Daniel Day-Lewis, left, is back on screen with Sean Bean in “Anemone.”
Sean Bean, right, and Daniel Day-Lewis in “Anemone.”

NEW YORK — Daniel Day-Lewis is back in the Oscar race with a seismic family affair.

The Hollywood icon is a devastating force of nature in "Anemone," playing a shame-stricken man named Ray who abandons his family and goes into self-imposed exile when he's accused of a war crime. After two decades, his estranged brother, Jem (Sean Bean), seeks out Ray at his remote cabin home and attempts to coax him back into the world.

Day-Lewis, 68, co-wrote the film with his son, Ronan, 27, who also makes his directorial debut with the expressionist drama. "Anemone" marks a long-awaited comeback for the actor, who last appeared on screen in Paul Thomas Anderson's erotic slow burn "Phantom Thread" in 2017. While promoting the movie, he formally announced that he was stepping away from acting for good.

After making "Phantom Thread," "I definitely was in very low spirits," Day-Lewis said during a Q&A on Sept. 26 at New York Film Festival, where "Anemone" is having its world premiere. “I made a fool of myself by announcing that I was going to stop working and probably a bigger fool of myself coming back.

"But to deny myself the possibility of working with Ronan and to just stand on my pride, I think that would have been a worse decision," he continued, explaining that he's "always been ill at ease" with the public and promotional aspects of being an actor.

"I thought I'd get used to it, but I never really did, so it left me wondering if I wasn't just better off keeping out of it," Day-Lewis said. Eight years ago, he didn't "really expect to find my way back to the appetite for this work again. I did, and I'm really grateful for it, and I hope I do again."

Day-Lewis is a three-time best actor Oscar winner for his work in "Lincoln," "My Left Foot" and "There Will Be Blood." He also earned Oscar nods for "In the Name of the Father," "Gangs of New York" and "Phantom Thread."

"Anemone" could very well net him his seventh nomination, thanks in part to two standout monologues that showcase the greatest hits of what Day-Lewis does best. In one heartbreaking scene, Ray breaks down as he tearfully recounts the atrocities he witnessed years earlier during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

In the other monologue, Ray drunkenly tells a story about unleashing scatological revenge on an abusive priest. The roughly five-minute sequence is shot in tight close-up on Day-Lewis, who oscillates between anger, pain and gleeful contempt.

It's the first monologue that they wrote for the movie, and "it came out quite quickly, too," Day-Lewis jokes. "The fact that it appeared to us so early in the writing process, it felt like Ray announcing who he is now to Jem, and also announcing himself to the audience. It changed the tone of the film considerably and how we went forward."

NYFF schedule

"Anemone" is having its world premiere at the New York Film Festival, which will welcome stars including Jodie Foster ("A Private Life"), George Clooney ("Jay Kelly"), Idris Elba ("A House of Dynamite"), and Ethan Hawke ("Blue Moon") through Oct. 13.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Daniel Day-Lewis could earn Oscar No. 4 with comeback film 'Anemone'

Reporting by Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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