Disclosure is one of the most dangerous arts in the world of acting, as some actors pay a high price of their psychological and physical health. When the artist is totally indulged in his personality to the point of living with it, the character becomes a ghost chasing him.
Actor Daniel Die Lewis played complex roles that changed the concept of reincarnation in acting performance and made him a stand -alone flag, but at the same time paid a heavy personality that made him decide to retire from acting permanently after a career full of achievements and suffering.
According to the episode (6/26/17/10) of the “On the Cinema” program, the complex story of Daniel Die Lewis started from a painful childhood that formed his artistic personality in a radical manner, when he was subjected to a young age because of his Irish and Jewish origins, which prompted him to develop a psychological defense mechanism that completely changed the course of his life.
Daniel resorted to acting as a way to escape from his true identity, hiding his roots and pretending to be English, mastered the English accent and learned to imitate the movements of English children with amazing accuracy.
This early experience gave him a supernatural ability to reincarnate, but at the same time it planted a deep psychological problem inside him that will chase him throughout his career.
He did not know at the time that this skill in hiding and reincarnation would make him see ghosts everywhere, and that every role he will represent would turn into a nightmare that needs years to get rid of him.
As for the incident that changed his perception of acting forever, it occurred when he was playing Hamlet’s role on the stage, and in the scene in which he was supposed to see the ghost of his father in the play, he was surprised by seeing the ghost of his true father, Sisel Day Lewis.
This terrifying experience made him realize that his ability to reincarnate goes beyond the natural limits, and that his mind cannot distinguish between reality and imagination when he deeply immerses the roles.
Destroyer
Dai Lewis developed a unique approach to acting, but in a “extreme” way that no one has preceded it in the history of cinema.
This approach is not limited to preserving the text and practicing the movements, but requires complete living within the role of the role for months or even years, which means that Daniel completely disappears and replaces the person who represents him.
This “extremist” approach to reincarnation made it produce exceptional, unparalleled performances, but at the same time it caused huge psychological and physical suffering.
After each role ends, Dai Lewis needs for many years to recover from the “ghost of the character” that he continues to control even after the filming is over.
These ghosts do not leave him easily, but rather chasing him in his dreams and in his daily life, which makes him live in a state of constant struggle between his true identity and the characters he performs.
The most surprising thing is that Daniel is not satisfied with reincarnation during filming, but rather lives the role with all its details even in normal life.
He eats the food she was eating, wearing her clothes, speaking with her accent, and adopting her daily habits and rituals. This complete indulgery makes his performance honest to an amazing degree, but he pays a high price for this artistic perfection.
A journey through roles
Dai Lewis’s true cinematic career with the movie “My Left Foot” in 1989, where Kristi Brown, the Irish writer and painter who was born with cerebral palsy and was able to move any part of his body except his left foot.
This role was not just a representative challenge, but rather a deep human experience that changed Daniel’s life forever.
To prepare for this role, Dai Lewis spent months reading Christie’s works and getting to know his friends, but more importantly, he decided not to leave the wheelchair throughout the filming period.
This decision forced the team to deal with it as a real disabled person, so they feed him, watered him and accompanied him even to the bathroom.
He also trained for long months so that he could only do everything with his left foot, and he did not want to resort to simulation or cinematic tricks.
However, the result was physically and psychologically destroyed, due to the bending position he adhered to for weeks, which led to the breaking of two sides.
However, the most important of physical pain was his deep discovery of the nature of human suffering, and he concluded that what Christie feels is not sadness or despair, but anger, anger at the way he understands and misunderstands, anger at the dealings of others with him with compassion instead of appreciation.
This amazing performance made him win the best actor Oscar and around him from an obscure actor to a world star, but he needed 3 years to recover from the ghost of Christie, who continued to chase him.
And he used to say: “I need some time in order to be able to expel evil spirits, and I feel hesitant to give up something that was an important part of my life, and it controls a tremendous feeling of sadness.”
Back to the wilderness
After years of recovery, Dai Lewis returned with a completely different character in the movie “The Last of the Mohicans” in 1992, where the role of Hakai, the 17th -century warrior in the epic, played the last tribe of the indigenous population in America during the French Indian War.
This role requires a fully physical and mental shift from the disabled man to the strong warrior.
The actor adhered to a physical fitness coach 5 times a week for 6 months to become a suitable body for the role, then he lived a full month in the forests of North Carolina with some experts to mobilize the lives of the indigenous people.
She learned to hunt and spin animals, build boats, shoot, and receive special training at the hands of a colonel in the American army to develop his archery and fighting skills.
And because the weapon is an integral part of the Hokay character, Dai Lewis accompanied the old -fashioned Venice everywhere, even to Christmas parties, which created embarrassing situations when he was standing with an ancient gun while everyone enjoyed the ceremony wearing the best of their best.
After the filming ended, he suffered from hallucinations and became afraid of closed places, and he needed long months to get rid of the ghost of the warrior who continued to control it.
More than 7 years passed on the last roles of Day Lewis, and the question that cinema fans ask everywhere: Will he ever return from his retirement? Or is the psychological and physical price of reincarnation more than he can tolerate?