Daniel Day-Lewis and his director son Ronan have told RTÉ Radio 1's Arena that collaborating on their new psychological drama Anemone has whetted their appetites for making more films together.
Co-written by father and son, Anemone, which marks Daniel Day-Lewis's first film since 2017's Phantom Thread, tells the story of brothers Ray (Day-Lewis) and Jem (Sean Bean).
Jem seeks out the reclusive Ray in an effort to connect with his brother and force him to face up to his present and his past, which, we learn, is haunted by his time as a British Army soldier during the Troubles.
The acclaimed film has received much attention in advance of its release due to three-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis's decision to come out of retirement to star in his son Ronan Day-Lewis's feature debut.
In an exclusive Irish interview, Daniel Day-Lewis was asked by Arena's Sinéad Egan what it was specifically about Anemone that had tempted him back to work in front of the camera.
Listen: Daniel Day-Lewis and Ronan Day-Lewis discuss Anemone with Arena's Sinéad Egan
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"It really wasn't any project other than the pure wish for my part to try and find a way of working with Ronan," he replied.
"I knew that Ro was going to go on to make films, and I had no immediate plans to go back to working as an actor, but there was a sadness in that for me because I love the idea of us working together.
"Over the years, we've worked on different things together, and it was just the pure... so without really any real plan, it was the pure wish just to try and cook something up between us."
"I don't think I ever stopped to think, 'I'm glad to be doing this again' - I was just glad to be doing it again without even thinking about it," Daniel Day-Lewis added.
"It was really thrilling because I had grown up watching - not actually watching him work directly, but being aware of him working and visiting set a couple of times," said Ronan Day-Lewis of his father.
"But to have a front-row seat of the construction of one of those worlds and actually be constructing it together while also seeing him develop and almost, like, become the character as the script was being refined and revealing itself was such an indescribably strange and beautiful kind of experience.
"And then also to be on set together - it was hard to kind of absorb in the moment how momentous it was to be able to work together in that way.
"I think because we had had such a long gestation process of letting the script come together very organically over a few years, I realised in retrospect once we were on set that all of that time had actually been preparation because we'd had so many of these really detailed conversations about the character that otherwise maybe we wouldn't have had the chance to languish in for so long! I think that that was a huge gift."
"I did allow myself a sense of immense pride to see Ronan becoming a film director in front of my eyes," Daniel Day-Lewis recounted.
"And we also allowed ourselves occasionally - throughout the entire shoot - just, like, a shared moment of astonishment that we were being allowed to do this thing together."
After the "pure pleasure" of making Anemone, both father and son are hoping that the experience will not be a one-off.
"I think we both feel, of course, we'd love to do it again," said Daniel Day-Lewis.
"We've always been up to some kind of mischief since Ronan was a child - and I hope we can continue in that vein as long as we're able to!"
"I feel like it's kind of a... working on something like this together is almost going into, like, a shared psychosis or something and you need to find something that you can both get equally obsessed with!" said Ronan Day-Lewis.
"I guess you never know when something like that's going to come, but I think we both really hope something will."
Anemone is in cinemas from Friday, 6 November.
Arena, weeknights, RTÉ Radio 1, 7pm
