Daniel Day-Lewis has insisted that he "never intended to retire" from acting. The Oscar-winning actor has returned to the screen in his son Ronan's feature directorial debut, Anemone, eight years after he officially announced his retirement. Reflecting on his decision in an interview with Rolling Stone, Day-Lewis admitted that he perhaps shouldn't have made such a definitive public declaration after starring in 2017's Phantom Thread. "Looking back on it now - I would have done well to just keep my mouth shut, for sure," Day-Lewis said. "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. I never, you know... Apparently, I've been accused of retiring twice now. I never meant to retire from anything! I just wanted to work on something else for a while." The 68-year-old explained that he publicly drew a line under his acting career, knowing that he would "be too proud" to go back on his word when he became tempted to act again. He quipped about his return, "This just shows I'm not as proud as I like to think I am!" The There Will Be Blood actor shared that he felt "some residual sadness" that he was walking away from the film industry as Ronan, 27, was entering it, and added that working with Ronan was "pure joy" from start to finish. Day-Lewis also clarified that he never fell out of love with acting, but began to wonder if he could handle his intense process. "The work was always something I loved. I never, ever stopped loving the work," he stated. "But there were aspects of the way of life that went with it that I'd never come to terms with - from the day I started out to today. There's something about that process that left me feeling hollowed out at the end of it. I mean, I was well acquainted with it. I understood that it was all part of the process, and that there would be a regeneration eventually." With Phantom Thread, he strongly felt that "maybe there wouldn't be that regeneration anymore", and he "probably should just keep away from it". Anemone, which Day-Lewis also co-wrote with his son, will be released in U.S. cinemas on 3 October.