Glaser. She moved back during the pandemic and found it much more fulfilling to live in her hometown than on either coast. 

While Los Angeles may be the city of dreams, it's not always the city of permanent residence for stars that have reached those lofty heights. Most may get their start on the West Coast but many of the biggest stars in the world don't live in California. 

Jared Leto is an actor like no other. Through his use of method acting and fully embodying a role, it’s no wonder Leto won Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars in 2014. However, that doesn’t mean he says yes to every role that comes his way. The actor-musician speaks about why he says “no” to a lot of movie roles (like when he walked away from the chance to be in Titanic), and how fellow method actor Daniel Day-Lewis was his inspiration for that.

Before signing on to his Oscar-winning role in Dallas Buyers Club with Matthew McConaughey, Leto took on a five-year hiatus from acting. While speaking to The Little Things costar John David Washington on Variety’s Actors on Actors, the Suicide Squad actor explained why he said “no” to a lot of movie roles during his acting hiatus, and how Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis plays into all of this.

Jared Leto is referring to when Daniel Day-Lewis went into semi-retirement after starring in The Boxer. From 1997-2000, he was apparently an apprentice shoemaker in Florence, Italy. In 2017, before his historical drama movie Phantom Thread came out, Lewis released a statement that he was retiring from acting. The English actor's reasoning for the retirement was just that he decide to listen to his instincts that it was time to stop. 

As for what the Best Actor recipient is doing now, the latest update came from Daily Mail where he was walking arm-in-arm with his wife, Rebecca Miller, in New York City celebrating their 25th anniversary. However, there haven’t been reports on what the retired actor is doing for work now. But like Jared Leto has his music to fall back on, we all know that Lewis has the skills of a cobbler if that’s what he wanted to do.

The Fight Club actor reflected to Variety he was quite choosy with his roles at the beginning of his acting career because he only wanted to take on what he was ready for. Being a musician has always been Leto’s first love, and he still pursues it outside of acting. He’s been the frontman of his rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars since 1998. In fact, they just released their sixth album It's the End of the World but It's a Beautiful Day this year. 

But when the Girl, Interrupted actor does take on a role, he goes all out. Just like Daniel Day-Lewis was a method actor, Leto took on the same style to get into character. For example, he sent creepy gifts to his co-stars when working on his controversial Joker performance in Suicide Squad,  as well as making himself go blind for Blade Runner 2049 by wearing cloudy contact lenses to play blind CEO Niander Wallace.

The 51-year-old actor and musician has a lot of projects that he has agreed to say yes to. After starring in the superhero movie Morbius, his next confirmed role is in the Andy Warhol biopic. I’ve got to say, playing the leading figure of the pop art movement would be perfect for the visionary artiste actor. He’s also part of the cast of the Disney threequel Tron 3, but filming was delayed in August due to the SAG-AFTRA Writers Strike. 

Leto is also set to reunite with his Requiem for a Dream director Darren Aronofsky in a movie called Adrift about a fishing boat that comes across an abandoned yacht in the middle of the ocean with an unsettling discovery. Furthermore, he'll play the late Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld in a movie he’ll star in and produce. All of these projects look like movies that'll put Leto right back on the Hollywood map as he did in Dallas Buyers Club. 

Jared Leto told Variety that he tends to put a lot of pressure on himself to perfect the roles he plays, so it makes sense why he won’t agree to a role unless he fully believes he’s got what it takes. Like Daniel Day-Lewis, Leto knows he’s got another skill to fall back on. Make sure to look at our 2024 movie releases in case the method actor finds his way in there.

When you look at the landscape of Hollywood A-List actors, it’s hard to believe how many haven’t been nominated for an Oscar. Even crazier is looking back on previous nominees like Meryl Streep and Gary Oldman’s careers and seeing where their first brush with golden glory came from. That’s what we’re gathered together to do today, as we look back on a who’s who of acting talent, and those first projects that put them on The Academy’s map! 

Meryl Streep - The Deer Hunter

Where does one begin when talking about Meryl Streep’s own personal golden dynasty? Well, if you want to start at the beginning, you’d take it all the way back to 1978. That’s when Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter put Ms. Streep on the Academy’s radar for the first time. At the time of publication, Streep is the most nominated person at the Academy Awards, thanks to a whopping 21 nods.

Daniel Day-Lewis - My Left Foot

The year 1990 marked an important moment for iconic actor, and three-time Academy Award winner, Daniel Day-Lewis. The now-retired thespian found himself winning on his first time out, with his nomination for the role of Irish writer and painter Christy Brown in My Left Foot. His portrayal of Brown, who created art while living with Cerebral Palsy, was only the beginning of a legacy involving method acting, which led to several more nominations and wins in the process.

Amy Adams - Junebug

Let’s put aside the fact that Amy Adams and Arrival were failed by awards boards in the 2016- 2017 season. Outside of that grudge that some still hold dear, Adams has a total of six Oscar nominations to her credit. That’s pretty amazing, with the first nod coming from her performance in 2005’s Junebug. With that noted, we can go back to grousing about how she deserves to be at seven nods, thanks to Denis Villeneuve’s brain-breaking masterpiece.

Leonardo DiCaprio - What’s Eating Gilbert Grape

While Leonardo DiCaprio could finally call himself a winner as part of 2016’s Academy Award nominees, the path to that victory for The Revenant kicked off in 1994. A hot young talent, DiCaprio’s first nomination was for his role alongside Johnny Depp in the drama What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? Turns out, when it was winning time for Leo, the answer to that question was, “A bear.”

Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side

One of America’s sweethearts, Sandra Bullock can be counted as a member of the First Timer's Club. Her first nomination was also the one that won her the trophy, as the 2010 Academy Awards yielded a golden win for her role in The Blind Side. Despite the recent controversies and lawsuit from Michael Oher that have hit that film’s story about the football player and the Tuohys, this is a hard-earned win, and the first of two nominations so far for Ms. Bullock. 

Tom Hanks - Big

We all know that Tom Hanks is Academy Award-winning royalty, as America’s Dad has six nominations and two wins under his belt. Looking back at the fact that his first competition for Oscar glory came from 1988’s Big, it’s an impressive feat for happening so early in Hanks’ career as an actor. It’s even more stunning when you take into account that it was for a comedy performance, which isn’t as prevalent at the Oscars as one would hope.

Viola Davis - Doubt

Despite the title of the film she was first nominated for, there was absolutely no Doubt when it came to Viola Davis’ status as an Oscar contender. Her first round came in 2008, through that very film mentioned; and she would eventually be nominated three more times, at the time of this publication. Her first win came in 2016 after she starred with fellow Oscar titan Denzel Washington in the film adaptation of Fences. (It's also worth mentioning that this actress is also in the elite club of EGOT winners.)

Peter O’Toole - Lawrence Of Arabia

Tied with Glenn Close for the most Oscar nominations without a win, the late great Peter O’Toole banked his first Academy Awards nod with the movie you’d most expect. Thanks to the director David Lean’s 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia, O’Toole began a dance with Academy voters that only saw him net a 2002 Honorary Academy Award. 

Jodie Foster - Taxi Driver

In the world of Disney actors turned Academy Award contenders, Jodie Foster will always be one of the most notable in that field. At the age of 15, Foster saw her first nomination through her only Best Supporting Actress nod to date. The eventual victor for films like The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs, Jodie first competed for Oscar glory through the role of child prostitute Iris Steensma in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. 

Morgan Freeman - Street Smart

Even movies with Oscar buzz can become buried in the sands of time. Just ask Morgan Freeman, who first saw himself nominated at the Academy Awards in 1987 for Street Smart. A crime drama starring Christopher Reeve as an ambitious reporter profiling Freeman’s pimp character Leo “Fast Black” Smalls Jr., it’s a movie that most wouldn’t remember; especially when compared to the other films the prestigious actor would be nominated for.

Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth

Playing royalty almost feels like a shortcut to winning big-time gold. However, Cate Blanchett is one of those exceptions that sets the rules. While she would later win trophies for The Aviator and Blue Jasmine, Blanchett’s first bid for an Academy Award came in 1999, thanks to the titular role in director Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth. 

Anthony Hopkins - The Silence Of The Lambs

Horror is one of those genres that doesn’t seem to get much love on the awards circuit. However, when the results are something as chilling as director Jonathan Demme’s adaptation of The Silence of the Lambs, containing Anthony Hopkins’ equally unsettling performance as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, it’s hard not to take notice. Score another First Timer’s Club victory, as Hopkins took home the gold his first time up.

Charlize Theron - Monster

Portraying the criminal mind provides such an allure for actors and auteurs alike. A case proving that point was Charlize Theron’s portrayal of convicted killer Aileen Wuornos in Patty Jenkins’ film Monster, her first nomination out of three at the time of this writing. Theron won the Best Actress trophy on the first try in 2004, all thanks to this tale of true crime. 

Christian Bale - The Fighter

Able to disappear completely in any character he plays, Academy Award winner Christian Bale has four nominations to his name. Equally split between Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor accolades, his first roll of the dice in 2011 landed him a win in the former category; thanks to David O. Russell’s The Fighter. 

Kate Winslet - Sense And Sensibility

The works of Jane Austen are another one of those sources that seem to periodically score nominations at the Oscars. Kate Winslet’s first is part of the proof, as the first of her current total of seven Academy Award nominations (and one win) came from 1995’s Sense and Sensibility. Ms. Winslet’s heart would go on to win Best Actress…in 2009, for Stephen Daldry’s The Reader.

Denzel Washington - Cry Freedom

Let’s see if King Kong knows this piece of movie trivia. Actor Denzel Washington has had 10 Oscar nominations, with two wins coming from that pool. While most would be tempted to cite his win for Glory as the first time he was nominated, that is incorrect. Washington’s first Academy Awards ceremony happened two years earlier in 1988, for his part in the film Cry Freedom. 

Kathy Bates - Misery

Frightening characters can make for the most golden of dreams, as was proven with 1991’s Academy Awards. Kathy Bates took home her first award on her first nomination, through the role of Anne Wilkes in Rob Reiner’s Misery. A “brilliant” adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, this fan favorite is one of many that’s seen the famed horror author’s work turning in some of the most well-regarded films and performances of all time.

George Clooney - Good Night, And Good Luck/Syriana

Here’s a wild story: George Clooney’s first Oscar nominations came from not one, but two films he was involved with. 2006’s Academy Awards saw the ER veteran land and win Best Supporting Actor for his role in Syriana, while one of CinemaBlend’s 100 best movies of the 2000s, Good Night, And Good Luck., netted him a Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay nod in that same contest.

Helen Mirren - The Madness Of King George

Did you know that half of Helen Mirren’s four Oscar nominations came from playing royalty? Surely most know of Mirren’s win in 2007 as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen. But, dear readers, another queen marked the start of Dame Helen’s Academy Awards history. Her Best Supporting Actress nod in 1995 for The Madness of King George would be her initial foray into this circuit, playing Queen Charlotte to Nigel Hawthorne’s titular monarch.

Judi Dench - Mrs. Brown

Dame Judi Dench is another regal figure that practically screams “Oscar” when you see her. Another member of the club of actors winning as royalty, Dench would win in 1999 for her as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love. That was only on her second try, because in 1998 Dame Judi received her first nomination, playing Queen Victoria in the film Mrs. Brown.

Dustin Hoffman - The Graduate

And here’s to you, Mr. Hoffman; Oscar came a’calling very young. At 30 years old, Dustin Hoffman saw his first Academy Award nomination through starring in 1967’s The Graduate. What may be more surprising than the actual 6-year age gap between himself and co-star Anne Bancroft is that his first Oscar win would take place 12 years later, with 1980’s Kramer vs. Kramer.

Susan Sarandon - Atlantic City

Five nominations and one win are actor Susan Sarandon’s Academy Award legacy, at the time of this writing. But her first nomination was from an Oscar-buzzed title that most folks may not remember: 1981’s Atlantic City. With nominations in “The Big Five” categories, Sarandon and the film at large walked away empty-handed that year.

Russell Crowe - The Insider

Before his name was Maximus Decimus Meridius, Russell Crowe found himself heading to the Oscars under a different moniker: Jeffrey Wigand. Nominated for the first time in 2000, Crowe’s role in Michael Mann’s whistleblower drama The Insider gave the Australian actor his first golden thrill ride. One that he’d repeat in 2001, and win for through the strength and honor of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator.

Angela Bassett - What’s Love Got To Do With It

Surprisingly, Angela Bassett only received her second nomination as part of 2023's Academy Awards, thanks to Marvel Studio’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Bassett’s first nomination came from playing royalty of a different type, as her lead role in the Tina Turner biopic What’s Love Got To Do With It saw her walking the Oscar red carpet in 1994.

Gary Oldman - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Count this as another shocker in Oscar nominations history: Gary Oldman only received his first Academy Awards nomination in 2012. You’d think the Bram Stoker’s Dracula actor would have had more than the three nods and one win he currently holds. However, his dreams of golden splendor only started after he played George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. 

Julia Roberts - Steel Magnolias

With three nominations and one win, Julia Roberts’ odds of firing you up or making you cry with her Academy Award-nominated projects are officially even. Her first time in the race came in 1990, in the dramedy classic Steel Magnolias. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, we’ll leave it to you to find out which bucket this particular nom falls into on your own time.

Al Pacino - The Godfather

Some roles are such an indelible part of an actor’s career, they just had to land an Oscar nomination for it. Al Pacino is certainly one of those cases, as he would turn his first Best Supporting Actor nomination for The Godfather into a Best Actor nod in The Godfather Part II. Both stem from his portrayal of Michael Corleone, the favorite son who descended into darkness and power.

Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married

“It came true.” Those three words marked the end of Anne Hathaway’s journey to Oscar gold, with her second nomination and first win for Best Supporting Actress in Les Miserables. But the beginning of Ms. Hathaway’s Academy Awards journey was in 2009, when she was nominated for Best Actress in Rachel Getting Married. 

Matt Damon - Good Will Hunting

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck both won their first Oscars for Best Original Screenplay, thanks to 1998’s Good Will Hunting. But much like other members of the First Timers Club in this list, Damon’s first victory was also his first time at the dance. How ‘bout dem apples indeed.

Jennifer Lawrence - Winter’s Bone

The second time was the charm for Jennifer Lawrence, as her role in Silver Linings Playbook made her a winner in 2013. That wasn’t too long after her initial foray into Oscar victory, which came in 2011 thanks to her lead role in the neo-noir gem Winter’s Bone. Who’d expect any less from the eventual "girl on fire" that would lead The Hunger Games to box office domination?

Ben Affleck - Good Will Hunting

Sailing on the same current as his writing partner and longtime buddy Matt Damon, Ben Affleck’s first Oscar nomination came from his co-authoring of Good Will Hunting. And to think, if Damon and Affleck’s hijinks involving the script hadn’t worked, we may never have seen either contributor go on to the storied careers they enjoy today.

Samuel L. Jackson - Pulp Fiction

Fans of Samuel L. Jackson are about to engage in some harsh language, as the current MCU star only has one Academy Award nomination. While it’s rightful for his Best Supporting Actor-worthy role in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, the man’s gone on to deliver several other powerhouse performances worth at least a nod or two. This is something that not even the tastiest beverage could wash away.

As an actor, you never know where that first win or nomination is going to come from. And when you're an A-lister as iconic as the people we've just discussed, those initial impressions are all the more interesting to look at as time goes on. Who knows where these blockbuster draws will find their next brush with golden glory, and how it will compare to these humble beginnings? 

Daniel Day-Lewis is considered by many, including the Hollywood community, as one of the most exceptional actors of all time. He’s worked with the best of the best, including Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Speilberg. And although he’s retired from acting now, the actors who worked alongside Day-Lewis can wear it like a badge of honor. This includes Kate Hudson, who recently recalled a time she compared notes with Leonardo DiCaprio about working with the notorious method actor. 

When Kate Hudson was the latest guest on Hot Ones, the host asked her about her time co-starring with Daniel Day-Lewis on the musical Nine in 2009. When asking her whether it was true that the Oscar winner wrote her notes on custom stationary during the production, she had this to say: 

Daniel Day-Lewis famously remained in character on the set of his roles, and as Kate Hudson shared, she got the best of it considering in the film their characters adore each other. One the other side of things, seven years earlier, Leonardo DiCaprio starred with Day-Lewis on the historical drama Gangs of New York, where they played the leaders of two opposing gangs in the 1800s. 

In regards to how Hudson was treated on set, the actress shared that Daniel Day-Lewis did in fact send her notes as his character of Guido. As she continued: 

Now, Hudson may not be exactly sure where those personal notes are these days, but she recalls being in the movie and Daniel Day-Lewis making her feel special. He was playing to his character by sending personal notes to her character during the production of the film. The movie also starred Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Fergie, Nicole Kidman and Sophia Loren, and was one of just 20 movies the actor was part of in his nearly 50 years in the industry. 

Daniel Day-Lewis’ final movie was Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Phantom Thread back in 2017. While he’s no longer starring in movies these days, Kate Hudson certainly is, with her latest being the Knives Out sequel, Glass Onion. Named after The Beatles song of the same name, the movie is another whodunnit fronted by Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc’s detective. 

In the movie, which received glowing reviews from critics and spent one week in theaters over the Thanksgiving holiday, Kate Hudson plays a former supermodel-turned-fashion designer named Birdie Jay. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will be available to check out with a Netflix subscription on December 23. 

What a year in movies 2019 shook out to be, huh? The 2020 Oscar nominations were announced Monday morning with massive recognition going to Joker, The Irishman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Marriage Story and so forth. The talent is especially stacked in the Academy Award for Best Actor category, with a high chance four-time nominee Joaquin Phoenix will finally nab his first Oscar, alongside first-time nominees Jonathan Pryce in for The Two Popes, Antonio Banderas for Pain & Glory and Marriage Story’s Adam Driver joining 2017’s Revenant Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio in esteemed Oscars category.

As we await The 2020 Oscars, let’s look back at the best actors to nab a gold trophy at the Academy Awards throughout history. Here’s our ranking:

10. Leonardo DiCaprio (1 Win, 6 Nominations)

The youngest actor to grace this list is 45-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio, who is among one of the nominees at the Oscars for the sixth year in his illustrious career for the role of troubled actor Rick Dalton in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. DiCaprio was first invited to the Oscars when he was 20 years old for a Best Actor nomination for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape for playing the mentally-disabled younger brother to Johnny Depp’s titular role.

And Leonardo DiCaprio has never been a stranger to the Academy for long, nabbing nominations for his memorable roles as Howard Hughes in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator and The Wolf of Wall Street and 2006’s Blood Diamond. He finally won in 2017 for his brutal role in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s The Revenant acting in below freezing temperatures in Canada leading to the actor catching the flu a few times, eating raw liver despite being a long-held vegetarian and working with little to no dialogue. The guy really worked for his Oscar!

9. Anthony Hopkins (1 Wins, 5 Nominations)

Another one of the 2020 nominees is one of the best actors to ever take home the award. Anthony Hopkins has been recognized this year in the Best Actor category for his supporting role as Pope Benedict alongside Best Actor nominee Jonathan Pryce’s Pope Francis in The Two Popes. The 82-year-old British actor has been acting since the ‘60s but his well-known role to date is the chilling Dr. Hannibal Lecter in 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs. He won his only Oscar for playing the serial killer, along with the crime-thriller taking home Best Picture and three other awards.

Between The Silence of the Lambs and The Two Popes, Anthony Hopkins has been nominated for playing WWII butler with Emma Thompson in The Remains of the Day, the 37th US president in Nixon and John Quincy Adams in Steven Spielberg’s Amistad. Hopkins has shown again and again his ability to disappear into roles and intrigue audiences with his riveting performances.

8. Dustin Hoffman (2 Wins, 7 Nominations)

He may not be active in recent years as he once was, but Dustin Hoffman has been a part of quite a few timeless movies that will be revisited again and again. The 82-year-old talent has nabbed two Oscars in his lifetime for 1979’s divorce drama opposite Meryl Streep Kramer vs. Kramer and as the autistic brother to Tom Cruise in 1988’s Rain Man.

Along with his two wins, Dustin Hoffman was first recognized by the Academy for Mike Nichols’ classic The Graduate when he was 30 years old. His other nominations include his role in Midnight Cowboy, Lenny, Tootsie and Wag the Dog alongside Robert De Niro. Hoffman belongs on this list because when he stars in a movie his performance is just about always the highlight of the flick. His presence elevates the material and brings a particular emotion that leaves the audience in tears.

7. Daniel Day-Lewis (3 Wins, 6 Nominations)

Daniel Day-Lewis has since retired from acting, but not without a particularly impressive career in Hollywood. The 62-year-old is a favorite of the Academy’s, collecting an Oscar 50 percent of the time he’s been nominated. Day-Lewis’ first nomination lead to a win in 1990 for his leading role in My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown where he played a man who was born with cerebral palsy and learns to write and paint with his only working limb.

Daniel Day-Lewis is of course best known for Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, which awarded him his second Oscar. His most recent win was for playing Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’s 2012 biopic. He’s also been nominated for In the Name of the Father, Scorsese’s Gangs of New York and Anderson’s Phantom Thread. Like his colleagues, Day-Lewis dazzles with his method acting – like the time when he built a canoe during the making of the Last of the Mohicans.

6. Denzel Washington (2 Wins, 8 Nominations)

Hollywood has long been a white man’s game. Just look at this list! But, there’s one actor who not only broke the disparity, he shattered it. Denzel Washington was the first Black actor to receive two Academy Awards with Mahershala Ali since following his lead in the past few years. Of course, it’s not just about firsts – Washington has starred in some of the best movies of all time such as Malcolm X and Philadelphia.

Denzel Washington’s first win came in 1990 when he won for his role as a Civil War soldier in Glory and his second for 2001’s Training Day. In between, he was recognized by the Academy for Malcolm X, The Hurricane, Flight, Fences and Roman J. Israel, Esq. The 65-year-old actor has delivered some incredible performances, namely about the Black experience in America and inspiring others such as Michael B. Jordan, who referenced Glory for Black Panther.

5. Tom Hanks (2 Wins, 6 Nominations)

Another veteran to the Academy’s good graces returning to the nominee list in 2020 is Tom Hanks. The 63-year-old actor was nominated in the Best Actor category for his supporting role as Mr. Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. As the Golden Globes recently reminded us when Hanks was honored with Cecil B. DeMille award at the 2020 Golden Globes, Hanks has some of the most memorable roles in history. It’s countless really.

The actor won two Academy Awards for two years in a row. In 1993, Tom Hanks nabbed his first for starring in the true story of a man with HIV who takes his law firm to court after being fired for his condition. His second was for playing the iconic and quotable role, Forrest Gump. He’s also been nominated for Big, Saving Private Ryan and Cast Away. He’s America’s Sweetheart for a reason – he always manages to get us on his side and empathize with his performance.

4. Robert De Niro (2 Wins, 7 Nominations)

Now we’re down to the wire. And amazingly enough these next two actors gave incredible performances in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman in 2019. Robert De Niro will mainly be remembered for his partnership with Scorsese where he was nominated for Taxi Driver in 1976, Cape Fear in 1991 and won for Raging Bull in 1980, but there’s a ton of meat on his acting bone. Did you know his first nomination and win was for his supporting role in Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece The Godfather: Part II back in 1975?

He nabbed another nominee in 1979 for The Deer Hunter – an examination of the effects of the Vietnam War along with flawlessly playing a catatonic man to Robin Williams’ physician in 1990’s Awakenings, and father to Bradley Cooper in David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook. De Niro has always picked challenging roles and challenging subjects that stick with us for years… decades since.

3. Al Pacino (1 Wins, 9 Nominations)

Also finding beginnings in The Godfather is Al Pacino, also nominated this year at the Oscars for his supporting role as Jimmy Hoffa in The Irishman. Pacino is Scarface, he’s Serpico and he’s an Oscar winner for 1992’s Scent of a Woman, where he played a blind man who his prep school “babysitter” (played by Chris O’Donnell) discovers to be an alcoholic army veteran.

Al Pacino has been recognized for a whopping nine Oscars (the most on this list thus far) for playing Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part I and II, NY cop in Serpico, a bank robber in Dog Day Afternoon, lawyer in And Justice For All, Big Boy Caprice Dick Tracy, and realtor in Glengarry Glen Ross. He’s done everything imaginable and the Academy clearly loves him. He’s memorable in just about every role he does. He’s Al Pacino!!

2. Jack Nicholson (3 Wins, 12 Nominations)

The No. 2 spot goes to a record setter at the Oscars. Jack Nicholson is the most nominated male actor in the Academy Awards history. (Meryl Streep leads with 21 and he ties with Katherine Hepburn at 12). The 82-year-old actor first impressed back in 1969 with motorcycle drama Easy Rider starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. He steadily kept coming back to the awards show through the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s.

Jack Nicholson’s first big win was for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest after playing a rapist who is sent to a mental institution despite not having a mental illness. It followed four prior noms for Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Detail and Chinatown. Nicholson also won for family drama Terms of Endearment in 1983 and As Good As It Gets in 1997. Of course the actor has tons more credits to his name – also playing Joker in The Batman and Frank Costello in The Departed. It’s overwhelming!

1. Marlon Brando (2 Wins, 8 Nominations)

At the top of the best actors to win Best Actor is Marlon Brando. He’s the kind of actor who has influenced just about every man on this list with his classic performances in A Streetcar Named Desire, Apocalypse Now and so forth. He’s well known for adopting the Method Acting formula which many of these men have adopted and have contributed to their Oscar wins later. He’s a model career to many, still being emulated today. If Joaquin Phoenix wins the next Best Actor Oscar, his Joker performance certainly has roots in Brando.

Brando won twice – first for 1954’s On the Waterfront and second for playing Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather. Although, he did not attend the ceremony purposefully choosing Native American actress Maria Cruz to accept his award to make a statement about the poor treatment of American Indians in Hollywood. This certainly shows that even the best of actors don’t always approve of Hollywood and its functions. It’s about the art, not the recognition.

Who's the Best Actor to win Best Actor? Sound off in the comments below and vote in our poll!

This poll is no longer available.

You should be aware by now that Warner Bros. has found its new Batman following Ben Affleck’s official exit after three movies in the cowl. Actor Robert Pattinson will lead director Matt Reeves’ The Batman, which is set for 2021.

Obviously, you probably have an opinion about this. Maybe you would have rather they stuck with an older interpretation of the hero and cast Jon Hamm, or maybe, after accepting the decision to make Bruce Wayne younger, you believe that Nicolas Hoult would have been a better fit.

Believe it or not, the role of Batman has seen more controversial casting than Edward from Twilight. In fact, some of the names who were merely under consideration to portray the iconic DC character sound questionable in retrospect.

Actors like Ethan Hawke, The X-Files’ David Duchovny, Mel Gibson and many others were offered the chance to star as Gotham’s savior, but settled for other opportunities, for better or worse. The following actors are some of the most intriguing and infamously speculated names who almost played Batman.

Jake Gyllenhaal

After it was confirmed in 2018 that Ben Affleck would not be returning for Matt Reeves’ solo Batman film, for a brief moment, the Academy Award-nominated actor, known for embracing darkness in thrillers like Donnie Darko and will gain comic book movie experience as Mysterio in this year’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, was the frontrunner to replace him.

Of course, this turned out to be merely rumors, but it was not the first time Jake Gyllenhaal was eyed for the cowl. While Christopher Nolan was casting for 2005’s Batman Begins, Jake Gyllenhaal was among the top choices to play Batman before the part ultimately went to Christian Bale.

While I can imagine that the talented actor would have had an interesting take on the character, one thing I know for sure is that it would have led to a very bizarre Brokeback Mountain reunion in The Dark Knight.

Johnny Depp

Fans of Johnny Depp would agree that the actor is a jack of all trades who could play suave and debonair just as easily as he could play grim and violent. These are key characteristics of pulling off both billionaire Bruce Wayne and his costumed alter ego, Batman.

However, Johnny Depp’s good friend Tim Burton could not convince Batman Forever director Joel Schumacher that the Edward Scissorhands star was a right fit for the role in the 1995 sequel. Eventually, talk of Depp playing The Riddler in The Dark Knight Rises would surface, only to be shot down as internet rumors. I, for one, would have supported either of these decisions 1000 percent.

Keanu Reeves

Technically, Keanu Reeves is a guy who already knows what it is like to play a vengeful combat expert dressed in black (John Wick), but does that not make you even more curious how he could have pulled off playing Batman?

Before Ben Affleck landed the part, the actor, who had already had a taste of portraying a DC character with 2005’s Constantine, very publicly expressed interest in playing Dark Knight in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. He was also considered for Batman Forever in the mid 1990s. I cannot imagine Keanu Reeves replacing Val Kilmer making too much of a difference.

Josh Brolin

It was a big year for comic book movies in 2018 and the most prolific actor in the genre at the time happened to be Josh Brolin, playing the cult favorite biomechanical being Cable in Deadpool 2 and the ruthless, genocidal warmonger Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. At one time, he had a shot at DC fame, too.

Josh Brolin’s name was thrown around in consideration to play Bruce Wayne in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. He later admitted to having no hard feelings over losing to Ben Affleck, even going as far as, essentially, calling out fans’ bitterness over the casting as ridiculous.

Bill Murray

It is easy to scoff at the idea of a beloved comedic actor taking on the role of DC’s dark, gritty caped crusader, just like fans initially reacted to the casting of Michael Keaton. However, if Bill Murray had donned the cowl, it would have been less Keaton, more Adam West.

About a decade before Tim Burton was at the helm, Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman was tapped to give Batman a new life on the big screen, but in the vein of the 1960s TV show, and he wanted to cast his buddy Bill Murray as his Bruce Wayne. The project, which also considered casting Eddie Murphy as Robin and David Bowie as Joker, fell apart, paving the way for Burton to bring the proper, darker take on the character into the mainstream.

Armie Hammer

Can you imagine the creator of Mad Max helming the Justice League with Oliver from Call Me By Your Name as Batman? Well, in another reality, this would have been the dawn of the DCEU.

Until its ridiculously high budget and the 2008 Writers Strike sealed the project’s doom, George Miller was set to direct Justice League: Mortal, casting a then 19-year-old Armie Hammer as Batman, along with Adam Brody as The Flash and Common as Green Lantern, among others. Looking back, Hammer realized that his casting as a Bruce Wayne not yet into his 20s may not have been received very well.

Harrison Ford

As Indiana Jones, Han Solo, Blade Runner’s Rick Deckard and plenty of other roles as gruff men of action, Harrison Ford is practically the face of cinematic heroism. Thus, filling the boots of the Dark Knight would sound like a natural fit for the actor.

Before Michael Keaton signed on, Harrison Ford was under consideration for Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989. While it may be fun to imagine the actor as Bruce Wayne (even at 47), I am thankful that he was still available that year to reprise his most famous character in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Pierce Brosnan

“The name’s Wayne, Bruce Wayne” is what Tim Burton’s take on Gotham’s millionaire playboy may have sounded like had Pierce Brosnan accepted the title role in 1989’s Batman. Though the Irish actor turned the part down, he later looked back on the decision as a mistake on his part.

Pierce Brosnan initially thought the idea of playing a “guy who wears his underpants outside his trousers” was a joke and refused the role, not comprehending Tim Burton’s more serious intentions for the character. On the bright side, at least he can say he is James Bond.

Henry Cavill

How could you not look at Henry Cavill and say, “It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!”? Well, perhaps if he had landed the role of the Dark Knight first.

The British actor auditioned for Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, but, despite his imposing figure and a jawline perfect for the cowl, he, of course, lost to Christian Bale. Henry Cavill bounced back quite gracefully when cast as Clark Kent in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel and later facing off against the character he missed out on playing in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Tom Hanks

It is difficult to think of Tom Hanks as anyone other than a soft spoken, lighthearted person. Even his performance in Saving Private Ryan, one of the bleakest films of all time, is enough to convince me he was is the perfect choice for that upcoming Mr. Rogers biopic.

Believe it or not, though, the two-time Academy Award-winner was one of the top names considered to play the dark, brooding, vengeful vigilante in Tim Burton’s Batman and after Keaton turned down Batman Forever, Tom Hanks’ name was thrown around again. It would not be the last time he was considered for a comic book movie as he Warner Bros. had interest in seeing him play Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Technically, Tom Hanks has done a comic book movie, as 2002’s Road to Perdition was inspired by a 1998 DC Comics... comic. However, as far as full-blooded superhero movies go, we still have yet to see him don a cape or sport a menacing grin.

Daniel Day-Lewis

His name is lined up in the ranks close to Marlon Brando or Robert De Niro. He could turn even the simplest words of a script into poetry. He could breathe glorious life into just about any role you challenge him with.

The idea of Daniel Day-Lewis as Batman sounds too incredible to be real. Indeed, it will forever remain mere fantasy as the three-time Oscar winner did not accept the offer to replace Michael Keaton for 1995’s Batman Forever, allowing Val Kilmer to step in. So close...

Heath Ledger

For many, Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in 2008’s The Dark Knight is the definitive image of Batman’s greatest foe. However, he came close to playing the part on the other side of the law of the Nolanverse.

The late Australian actor was Christopher Nolan’s top choice to lead Batman Begins before Christian Bale was even considered. I think we can all agree that, while Heath Ledger was an actor of tremendous talent, we are thankful he was turned down the first time so he could apply that talent to the striking performance that would posthumously earn him an Academy Award.

To you, many of these actors may sound like fine choices to play the Dark Knight, while others sound utterly ridiculous. The important thing to remember is that a performance is measured not by expectation, but execution.

Who is to say that Josh Brolin could have made a better Batman than Ben Affleck or Daniel Day-Lewis than Val Kilmer (that might be a given, though)? We will never know, just like we do not know the fate of Robert Pattinson’s upcoming portrayal in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. As Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck have taught us, it is best not to jump to conclusions and give an actor a fair shot.

This poll is no longer available.

Months after its release into theaters, Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread still feels like a dream -- though one we experienced while being awake, and dialed in to all of our senses. This is the effect that Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his brilliant collaborator, Mr. Anderson, have on an audience... as well as on the women who wear the fantastic clothes that Woodcock designs. This all makes more sense once you have seen Phantom Thread, and if you haven't, it's coming to DVD on April 10 (it's on streaming already). To celebrate, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment gave CinemaBlend an exclusive clip of deleted scenes from Phantom Thread, under the exquisite title For the Hungry Boy:

You can practically hear Alma (Vicky Krieps) buttering her toast, and Reynolds glaring, disapprovingly, at the savage culinary act. In Phantom Thread, renowned dress designer Reynolds Woodcock (Oscar nominated Daniel Day-Lewis) balances his work with fleeting romances. His current lust falls on Alma, a waitress at a country restaurant who ignites Reynolds' creative flame. Only, Woodcock's protective sister (Oscar nominated Lesley Manville) understands that this relationship is doomed, unless Alma can find the true path to Woodcock's unpredictable heart.

Phantom Thread was recently nominated for six Academy Awards, and it took home one -- for Best Achievement in Costume Design, of course. And that's part of what Vicky Krieps is elaborating on in the above clip. The allure of Reynolds' design. The way that his handcrafted dresses can make a woman feel -- particularly if they lack confidence in themselves. It's a slippery slope of emotional turmoil, and one that Paul Thomas Anderson loves to explore in his expertly crafted vehicle.

But we expect nothing less from a genius like PTA, who unfortunately will no longer have this particular muse at his disposal. Phantom Thread might be the follow up, for Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis, to There Will Be Blood. But it's also rumored to be DDL's final on-screen performance, as he announced his retirement from acting before this movie arrived. Will the retirement last? Who's to say. For now, appreciate all that you can about Phantom Thread, for it might be the last thing DDL gives his fans from here on out.

In addition to the above For the Hungry Boy deleted scenes clip, the Phantom Thread DVD and Blu-ray set will include a digital copy of the movie, camera tests, behind-the-scenes photography, and a feature called "House of Woodcock Fashion Show." Order it now on Amazon. It will be everywhere starting Tuesday, April 10.

Every year, a movie slips into theaters in the dead of December, playing enough theaters in New York and Los Angeles to qualify for Oscar consideration, and then receive a surge on Oscar Nomination morning. Usually, it's a pedigree film from a proven contender, your Clint Eastwoods or Alejandro Innaritus of the film world. This year, it was Paul Thomas Anderson's masterfully restrained fashion drama Phantom Thread that snuck into the race, and this morning, the movie announced its presence as a legitimate Oscar contender with a whopping six nominations, including four in the major categories.

Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread follows esteemed dress designer Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) as he falls into something that resembles love with an unassuming waitress, played by Vicky Krieps. PTA, DDL and the movie, itself, all scored major Oscar nominations this morning, as Phantom Thread will contend in the Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor categories. While Krieps was overlooked, her co-star Lesley Manville showed up in the Best Supporting Actress category for her controlling turn as Reynolds' sister, and support system, Cyril.

Will it win in any of those main categories? Probably not, but getting into the categories is the first step, and from here, anything can happen. And I'm not saying that in a way that I'd be saying it for, like, Darkest Hour. Which is a Best Picture nominee, but has no real shot at winning at the Academy Awards (though Gary Oldman has to be viewed as the frontrunner for disappearing into the role of Winston Churchill).

If Focus Features were to somehow play its cards right, Phantom Thread is the kind of Oscar prestige picture that absolutely could climb its way back into a tight Oscar race. The film nabbed Picture and Director, as well as two acting noms. Can't you see an Oscar campaign that celebrates Daniel Day-Lewis' announced "final" film role? It's other two noms include Costume Design (because of course) and Score for frequent PTA collaborator Jonny Greenwood. The movie proved this morning that it is liked and respected by the Academy. It has the makings of a solid Academy Awards contender. The field has been cleared and the races essentially start over again as of this morning. Phantom Thread, with these six nominations, shows itself to be a contender... and a strong one, at that.

The Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 4, with Jimmy Kimmel returning to host the show. Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water leads all nominees this year with 13, while Jordan Peele's Get Out has also proven to be a solid contender. If you like Oscar talk, might I recommend CinemaBlend's weekly awards podast, AwardsBlend. We record it live each week, but if you want to download past episodes (and subscribe to us on iTunes), head over here.

As a cinephile, there is always a tremendous thrill in seeing the greatest filmmakers teaming up with the greatest actors. The former's track record immediately prepares you for an engaging story paired with smart and purposeful visuals and aesthetics; while the presence of the latter gets you ready for a performance that couldn't be accomplished by any other star. In the case of Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day Lewis, we've already seen their individual magic coalesce in the jaw-dropping There Will Be Blood -- which currently stands as one of the greatest dramas of 21st century cinema. Now the two have reunited for the dark romance Phantom Thread, and while the spark is still very much there, the finished product doesn't quite reach the heights set by expectation.

The eighth film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the new film is a deep dive into the fashion world of the 1950s, specifically focusing on the life and works of legendary designer Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis). His fashion house based in London, Woodcock's dresses inspire the elite from around the world to come to his door in hopes of having something made for a big event. However, equally as famous as his taste is his temperament -- the concentration he needs for his work leading to the development of a short fuse and a low tolerance level for anything short of his intensely high standards.

Naturally, his personal relationships suffer, with the only people he keeps close to him being his business manager, Cyril (Lesley Manville), and memories of his deceased mother. This all changes with the arrival of Alma (Vicky Krieps), a young woman whom Reynolds meets while she is working as a waitress. He quickly becomes infatuated with her, seeing her as his muse and having her work alongside him designing new dresses, but as is the case with all romances in Reynolds' life, his fire quickly fizzles out. The difference with Alma, though, is that she is not so quick to be dismissed by the man she loves, and takes bold action to keep him close to her.

Daniel Day-Lewis has been saying that Phantom Thread will be his last film, the actor retiring from the profession at the age of 60, and it makes for a fascinating note to go out on. The English actor has a reputation for giving no less than 100 percent in all of his roles, and playing Reynolds Woodcock he has once again successfully transformed and disappeared, though it does leave a certain bitter taste. While the role is completely different from There Will Be Blood's Daniel Plainview, he does still carry the same kind of unpleasant air, albeit in a different form. Reynolds exudes an intense artistic passion, which you are certainly meant to respect, but that's counterweighted with some serious personality disorders. His kind of behavior was excused and tolerated during period in which the story takes place, but is completely gross and horrifying when observed in the climate in which the film is being released. The feelings evoked towards the character are a tribute to Day-Lewis' power, and the feature doesn't tell you that his actions are in any way right, but it makes for a complicated final performance from the three-time Oscar winner.

While Paul Thomas Anderson has presented an eclectic mix of tones and stories during his endlessly impressive career, Phantom Thread presents a stunning contrast of elegance and darkness, leading the filmmaker to aesthetically build something unlike anything we've ever seen from him. And the results are expectedly incredible. He keeps the argument of film over digital very much alive, and acting as his own cinematographer for the first time delivers scene after scene of visual splendor -- bathing the detailed work of uniformed seamstresses in angelic, soft white light and offering sinister, fire lit visions of the future through its non-linear narrative. You expect beauty in a film about fashion, and Anderson practically overwhelms you with it.

In his 21 years as a director, Paul Thomas Anderson has consistently demonstrated himself as a crafty storyteller and a detail-oriented auteur, and Phantom Thread continues that streak featuring much of what we love about him as a filmmaker. It's ultimately not his strongest or best work, but a worthy addition to his filmography, and a powerful send-off for Daniel Day-Lewis.

Daniel Day-Lewis is unquestionably one of the greatest actors the world has ever seen, and it's through that lens that we see writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson as a lucky guy. After all, the filmmaker has not only had the chance to work with the performer twice, but the second time, the newly released Phantom Thread, is said to be Day-Lewis' final film. After this, the big question is whether or not the actor will actually retire - and while it turns out that Anderson believes the answer is yes for now, he also thinks circumstances could certainly change in the future. He recently said,

Paul Thomas Anderson has been on the press tour recently promoting his eighth film, and it was while sitting down with Yahoo! that he was asked about Daniel Day-Lewis' retirement. Having just worked with the actor, it sounds like Anderson believes that he is indeed ready to take a break from the profession - but also recognizes that it probably won't be a permanent thing. While he may try his hardest not to work and perform anymore, Day-Lewis could be handed a script in the coming days, weeks, months or years that he absolutely can't resist, and his two-time collaborator thinks that will be enough to draw him back into the industry.

We first learned about Daniel Day-Lewis' pending retirement this past summer, and while he will be dearly missed, it's also understandable why he is stepping away. The guy has never been what you would call prolific, having made only 21 movies in 46 years, but there are few in the world who put themselves into their work as much as he does. He is a remarkable, transformative performer, and his intense dedication has resulted in him winning a stunning three Academy Awards (My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood, Lincoln). It can't be easy putting yourself into your work on that level, which explains why he's walking away at the age of 60.

For reasons that Paul Thomas Anderson is quick to note, however, retirements don't always stick in Hollywood. A performer or a filmmaker may say that they're done, but all it really ever takes is one great idea to bring them back into the magical world. We can assume that this will probably be true for Daniel Day-Lewis, but the big question is what project it will be that makes him change his mind. Obviously right now we don't have a clue, but that's a question to which we're excited to learn the answer - regardless of how long it takes.

Phantom Thread is out now in limited release.

This poll is no longer available.

Earlier this year, Daniel Day-Lewis announced through a personal representative that he was retiring from the craft of acting. At that time, there weren't any further details given to the public, leaving us all to wonder why the legendary thespian would jump ship after participating in Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread. Well now we've got some more information from Day-Lewis himself on why he's decided to take his leave from acting. His explanation is, as follows:

The decision for Daniel Day-Lewis to stop acting came during the process of researching his role in Phantom Thread, which ultimately caused the Academy Award winner to go through some personal changes, including rethinking his career. Instead of merely saying he was going to quit show-business, only for another offer to come along and contradict his wishes, he made an official statement and hasn't looked back. Much like a typical performance in his canon, Day-Lewis is going all the way with this withdrawal from acting.

It's certainly sad to see the man whose given such amazing performances in classics like My Left Foot and The Last of The Mohicans, as well as modern heavyweights like There Will Be Blood and Lincoln, hanging up his metaphorical hat. But with a career like his, Daniel Day-Lewis wouldn't be blamed for retiring at this point, due to the fact that the sheer amount of energy he puts into a single role is something that most actors would not be capable of. He's extremely method, and that seemingly gets pretty draining. In the case of Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread was the straw that broke the camel's back, as the film sent the actor into an unanticipated sadness. Day-Lewis explained this further in his recent profile W Magazine. He said:

So if you need to blame anything for Daniel Day-Lewis's retirement, you can blame Phantom Thread itself, as the intensity of the project created a sadness that both the director and actor couldn't shake. He's even gone on to say that he doesn't want to see the completed film, due to the decision to stop acting in the wake of that sadness. The actor is clearly he's not out of the woods yet when it comes to those feelings, so naturally, he's all about the rehabilitation process at this point.

The way that Daniel Day-Lewis puts together a role is something that isn't easily duplicated, and can be as painstaking as it is beautiful to watch. Few actors come close to his level of chameleon-esque craft-work, and there's only a number who can be held in equally high regard. We'll certainly miss his presence on the big screen, but at the same time, it's totally understandable why he'd make such a choice at this juncture in his life. We'll just have to take in Phantom Thread extra carefully when the film is released to theaters on December 25th. But in the meantime, we'll be reviewing our 2017 release schedule, to see what else is coming to theaters that can distract us from this impending farewell.

Brace yourself for this one, movie junkies. This December, when Paul Thomas Anderson's latest drama Phantom Thread lands in theaters, it will be the last time that we can anticipate a new performance by Daniel Day-Lewis on the big screen. Sure, we'll always have his full body of work to cherish. But the legendary screen performer has announced his retirement from film acting, and so long as it sticks, Phantom Thread will be his final role. See what his last performance will entail in the film's first trailer, which just arrived:

Needless to say, there's a lot to unpack from this trailer, but we'd expect nothing less from the brilliant filmmaker behind such multi-layered masterpieces as Boogie Nights, The Master, There Will Be Blood, Magnolia and Inherent Vice. A lot will be made about the fact that Phantom Thread reunites Daniel Day-Lewis with Paul Thomas Anderson, the man who pushed all the right buttons in There Will Be Blood to create a towering monster of a character in Daniel Plainview. You can see the seeds of power and control being exerted by Day-Lewis as he plays this new character, Reynolds Woodcock.

And, because this is a Paul Thomas Anderson movie, you can see how obsession with control starts to tear a person apart... only, instead of it being a quest to control oil fields, or dismantle a rookie preacher's faith in a higher being, PTA is back to examining how love can tear a person's soul down to its core. Revisit the director's vastly underrated Punch-Drunk Love to see how this idea intrigued a younger PTA -- and look for traces of this discussion in Inherent Vice, as well.

The focus of Reynolds Woodcock's eye will be played by Vicky Krieps, personifying a waitress who is plucked from obscurity by a high-profile London clothing designer and immersed into the world of fashion when he tries to remake her in his intense vision of perfection. Only, that rarely goes according to plan, and the more this perfectionist tries to "fix" the lady he suddenly adores, the more her resistance forces him to buckle.

Phantom Thread enters a very crowded marketplace this Christmas (it opens in limited release on December 25, in time to qualify for Oscar consideration). Multiplexes expect that Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be sucking all the air out of the proverbial room. What's left will fall to Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. But Oscar hopefuls like The Greatest Showman, Molly's Game and Steve Spielberg's The Post also will be competing for the so-called Adult Dollar, where discerning patrons plunk down cash to be challenged by cinema. How will this movie fare? Time will tell.

Few actors have ever reached a legendary status on the same level as Daniel Day Lewis. Over the course of his lengthy career, he has turned in some of the most iconic performances ever committed to film, and he has become recognized as one of the all-time greats. But all good things must eventually come to an end, and the thespian will soon hang it up after his final project, Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread. Not much is known about Lewis' final foray into the silver screen world, but now it looks like the film will center on an English dressmaker in the 1950s. Phantom Thread's synopsis reads:

Based on that synopsis from Comingsoon.net, it looks like Daniel Day Lewis is gearing up for yet another period piece as his final silver screen performance -- which is undoubtedly a model that has worked for him in films like Last of the Mohicans and Lincoln. Following the story of a dressmaker for the royal family in 1950s London, it seems reasonable to assume that Phantom Thread could come chock full of those little character moments that we have come to expect from his performances over the years.

The pairing of Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Thomas Anderson for a premise like Phantom Thread should be enough to get any film fan excited based merely on their earlier collaboration. Ten years ago they released There Will Be Blood to near-universal acclaim, with some hailing Daniel Day Lewis' performance as oil tycoon Daniel Plainview has the best performance of his career.

If they can recapture the same magic that worked so well a decade ago, then there's no reason not to assume that Phantom Thread could debut to similar acclaim. Add that to the fact that the project has assembled a pretty phenomenal cast of supporting actors, and things are shaping up quite nicely as we prepare to say goodbye to one of the film industry's unique and well-respected voices.

CinemaBlend will bring you any and all relevant updates related to Daniel Day Lewis' final Hollywood performance in Phantom Thread as new information about it becomes available to us. The film is set to debut on December 25, 2017. Until then, take a look at our comprehensive 2017 movie premiere guide and our 2018 movie premiere guide and fill out your moviegoing calendars accordingly!

And you already thought 2017 sucked. It's about to get a lot worse. Daniel Day-Lewis just announced, via his spokesperson, that he is retiring from acting. No reason has been given. In a statement obtained by Variety, spokeswoman Leslee Dart stated:

So this is what it feels like when someone drinks your milkshake? It's horrible. The idea that we won't have a new Daniel Day-Lewis performance to look forward to after 2017 is devastating. The man has been, without question, one of the most consistent, challenging, dependable and surprising actors of this current generation. And he's a young man. At 60 years of age, he's just now transitioning into a seasoned veteran stage, where character actors often do their best work. This isn't like losing Gene Hackman in his 80s. Daniel Day-Lewis has decades of potential projects that will go unfulfilled. I am devastated thinking about that vast loss.

Daniel Day-Lewis belongs to the illustrious group of film actors who have claimed three Oscars. All three of Day-Lewis' come in the Best Actor category, which is a first (some of this peers, such as Meryl Streep or Jack Nicholson, picked up trophies in the Supporting categories). What is the definitive Daniel Day-Lewis performance? Most likely would go right to one of the turns that won him an Oscar, be it Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's biopic, or the oil man Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood. To me, it's Bill "The Butcher," the terrifying kingpin DDL played in Martin Scorsese's underrated Gangs of New York. A masterful and towering performance in a beautiful, sprawling mess of a movie.

If there's one thing that somewhat softens the blow caused by Daniel Day-Lewis' unexpected retirement from the acting community, it's that he has one more film left to arrive, and it's coming later this year. Day-Lewis will collaborate with There Will Be Blood director Paul Thomas Anderson on Phantom Thread (did we know that was the name of this movie?), a drama set in the world of London fashion in the 1950s. In addition to Daniel Day-Lewis, the ensemble for Phantom Thread includes Lesley Manville, Camilla Rutherford and Richard Graham.

But how on Earth will we be expected to head into Phantom Thread knowing that it's going to be Daniel Day-Lewis' final movie? Bring tissues. And vote in our poll.

This poll is no longer available.

When it's announced that Paul Thomas Anderson is working on a brand new film, any movie fan worth their salt immediately becomes a little intrigued and excited. But there's another reason to instantly anticipate the lauded director's next project. That's because he's re-teaming with Daniel Day-Lewis, and the first details of their next cinematic delight have now been released.

As of yet, we're still waiting on an actual title for the film, but a press release for P.T. Anderson and Daniel Day Lewis' effort has confirmed that production has already begun in the United Kingdom, while also revealing that they duo will "explore a distinctive milieu of the 20th Century." What does that specifically entail? I'll let the press release explain:

The crew working alongside P.T. Anderson is littered with award winners, which suggests that his next project will be right in the hunt for accolades when it's finally released. We're hoping that will be in time for the 2018 Oscars. Anderson is working on the eighth consecutive film in a row with costume designer Mark Bridges, who previously won the Academy Award for _The Artist. _

The duo will be joined by production designer Mark Tildesley, set decorator Veronique Melery, editor Dylan Tichenor, and, arguably most excitingly of all, composer and Radioheader Jonny Greenwood. Each of these individuals have previously worked on four films with Paul Thomas Anderson, while they have Emmys, BAFTAs and Academy Awards (or at least nominations) to prove that they're rather good at their jobs, too.

Lesley Manville (Another Year) and Vicky Krieps (A Most Wanted Man, Hanna) will look to wrestle screen time from Daniel Day-Lewis. His reunion with Paul Thomas Anderson is what makes this particular project just so alluring, especially considering their last effort together was so successful.

Released in 2007, There Will Be Blood didn't just receive eight Academy Award nominations, one of which was picked up by Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor, but it was also lauded so much that it's widely regarded as one of the greatest films of the 21st century, if not of all time. It also produced scenes like this, which immediately showcase why it's so cherished.

Other than that, Daniel Day-Lewis has picked up two other Oscars for My Left Foot and Lincoln, which was the last film that he starred in, while Paul Thomas Anderson's past films have included Boogie Nights, Punch Drunk Love, The Master and Inherent Vice, all of which are borderline genius. So basically, yeah, it's time to get very excited about this one.

How, exactly, does Steven Spielberg follow up a critically acclaimed historical Oscar winner like Lincoln? Easy. He makes Obama, a biopic of a lame-duck president that can hit theaters before the Commander In Chief even leaves office. And who does he get to play Pres. Obama? Even easier. Spielberg leans on Daniel Day-Lewis, in this amusing sketch that was shared via The Guardian.

If you’ve watched the clip, then you know that it really isn’t Oscar winner Day-Lewis in the role, but Obama playing himself for the benefit of a spoof that aired during the 2013 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which was held at the Washington Hilton Hotel over the weekend. It’s refreshing to see the President – like so many leaders before him – lean on self-deprecating humor to poke fun at his accent, his physical appearance and his “motivations” while playing Day-Lewis playing Obama. At least, we know for sure that this isn’t Day-Lewis, right? Because the dude is just that good.

Like clockwork, the Obama haters lashed out in comments sections saying the President shouldn’t be wasting time with jokes during times of national crisis. The same argument were made the years that George W. Bush took part in the annual Correspondents’ dinner, and when Bill Clinton did it the years prior to that. There’s no getting around half the populace hating you when you are in office. The best you can do is try to have a sense of humor about your predicament.

As for Spielberg, we really don’t know what his post-Lincoln project will be. He’s occupied at the moment preparing for Cannes, where he’ll lead the Grand Jury. But he dropped his planned Moses movie, and put Robopocalypse on the back burner. Obama won’t be next, but what WOULD you like Spielberg to tackle?

In an evening filled with heartfelt but very straightforward acceptance speeches, with even the likes of Anne Hathaway keeping it low-key, it was fantastic to see Daniel Day-Lewis accept his third Oscar with not just some fantastic jokes, but genuine emotion. He's the first person ever to win three Best Actor statues, but from the way he cradled that award in his hand you'd think it was his first ever.

Of course, by now Day-Lewis is more than comfortable up there on the Oscar stage, and he pulled off joke about how he had originally been cast in Meryl Streep's Oscar-winning role in The Iron Lady, and that she had been Steven Spielberg's first choice for Lincoln. Day-Lewis cracked he'd like to see that version, and I think we can all agree on that one. After thanking his wife for living with all the eccentric characters he's played over the year, he dedicated his award to the three men he said he couldn't have done it without: screenwriter Tony Kushner, director Steven Spielberg, and of course, Abraham Lincoln himself.

There was no question that Day-Lewis would take home Best Actor for his Lincoln performance, but his humble acceptance speech-- he called his fellow nominees "my betters"-- meant no one could really begrudge him for it. Hopefully some day Joaquin Phoenix, Bradley Cooper, Denzel Washington and Hugh Jackman will be lucky enough not to do their best work in a year when Daniel Day-Lewis is out there proving just how amazing acting can be.

For the full list of the Oscar winners, you can click here, and keep coming back for much, much more Oscar coverage where this came from.

Photo Credit ©ABC

Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction turns 20 next year. This cold reality might explain why the usually verbose filmmaker has been turning wistful in recent interviews, reflecting on his complete body of work, his legacy, and the amount of films he thinks he has left in him.

Tarantino opened up recently about how hard he had to fight to get John Travolta cast as Vincent Vega in Fiction. But there are tons of fascinating casting decisions we really haven’t been aware of before now. In its thorough oral history of the making of Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, Vanity Fair elaborates that produce Harvey Weinstein fought the director’s choice for Travolta, suggesting Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Penn and William Hurt (!!) for the part of a foot-massage-loving hit man.

That wasn’t the only issue. According to VF, Bruce Willis originally wanted to play Vega as well, and when Travolta got the part, Willis focused on Butch … only Tarantino had promised the boxer to Matt Dillon. When Dillon hesitated about possibly taking the movie, Tarantino switched gears almost immediately. (It helped that Willis is and was a hugely bankable star around the world, and someone who made Pulp Fiction “legit,” in QT’s own words.)

The piece is a good read, revealing things we still didn’t know about Fiction nearly two decades after its release. For instance, there’s a great story about Samuel L. Jackson’s use of fast food in his audition, which occurred long after he’d believed he didn’t have the role. Of course, Tarantino’s Fiction ensemble is one of the most iconic in modern Hollywood history. But stories like this remind us how close movie deals come to blowing up and falling apart.

At last night's New York FIlm Critics Circle awards dinner, both Daniel Day-Lewis and Steven Spielberg were on hand to celebrate their film Lincoln, which had won the Best Actor prize for Day-Lewis and Best Screenplay for Tony Kushner. If Spielberg was sore about losing Best Director to Zero Dark Thirty's Kathryn Bigelow he sure didn't show it, taking the stage to present Day-Lewis's award and reading the letter Day-Lewis had written him when, unbelievably, he initially turned down the role of Abraham Lincoln.

As Spielberg explained it, he sent several drafts of the film to Day-Lewis before eventually hiring Kushner, and after receiving one of those drafts-- which Spielberg says was more like Saving Private Ryan set during the Civil War-- Day-Lewis wrote him a very thoughtful rejection. Here's that text, via Criticwire:

You can head over there to read Spielberg's very moving account of the final day of filming, when he heard Day-Lewis step out of character for the first time in four months, and "it made me cry because I wasn't ready to say goodbye to this warm and generous President who I had gotten to know better than all the history books I've ever read." Even if you're not necessarily nuts about Lincoln, you have to admire the incredible passion it took from both director and actor to make it possible.

As important as the story of the 16th president is, the reason why people will go to see Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln is because of the pedigree of the director and the performance of its star, Daniel Day-Lewis. But what’s impressive about the film is that once the lights have gone out and the projection has started, you are completely sucked into the 19th century world that the duo creates. In order to achieve this effect both Spielberg and Day-Lewis had to delve deep into the life of Abraham Lincoln, and that was the topic at hand when they spoke recently during a press conference in Los Angeles.

During the conversation, in which I participated, the director and the star touched on a multitude of subjects, including Day-Lewis’ initial hesitation towards taking on the role, the humor of the Civil War president, Lincoln’s relationship with his son, and why it may be misguided to see the film in a modern context. Check it out!

Steven, it seems like you’ve been wanting to do this all your life. What made this a passion project for you? And for Daniel, this is an iconic figure, what did you see as your greatest challenge in bringing him to life?

Daniel Day-Lewis: Apart from everything you mean?

Steven Spielberg: Okay, you want me to go first?

Daniel Day-Lewis: I’m finished.

Steven Spielberg: [Laughs] I’ve just always had a personal fascination with the myth of Abraham Lincoln, and once you start to read about him and the Civil War and everything leading up to the Civil War you start to understand that the myth is created when we think we understand a character and we reduce him to a kind of cultural national stereotype. Lincoln has been reduced to statuary over the last 60 years or more, because there’s been more written about Lincoln than movies made about him or television portraying him. He’s kind of a stranger to our industry, to this medium. You have to go back to the 1930s to find a movie that’s just about Abraham Lincoln. So, I just found that my fascination with Lincoln, which started as a child, got to the point where after reading so much about him I thought there was a chance to tell a segment of his life to moviegoers, and that’s how this whole fascination began.

Daniel?

Daniel Day-Lewis: I think really the most obvious thing is connected to what Steven was saying, is trying to approach a man’s life that has been mythologized to that extent in such a way that you can get close enough to properly represent it. And I just wasn’t sure that I would be able to do that. Beyond that, I felt that probably I absolutely shouldn’t do that and somebody should do it instead, but [laughs]

Steven Spielberg: It was hard to get him to say yes [laughs].

Daniel Day-Lewis: The wonderful surprise with that man is you begin to discover him, and there are many different ways in which you can do that. He kinda welcomes you in. He’s very accessible. That, that took me by surprise.

Mr. Day-Lewis, Mr. Spielberg, obviously when you’re creating a character out of a real human being with a tremendous amount not only of biographical data, but in this case, historical, political, etc., what I’m curious about is what thing did you each learn about Mr. Lincoln that you either did not know previously or were most surprised by as a matter of delving into historical materials through this film?

Daniel Day-Lewis: Well, it’s easy for me to start, because I knew nothing about him [laughs]. I had everything to learn, because part from a few images, a statue, a cartoon, a few lines from the first inaugural, a few from the Gettysburg Address, that would be my entire knowledge of that man’s life. I think probably the most delicious surprise for me was the humor, to begin to discover that almost…what an important aspect of his character that was.

Would it be fair to say it’s a very tactical humor?

Daniel Day-Lewis: At times it could be, but not necessarily I don’t think, no. I think it was tactical in the political sense.

Yes, sir.

Daniel Day-Lewis: Yeah, I think at times it was undoubtedly used, in a conscious sense, for some purpose to make some point. There were accounts actually, not exactly what you’re asking, but there are accounts of people that came to ask him a question, of to them great importance, and found themselves in his presence, got a handshake a story, and were out of the room before they even realized [laughs]. And that’s good politics [laughs]. But no, I think it was innately part of him. I think there was very joyful element to that actually, yes.

For you, Mr. Spielberg?

Steven Spielberg: There were so many things I didn’t know about Lincoln, and there are so many different points of view about Lincoln. With over 7000 books written, to find any five books that agree on every single facet of his life is difficult. But the thing that really surprised me about Lincoln was the weight of his responsibility, his oath he took, a constitutional oath to preserve the union, and he’s the only President that had the union ripped out from under him and torn in half. And the fact that the weight of the war that began over slavery, and that he did not himself suffer, beyond all the writings that we’ve read about how deeply low he could get in his psyche, how depressed he could get. I don’t know if some of that depression wasn’t just deep thought, going very, very deep into the cold depths of himself to make discoveries that would bring this war to a close and abolish slavery.

But beyond that, how he just didn’t crack up in the middle of his first term with the Civil War raging around him, with over 600,000 lives lost revised recently upward to 750,000 lives lost. Just in the last five months that figure was revised. And with his wife on the edge of herself, the loss of his son two years before our film begins, Willy, a son lost in infancy before that, the fact that he came through this with a steady, moral compass and an even keel just amazes me.

When you’re taking on a particular section of, of Lincoln’s life, how do you decide for the movie where to stop? And was there ever a decision to just have the movie end when the war ends rather than continue on after that?

Steven Spielberg: There was. There was discussion about that as well, but it was very, very important that we felt that Lincoln was able to ride across the battlefield outside of Petersburg, which he did, and have those almost…it was almost the epilogue, between he and Grant, which happened, and the fact that there was some kind of reconciliation in the often written about carriage rides that the President and his wife took. We needed all those moments, I think, to really equip his story of Abraham Lincoln, but I would not have been able to, and Tony Kushner would not have been able… we tried to write Doris [Kearns Goodwin]’s book. His first draft was, as you’ve probably already heard by now, 550 pages long. We needed to focus it in on a working President and a father and a husband. You couldn't do that if that were “the greatest hit list of the life of Abraham Lincoln. It couldn't just be the golden oldies.

Daniel Day-Lewis: A compilation.

Steven Spielberg: The compilation of his entire life. Because we would've been dilatants as filmmakers and as, as actors. We would've just been hitting all the high points and just giving you the headlines and not giving you any sense of the depth of this character, this man.

Mr. Spielberg, you mentioned going back to the 1930s to find films about Lincoln, but I think films about America were a staple of Hollywood for a while, and many of the icons of history were the subject of popular films. Why do you think that fell out of favor and why is the time now right for Lincoln’s story or this chapter in Lincoln’s story?

Steven Spielberg: Well, I would have been very happy to have made Lincoln in the year 2000, the year after I met Doris Kearns Goodwin. It took her a couple years to write the book. It took us more than a couple years to get the screenplay written. So, I wasn’t waiting for a certain time. At one point I flirted with [the movie] coming out on the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, but we weren’t ready to make the picture then. People say, “Oh, you made it because of what’s happening in politics today.” No, we were ready to make it during the Bush administration. [laughs]. It had nothing to do current politics. It had nothing to do with holding a mirror up to the way we conduct our business on Capitol Hill today. This was meant to be a story, a Lincoln portrait if you will. I think any time is the right time for a very compelling story, any time.

And as far as the, the whole idea of doing historical dramas like this falling out of favor?

Steven Spielberg: I don’t know. I don’t know. I think that there have been historical dramas. I mean, not too long ago we had something called the [The] King’s Speech. Nobody knew anything about [that] -- a lot of people that I know didn’t even know there was a king before Elizabeth [laughs]. And that opened a lot of windows, and people said, “Oh, I learned something I didn’t know before.” There’s no bad time or good time. For me when I find a story that I’m ready to tell and the script is right that’s the time to tell it.

This film really does have a really impressive supporting cast, but during that casting process was there ever any concern about bringing all these big names together and having it distract from A) the story, and B) the titular character?

Steven Spielberg: I think that the people who are in the story, the actors who are in the story, some of them with long filmographies and very well known to the American public, disappear into their characters within seconds of coming on the screen. By the time this film is five, six minutes in they’re all anonymous and they’re all their characters. And that’s the great thing about hiring talented actors. Their job is to convince you of who they are, and that’s what I’m so proud of with this cast.

Daniel Day-Lewis: Just thinking -- sorry, I’m just thinking back on the [previous] question. I’m sorry to interrupt you, but…I mean I’m just sort of reflecting a little bit on my entire life, and I’m thinking that I’ve spent a certain amount of time in 17th Century America, quite a bit of time in 18th Century America, and so much time in 19th Century America that I don’t know if I’ll ever get out to join the modern world [laughs]. So something’s been going on during these years, so they may not count on your list, but my experience is been that historical movies actually are well-presented.

Steven Spielberg: Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. I never realized that.

Mr. Spielberg, in deconstructing Lincoln’s image and icon you had to show him doing certain sort of questionable things in order to get slavery abolished. Do you feel that there is a message in that, and if so how would we apply that outside of a historical context?

Steven Spielberg: No, just desperate times require desperate measures. What Lincoln and the Lobbyist for the Amendment and the Manager of the Amendment and himself, what they did to get this passed was not illegal. It was murky, but what they did was noble and grand. How they went about it was somewhat murky, but nothing they did was really illegal. And by the way, what they did to gain favor, to persuade people to vote - not to vote their conscious – is not uncommon in this day and age either. To make a movie about a squeaky clean person who’s moral principles hold him so far beyond mortal man and woman would not be interesting to me. I like the fact that there is a bit of murkiness in the politics of the 19th Century to do something that was necessary and long-lasting.

Mr. Spielberg, I’m wondering – and I’m not sure if this goes into for lack of a better word, “spoiler territory,” because of the presentation – but as we approach the end of the film I realize I didn’t want to see the assassination and I didn’t want to give the assassins the time of day, but I’m wondering about you making the decision not to depict John Wilkes Booth or the three part assassination attempt at all.

Steven Spielberg: The decision I think was an easy one to make, because I think had we taken it right up to the assassination. I think the film would've for the first time become exploitation, and I didn’t want to go anywhere near that. That’s a very scary word, especially when you’re dealing with the history, and I think that nothing could be gained by showing that, and it was more profound for me to see what actually happened.

Mr. Spielberg, it sounds like your intention was really to chronicle the dramatic historical time period that Lincoln was at the helm of the country. Because we’re in a politically charged moment in time, people are going to write about this, look at the movie and try to look at it in context to what’s happening today. Do you have any interest in seeing how people interpret it in that way?

Steven Spielberg: Of course. Of course. And, and by the way, here’s the good news. The good news is the Constitution: the Founding Fathers put together the principles of a Democratic Government that are so sound and, and unsinkable that the process from 150 years ago is not that much different than the process of today. I think that really is one of the values of holding up a mirror to all of us who only experience what we experience and have no frame of reference except what we read or what we view in documentaries about that time, that there are tremendous similarities between the politics then and the politics today. And I’m really excited to see how deeply people will reach to, to contemporize our film far beyond how it deserves to be contemporized [laughs].

One of the most relatable and human elements in the film to me was just seeing Lincoln and his son Tad and I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about Lincoln as a father and the very complicated relationships that we see play out.

Daniel Day-Lewis: It certainly seems to be true that there was the relationship between him and his eldest son, Robert, who you see in the film was perhaps the least resolved, the least explored of his relationships. There was a distance there I think largely because of the work that he’d been doing on the judicial circuit, which had taken away from six months of any given year. And also political campaigns and then in office and with Robert at University and so on. But there’d been a certain distance there. By the time we meet him in the story he’d lost two sons. He lost a child when they were in Springfield as well. He had a very interesting attitude towards parenthood, which is surprisingly modern, almost. I think it almost exceeds the degree to which we’re able to be modern [laughs]. And he believed that there was a total absence [laughs] of any parental authority whatsoever. And that was a conscious decision and it may well have been largely influenced by the very harsh disciplinarian that he had as a father himself. And his experience of childhood would've been a very bleak, very difficult one. He was forced to – as many young people were at that time from the moment – I think that they moved from Kentucky to Indiana already he and his sister were struggling to survive almost on their own.

When his father went back to bring what the lady became Mrs. Sarah, who became his stepmother, he was away for a long, long time. And they just had to exist in the wilderness and get on with it. And I think he had to grow up very quickly. His father certainly was not a man who had much tolerance for books, and I think a great conflict. It was no love lost. But he made a wonderful statement. I mean, it’s a strange image to use, cause it conjures up an image of slavery, but I think he used the image of love creates the links that chain a child to the family, to the parent. It’s not dissimilar to that, and the image anyhow is, is about right.

Anyhow, to cut a long story short, there was absolute chaos in the White House, because it I think it actually both through sort of scientific point of view. I think he enjoyed so much watching the chaos that Tad created [laughs]. He was armed to the teeth apart from anything else with all kinds of weapons, cannons, and flint locks, and swords [laughs]. And he had the goat-drawn carriage that he had, which he always kind of careening about the corridors of the White House. And I think Lincoln really enjoyed watching, observing the bedlam that ensued from all his adventures, but also I think it was just pure love. I think he felt such a pure love for love.

I’m not saying that this is good parenting in contemporary times, that you just let them to do whatever the hell they want, but it’s an interesting choice to make at that time in that place [laughs]. And, of course, Mary, again, during this part of the story is more or less an absentee as a parent and therefore the bond between Tad and Lincoln became so very precious to both of them because he was, he was the, the primary, um, parent at that time.

Mr. Day-Lewis, you spoke about your reluctance to take on this role. What was the depth of that reluctance, and talk about the wooing process. How you were won over to this great challenge? And when did you know that it was the right choice to say yes?

Daniel Day-Lewis: Well, I don’t think I ever did know it was the right choice, but I ran out of excuses at a certain point [laughs]. I mean, I understand that it was for Steven to put the idea in front of me… not that I didn’t take it seriously from the word “go,” but it seemed inconceivable to me that I could be the person to help him to do that thing that he wished to do. And least of all did I want to be responsible for irrevocably staining the reputation of the greatest President this country’s ever known [laughs]. Not just in a self-serving way, but quite literally I wouldn't have wished to…it seemed to me a very difficult thing to try and tell that story, very difficult to try and do that in such a way that it could live. And I just really felt I wasn’t the person to do that.

Steven Spielberg: But I felt he was. [laughs] And I stayed. I really tried. I met Daniel eight years ago and couldn’t get him to agree to come down the road with me. And then a couple years ago when Tony Kushner – you remember Tony Kushner was not the first person to attempt to tell a story about Abraham Lincoln for me to direct. And that was the only exposure Daniel had to our Lincoln, was another set that’s really more about the Civil War and all the battles than it was about the Presidency. But when Tony had written his draft that was sort of the first shoe in the door that really got us together in Ireland for the first time to talk about… it was almost like a feasibility study. Daniel was like a feasibility study to see whether he would allow himself to go near a script that was clearly on the verge of brilliance. And at that point, without putting any extra pressure on Daniel, because I didn’t say this to anybody, but if he had finally and ultimately said, “No” I would never had made the movie Abraham Lincoln. It would never have been in my life anymore. It’d be gone.

Daniel Day-Lewis: It really was for me a combination of that meeting, even if nothing had come from it it still would've left me with a really wonderful memory of the time spent talking about Lincoln with Steven and Tony who had become such an important part of their lives - reading Tony’s script, discussing how -- what it might become if Tony were to carry on working on it, because he more or less stopped writing it. It was still an incomplete vision.

Steven Spielberg: Right

Daniel Day-Lewis: And then when Tony went away to begin to continue that work I read Doris’s book, and I think that really became the platform for me, as it had been for Steven and Tony, from which I could believe that there was a living being to be discovered there, because she makes so that beautifully clear in her book. And that had been a great problem for me, not just the responsibility of taking on that task, but really asking the question, has he now been removed for all time, from that possibility because of the iconography surrounding his life?

Mr. Spielberg, you’re a filmmaker who’s worked on certain films for years. After watching the movie I can’t imagine someone else playing this role, no knock on Liam Neeson. I read that at one point you were talking to him. Are there sometimes fortuitous times to make a film even though you’ve been working on them for many, many years?

Steven Spielberg: Yes, and, and, and that’s not up to me. Whether it’s fortuitous is something you realize after you’re done. So I think that a lot of planets lined up in a good position, but that was out of my control, and that was not even on my mind at that the time. At that point I had just accepted the fact that I would make Lincoln if Daniel decided to play him, and I would not make Lincoln had Daniel decided not to play him. It was as simple as that. It had gotten to that point with me.

There’s a scene early on in the film where Mr. and Mrs. Jolly visit Lincoln. It’s where you see Lincoln conflicted between his faith in the people and his need to move beyond and do things that he thinks that people need. Could you just talk about that a little bit?

Steven Spielberg: Mm-hmm. Well, the Jolly scene is an interesting scene, because it became an example of Seward’s political brilliance – that he would use these [people] to illustrate a problem that he was not able to illustrate to the President himself. So, through these people he illustrated a problem - are the people going to want to abolish slavery through the passage of a 13th Amendment? And when push came to shove and it came right down to it the people spoke, and they said, “Well, if abolishing slavery will end the war we’ll accept it, slaves going free, if it really puts an end to this war…but if it doesn’t put an end to the war and it’s not gonna serve that purpose we don’t want a former slave coming up and taking our jobs at the war’s end.” And Seward walks over to Lincoln and says “Well, there it is. There’s the voice of the people.” [laughs] So, the entire conundrum that became the entire issue of “Do you end the war first and then attempt to pass slavery or vice a versa,” is illustrated in that single sequence.

To follow up on what you said about this being the portrait of a man in his time. You still leave the theater and can’t help but think that there are still self-evident truths that are in question today and the government is still voting on who’s equal and who isn’t. Any thoughts about that?

Steven Spielberg: Any thoughts about that?

Daniel Day-Lewis: Well, it’s work in progress, isn’t it? Just the word “Amendment” itself is an encouraging thing, isn’t it? It tells of a system of government that allows for the improvement of itself. Just move forward a little bit one day at a time.

Steven Spielberg: Yeah. I agree.

Daniel Day-Lewis: I would love to say just something – I feel I have to, because Liam is a friend of mine, and Liam was committed to Lincoln for a period of time working with Steven, and there came a moment when for reasons that were clear to both of them...

Steven Spielberg: We both decided.

Daniel Day-Lewis: …that Liam needed to do other things. Steven was going to do other things, but Liam, for that period whilst Liam was committed to that project, of course, it wouldn't haven’t occurred to me to consider it. From the moment that Liam decided it was no longer something that he would be engaged with he has been in touch with me about it, and has given me incredible encouragement, and just in the most generous possible way. And encourage me when I was undecided about whether I should do it he gave me a lot of encouragement towards that decision as well. So, I just feel I should say that.

Steven Spielberg: So, the timeline was simply I approached Daniel first to play Lincoln, he turned me down. That was about eight, nine years ago [laughs]. And then Liam and I had a very healthy flirt about possibly doing this together [laughs]. And then we both decided to do other things. And then I came back to Daniel. So, that’s the timeline.

Daniel Day-Lewis: And I can say unequivocally that I know for a fact that Liam’s Lincoln would've been something I would've wished to see. You know, these things are haphazard. You ask about timing. It’s worked out this way. It could easily have worked out the other way, and I think Liam would've been quite wonderful [laughs].

And did you keep this out of the release before the election intentionally? I heard that.

Steven Spielberg: Well, no. What it was very simply is because there’s a lot of confusion about the political ideologies of both parties have switched 180 degrees in 150 years. It just too confusing. Everybody claiming Lincoln as their own. And everybody should claim Lincoln as their own, because he represents all of us, and what he did basically provided the opportunities that all of us are enjoying today. So I just wanted people to talk about the film, not talk about the election cycle. So, I thought it was safer to let people talk about film during the election cycle in this run-up with ads on TV and posters going up and all that, but the actual debut of the film should happen after the election’s been decided. That was my feeling.

A sold-out crowd packed the Alice Tully Hall at the aptly named Lincoln Center tonight for the New York Film Festival Secret Screening that pretty much everyone knew at that point was Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, billed as unfinished but looking very much complete. I was seated in a side balcony, not only a terrible angle for viewing a movie, but a pretty ominous one for a biopic about a guy who was assassinated in a theater; I was ready to consider myself lucky if I made it out the theater alive (and with my checked cell phone returned to me), though of course, I had some muted high hopes for the actual movie itself.

There were moments of Lincoln where I was ready to throw something at the screen in exasperation, either where John Williams's score got all War Horse sentimental or Tony Kushner's script got weirdly didactic in explaining the nuts-and-bolts politics at the center of the film's action. It will be especially surprising if you've seen Lincoln's big, sweeping trailers to learn that it is a very wonky movie, almost entirely about Lincoln's efforts to pass the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery, which he and his Cabinet accomplished both by being morally right and pulling off some classic Washington back room deals. The first hour of the film contains some long lessons about how a bill becomes a law (passed by the Senate and then a 2/3 majority in the House!) and some interminable exposition about the state of the Civil War, and the well-lit, sumptuously detailed Lincoln seems perilously close to becoming the dutiful civics lesson appropriate only for viewing in drowsy high school classrooms.

But Lincoln has more than a few aces up its sleeve, with a dynamite and incredibly wide-ranging supporting cast and a payoff for all that Constitutional exposition with a genuinely tense scene that involves a House roll-call (yes, just like on C-SPAN, but with more shouting and a lot more facial hair). Tommy Lee Jones steals the film right out from under the very good Daniel Day-Lewis, playing the strongly anti-slavery Pennsylvania representative Thaddeus Stevens, who gets into some real knock-down drag-out fights with the pro-slavery faction on the House floor, and always has the best zingers. And you may spend a large section of the film trying to squint through all the facial hair to recognize some favorite actors, from John Hawkes, Tim Blake Nelson and James Spader as a trio of ne'er-do-wells manipulating votes behind the scenes to Mad Men's Jared Harris as a believably grizzled Ulysses S. Grant. And those are just the sizable parts-- David Oyelowo, Dane DeHaan, Lukas Haas, Walton Goggins, Adam Driver, Julie White, Hal Holbrook, Michael Stuhlbarg and many more all pop up in a handful of scenes, giving Argo a serious run for its money as the 2012 film most crammed full of character actors you love.

The problem is that, with so much fun action happening on the House floor, the ostensible main characters get overshadowed-- and none more so than Lincoln, a soft-spoken and obviously powerful figure who still isn't part of some of the film's best scenes. Day-Lewis's performance is faultless and surprisingly restrained, but he spends far too much of the film acting opposite Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln (giving a performance badly out of step with the film's low-key tone) or Joseph Gordon-Levitt as eldest son Robert, a character with almost no bearing on the plot. Spielberg's emphasis on Robert and youngest son Tad (Gulliver McGrath) feels almost like a parody of his love for father-and-son stories, but Spielberg never brings his personal touch to these parts of the film; it's way more fun and emotionally meaningful to simply watch Lincoln in the dirty work of making the government work.

The best moments of Lincoln are satisfying and often very funny, but there are no emotional heights or applause moments, and very little of the twinkly Spielberg sentimentality that drowned out War Horse. Lincoln probably could have used a little more of that, actually, but it's very much in-step with its rock-steady protagonist, a man full of funny stories and aphorisms but rarely feeling more human than the marble statue we're all familiar with. For all its period polish Lincoln is almost certainly a Best Picture nominee, but that restraint will probably keep it from winning-- and will probably prevent Day-Lewis from winning too, as much as I expect his toned-down performance will grow in my estimation the further I get away from it.

The movie's best shot at an Oscar is probably Tommy Lee Jones, believe it or not. Even halfway through the film I couldn't imagine how a single actor could break through the pack, but Jones has all of the film's best scenes and biggest laughs, and his epic fights with Lee Pace on the House floor (yes, poor Lee Pace goes toe-to-toe with Tommy Lee Jones) are the closest the film gets to thrilling. Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, John Williams and the makeup artists will all surely be nominated, but especially given the weak Best Supporting Actor field, Jones has a very good shot at his second win-- and for making a movie as glossy as Lincoln so funny at times, he probably deserves it.

I'll be writing more about Lincoln's Oscar chances in tomorrow's Oscar Eye column, and more about the film itself as the season rolls along. As much as I felt truly exhausted by the film at times, I already find myself wanting to see it again for the supporting cast alone-- not exactly the mark of a great movie, but one with strengths that go far beyond its title character.

Yesterday I was staying in a hostel in downtown Toronto for my last night at TIFF, and the wifi there was atrocious. It worked well enough to get some basic work done, but then proceeded to drive me insane when the full trailer for Steven Spielberg's Lincoln arrived online, and it took a solid half hour to load it on YouTube. It was late and I was tired, but I stayed awake and watched that little bar expand, intent on getting a look at it for a simple reason: I wanted to hear Lincoln's voice.

Which is a little weird, when you think about it. When biopics are made about famous people who existed in the modern media age, we can scrutinize a lot about the actor's performance-- did Jamie Foxx nail Ray Charles's speaking voice? How much is Jesse Eisenberg actually acting like Mark Zuckerberg? But famous people from past centuries are usually up to way more interpretation. Nobody really cared if Joseph Fiennes mimicked Shakespeare's speech patterns in Shakespeare in Love; no one seems to mind if Brad Pitt's Jesse James actually walks like a man born in 1847. When you jump back far enough into the past, you're allowed a lot of liberties-- unless, apparently, you're playing the man on the penny.

There's an inherent mystery to Lincoln, the closest thing American society has to a revered king of the past. His uniquely craggy face and stovepipe hat are burned into our collective consciousness as soon as we're old enough to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and as he sits on his marble throne in the Lincoln Memorial he seems to carry with him a kind of Old Man of the Mountain wisdom. We imagine George Washington leading the troops across the frozen Delaware River, and Thomas Jefferson wrangling the delegates of the Continental Congress, but Lincoln is inherently associated with his words, whether delivering the Gettysburg Address or his Second Inaugural or signing the Emancipation Proclamation. When the first photos of Daniel Day-Lewis in costume as Lincoln emerged online, everyone marveled at how excellent the makeup was-- and then moved on to immediately wonder about the voice. A man who gave so many iconic speeches has to have a voice that resonates as much as his legend. Right?

Lincoln scholars have often said otherwise, and now we know that Spielberg and Day-Lewis agree-- when we first hear Lincoln's voice in the new trailer, around the minute mark, it's practically as high-pitched as Truman Capote's. When he explodes and shouts at the men in the room, they seemed shocked and so does he-- this is a tall, gangly man who's always used his words instead of his fists, and a soft voice to prove it. Given Day-Lewis's reputation for research there's no doubt his take is the most historically accurate, but it's far from the one we've invented for ourselves over the decades. Now we Americans have to choose if we can get used to this newer, softer-spoken Lincoln, or hang on to the one we always imagined.

If Day-Lewis's performance is strong enough, we ought to have no problem, but I honestly wonder if that will happen. We like to imagine Lincoln as a marble statue, as a face carved into rock, as a symbol of the better angels of our nature, booming with a voice like the Ents from Lord of the Rings to tell us how to be better Americans. Spielberg's Lincoln won't just aim to depict him as a human, but a human with dimensions we didn't imagine. It's something as small as the register of his voice, but from the looks of the reactions so far, it's somehow a lot bigger.

This poll is no longer available.

We expect Daniel Day-Lewis to be brilliant in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, if only because the master thespian has been so outstanding in virtually every film role that when he falls slightly short of greatness, we’re mildly surprised. And yet, we’re still shocked by the authenticity of his look while playing our nation’s 16th President for the benefit of Spielberg’s anticipated biography.

We’ve seen candid shots snapped on the set. But EW.com has the first official look, which we’re sharing below:

This appears to be Lincoln sitting in his fateful seat at Ford’s Theater, minutes before the assassin John Wilkes Booth takes the president’s life – so the shot suggests that Spielberg will be able to reenact that tragic moment in our country’s history. The rest of Lincoln, though, is largely a mystery. The director and award-winning screenwriter, Tony Kushner (Angels in America), initially were working off of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s historical tome Team of Rivals, but it’s unclear how much they’ve pulled from that book. The EW.com article says the film will document the last four months of Lincoln’s existence, with the leader trying to fully abolish slavery as the Civil War drew to a close.

As for his leading man, Spielberg raves that Day-Lewis captures the quietness and stoicism that helped make Lincoln a memorable leader:

We won’t be slow in deciding whether or not to see Lincoln when it opens on Nov. 9. The bigger question will be how the Academy responds to what looks like Oscar bait. We’ll see soon enough. For now, this first image is breathtaking, and now we’re itching to see a trailer, which has to drop soon.

If you're like us, your jaw hit the floor when the snapshot of Daniel Day-Lewis sporting his Abraham Lincoln look for Steven Spielberg's next movie arrived online. What was amazing about the photo was that, because he was wearing jeans and a black sweater, it still looked like the 16th President of the United States had time traveled to the 21st century. Naturally the weeks since have been spent waiting to see what the Oscar winning actor looks like dressed in his full period costume and today that gift has finally been delivered

Check out the image below and head over to Richmond Times-Dispatch to see it full size. Who knew that Daniel Day-Lewis could rock a stovepipe hat so effectively? Seriously though, he's really the spitting image of the Civil War president and it will be fascinating to see what he can do with the role. Obviously there's more to it then just looking the part, but knowing how Day-Lewis prepares for each of his roles and recognizing his two Academy Awards, it's hard not to already get excited.

Lincoln, which was written by John Logan, Paul Webb and Tony Kushner and partially based on the partially Doris Kearns Goodwin book Team of Rivals, also stars Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hal Holbrook, James Spader, John Hawkes, Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce McGill, David Strathairn, Joseph Cross, Walton Goggins, Lee Pace, David Costabile, Jackie Earle Haley, David Oyelowo, and Jared Harris. Currently in production, the movie will be distributed by Touchstone Pictures and while it doesn't have an official release date yet it's expected to be in theaters in December 2012.

It's typically not until after a filmmaker finishes his/her project that he/she begins getting asked about what his/her follow up will be, but in the case of Martin Scorsese that's been a subject of controversy and debate for months. Though Hugo only came out two weeks ago, many have questioned what the Oscar winning director's next movie would be. A big part of what has fueled speculation is the simple fact that Scorsese actually has a lot of titles on his slate. Most recently there was a report that he would direct an adaptation of Jo Nesbo's The Snowman, but there's also been talks of him remaking The Gambler, and reuniting with Robert De Niro for a mob thriller called The Irishman. Then there's Silence. Based on the novel by Shusako Endo, Scorsese has been developing the project for years, but has always skipped over it in favor of another project. That changes now.

The legendary director was recently a guest star on Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode’s Radio Five show (via Bleeding Cool) and he announced that Silence will be the next movie he tackles. Seemingly hesitant at first, Scorsese first said that he was hoping to make the Endo adaptation his next project, but then fully committed to it. Not hoping, we’re literally pulling all the elements together at this point," Scorsese said. Casting, however, may be a little more complicated than you may think. For years the project has had Benicio Del Toro and Daniel Day-Lewis attached to star, but he may not be able to reunite with his Gangs of New York villain due to scheduling issues. Asked if he would be working with Day-Lewis again, Scorsese responded, "I’m not sure. Daniel’s working with Steve right now, Steve Spielberg."

For those unfamiliar with the story, the book is set in 17th century Japan, where two Jesuit priests face persecution as they spread their gospel and search for their mentor. According to IMDb, Jay Cocks (who also scripted Gangs of New York) wrote the screenplay, but it's hard to know how long that information has been around and/or if something has changed. When you consider how long Scorsese has been talking about the film - we're talking 2006 here - it must be something he's passionate about doing.

There's a very good reason why Daniel Day Lewis has been in only 10 movies since 1989 and has four Oscar nominations: he's extremely picky about his roles and when he decides to do a movie, he dives in head first. One of the most committed method actors working in the industry today, he has been known to stay in character for months to insure that his performance is 100% pure. This approach has not changed for the production of Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, in which the Academy Award winner plays the titular president. Now one of the first images of Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln has arrived online, and while he's not actually in costume, he still looks amazing.

Check out the image below, courtesy of Twitter user @UVAMichael, and click on the image to see it full size.

[IMAGE REMOVED BY COPYRIGHT HOLDER]

Holy. Shit. This is just an actor sitting in a restaurant enjoying a nice meal, not a picture of him on set, yet the likeness is uncanny. It may just be a case of me being fooled by that awesome goatee, but this is just plain impressive.

Based partially on the Doris Kearns Goodwin book Team of Rivals, Daniel Day-Lewis may have the title role, but the Spielberg film has one of the best casts in recent memory, with Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hal Holbrook, James Spader, John Hawkes, Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce McGill, David Strathairn, Joseph Cross, Walton Goggins, Lee Pace, David Costabile, Jackie Earle Haley, David Oyelowo, and Jared Harris also playing roles. The script was written by Tony Kshner, John Logan and Paul Webb and the film is looking to be released sometime in December 2012.

Now that they’re out of the ground, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood snatched up the story of the trapped Chilean miners and turned it into a feature film. In fact they’re so eager to get this movie done, that they’ve already created the first trailer for the movie version of their story, a film called Los 33.

Los 33 is an unprecedented Hollywood production which will tell the story of those 33 trapped men using 33 of Hollywood’s most illustrious actors, with Bruce Willis as the health minister and Leslie Nielson as the president of Chile. Los 33 will without a doubt, be the most star-studded movie of all time and it’s coming to you from the director of Daddy Day Care.

Check out the first trailer for the Hollywood retelling of the trapped Chilean miner crisis right here, right now:

It’s a truly incredible group of actors. In case you missed it, here’s the complete cast list for Los 33: Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicolas Cage, Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Ralph Fiennes, Daniel Radcliffe, Russell Brand, Russell Crowe, Will Smith, Peter O'Toole, Michael Caine, Daniel Day-Lewis, Rowan Atkinson, Jackie Chan, Dev Patel, Steve Buscemi, Steve Martin, Cheech Marin, Jerry Seinfeld, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Kelsey Grammer, Ray Winstone, Stephen Fry, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Walken, Christopher Biggins, Justin Bieber, Meryl Streep, and Woody Allen with Bruce Willis and Leslie Nielsen.

The countdown until someone complains that there aren't enough women in this movie based on the real life story of 33 men trapped underground, starts now.