Daniel Day-Lewis: Bloody Great Actor

He’s played an artist who wrote and painted with one foot (in “My Left Foot”), a high-society man caught in a love triangle (“The Age of Innocence”) and a vicious crime boss (“Gangs of New York”). Now Daniel Day-Lewis has returned in a role that is getting him plenty of buzz as the greedy and violent oil mogul Daniel Plainview in “There Will Be Blood.” The actor, 50, recently chatted about taking on this challenging role.

Was it a challenge to play such an unlikable person?

I never really saw him as a miserable pr*ck. He’s just a fellow trying to make a living. The challenge, I dare say, is the same as it always is, which is to try and discover a life that isn't your own. Plainview was a man whose life I didn't understand at all. It was a life that was completely mysterious to me, and that unleashed a curiosity, which I had no choice but to pursue.

How did you did prepare for this role which included you physically drilling for oil?

In terms of the physical preparation, there wasn't really anything to do except to stay fit and then start digging holes. They kind of made it up as they went along and that was true, even as you see in the story.

The last scene in the movie was particularly violent. What was it like for you to do such a disturbing scene?

It was fun. We shot that scene in the Doheny Mansion [in Beverly Hills, California], and [Upton] Sinclair loosely based the [Daniel Plainview] character in his book "Oil!" on the life of [oil tycoon Edward L.] Doheny, so by a second removed, there was also a connection there. The Doheny Trust employees … watch every goddamn move that you make in the place. I don't know what they thought we were doing in there but they seemed quite disturbed by the whole thing.

What did you think about the film’s score being done by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood?

The astonishing thing about Jonny is that he didn't study composition. I think he was a violinist, and then he went into the band and the band became his life. But somehow along the way, he taught himself composition … He scored the whole thing himself. I don't know how he did it.

What was it like working with Dillon Freasier, who plays H.W. as a boy?

I felt very close to Dillon. I'm very fond of him. He's a cowboy, by the way. He's got his rodeo buckles, he's won numerous events, he does roundups, he's the real thing.

At the time [Dillon was cast], his mom was a state trooper. She wanted to do things right and she thought she'd better check out this bunch of people that were going to be taking care of her son. She said, “I'll go rent a movie that fellow did,” and she went and got “Gangs of New York.” She was absolutely appalled. She thought she was releasing her dear child into the hands of a monster. There was a flurry of phone calls, and somebody sent a copy of “The Age of Innocence” to her. Apparently that did the trick.