Is Daniel Day-Lewis one of the greatest actors ever?

Is Daniel Day-Lewis one of the greatest actors of all time?

He is not acting, he is being. Daniel Day-Lewis is not just playing the character, I see the actual person he is portraying. Daniel Day-Lewis is a highly versatile actor, and one of the most brilliantly so of our generation. He portrays evil so well in his characters, that I can’t even tell that it’s him. I don’t see Day-Lewis, its Daniel Plainview or Bill the Butcher. Sure, he has portrayed heroes and good people at times. But it’s the roles where he plays someone evil that his talent really shines. And most of the time, he doesn’t even physically hurt anyone. In Gangs of New York, he stabbed people and threw daggers into the backs of his “enemies” with his trademark butcher knives. But through most of the movie and in There Will Blood, all he had to do was give the other character that look; that heavy glare of despise. The look of: I want to tear your bloody head off.  You think he’s going to hurt the other character, but he doesn’t most of the time.  And that’s where the talent lies. That’s where the acting comes in. When he plays a good guy, there is so much emotion held within and he is about to burst. When he is portraying a villain, he has that same containment and you see the anger and hate in his eyes. As a viewer, you have the same feeling that he does, that he is just surrounded by filth. The irony is that he is the character filled with filth. His hatred and malcontent with his “enemies” contorts his face, squishing it and aging it. You see all the lines and wrinkles in his face; he looks so much older just through his facial expressions. His ugliness is amazing, who could tell that it’s an actor doing this?

Day-Lewis stole the movie Gangs of New York from Leonardo DiCaprio, just as DiCaprio stole the movie The Departed from Jack Nicholson. Leo portrayed more emotion than Nicholson did, if you want to see a more menacing role by Nicholson, look at The Shining. At the 80^th Academy Awards ceremony, Day-Lewis praised Heath Ledger for his role in Monster’s Ball and Brokeback Mountain, and I found it very revealing. It showed me a skill that makes an actor great: They are able to pull feelings from so deep within themselves and express it so easily. And they are also able to see the talent emerging in someone else, just as Day-Lewis had seen it in Heath Ledger.

You can call Day-Lewis a method actor, some have even labeled him as the British Robert DeNiro (Day-Lewis is part Irish but was born in England). He played the good guy in Last of the Mohicans and The Age of Innocence and did a solid job, but he stands out in Gangs of New York and There Will Be Blood. His true “acting” comes out when he is sinister. Legend on the movie set is that he dives into the role, and does not come out of character, becoming one with the person he will portray. Now I am waiting to see how much he gives of himself in his next role.