**Daniel Day-Lewis Reveals Biggest Career Regret: Wishing He Had ‘Kept His Mouth Shut’ About Retirement**
*Published: Sept. 19, 2025, 5:00 p.m. ET*
Daniel Day-Lewis has shared with friends that his biggest professional regret isn’t about a role he accepted or declined—but the way he repeatedly announced his retirement from acting. RadarOnline.com can reveal that the acclaimed actor feels his dramatic proclamations made him come across as moody and precious.
The 68-year-old star, a three-time Academy Award winner for Best Actor, famously declared his retirement in 2017 following the release of *Phantom Thread*. Now, as he returns to the screen in *Anemone*, directed by his 27-year-old son Ronan, Day-Lewis has publicly admitted he never truly intended to quit acting. Instead, he wishes he had “kept his mouth shut” rather than making such grand announcements.
A source close to Day-Lewis shared, “Daniel knows the work is what he’ll be remembered for, but he also knows people joke more about his retirements than his Oscars. He’s been telling his inner circle he hates that he came across as moany, like some tortured genius who couldn’t handle the spotlight.”
“That’s not how he sees himself, and he really regrets feeding that perception. It is, in fact, his biggest career regret.”
In a recent interview with *Rolling Stone*, Day-Lewis reflected, “Looking back on it now—I would have done well to just keep my mouth shut, for sure. It just seems like such grandiose gibberish to talk about. I never intended to retire, really. I just stopped doing that particular type of work so I could do some other work.”
Known for fully immersing himself in his roles—from Abraham Lincoln in *Lincoln* (2012) to a haute couture designer in *Phantom Thread*—Day-Lewis has acknowledged that such intensity often left him drained. However, those close to him say the repeated public retirements have become a bigger source of embarrassment than the exhaustion itself.
“He can laugh about it now, but the truth is he’s mortified,” another insider revealed. “He feels like he made himself look precious. He says it’s the one thing in his career he’d do differently, because every time he tried to ‘retire,’ it only made people roll their eyes. That’s not the legacy he wants.”
Back in 2017, Day-Lewis told *W* magazine that he made the decision to retire in order to make it more definite. “All my life, I’ve mouthed off about how I should stop acting, and I don’t know why it was different this time, but the impulse to quit took root in me, and that became a compulsion,” he explained.
Now, with *Anemone* set for release, Day-Lewis is eager to reframe the narrative around his career break. Sources close to him say he has expressed regret about not keeping his decisions private rather than making theatrical announcements.
“Daniel’s said the only thing he truly regrets is not just quietly stepping away when he needed space,” the source added. “Instead, he turned it into headlines, and he knows that made him look like he was craving attention. He wants people to understand it was never about drama—it was just about needing time.”
For Day-Lewis, collaborating with his son Ronan has been a creative revival and an opportunity to put those regrets behind him. “Working with Ro, that furnace just lit up,” the source said. “And it was, from beginning to end, just pure joy to spend that time together with him.”
https://radaronline.com/p/daniel-day-lewis-greatest-career-regret-revealed/
