6 Regrets Filmmakers Had Over Their Oscar Winning Movies
3. Daniel Day Lewis And The Phantom Thread
Universal
The Phantom Thread was one of 2017's best features, but it didn't experience the easiest of productions. Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Thomas Anderson reportedly clashed over the final cut of the project, which even inspired Lewis' decision to retire from acting shortly after the film's release.
Citing the decision to film entirely on location in a Georgian townhouse, Lewis took issue with the production schedule and how neither the cast nor the crew were afforded much privacy on set. While the actor later clarified that the struggles were "worth it", one can only speculate as to how production influenced his later decision to retire.
Lewis summed up his thoughts on the matter in an interview with WMagazine, stating:
"Before making the film, I didn’t know I was going to stop acting. I do know that Paul and I laughed a lot before we made the movie. And then we stopped laughing because we were both overwhelmed by a sense of sadness. That took us by surprise: We didn’t realize what we had given birth to. It was hard to live with. And still is.”
The actor has of course threatened to retire in the past, but this occasion feels slightly more genuine. At the very least, at least he's left us all with a spectacular filmography.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
