This October 17, Arte honors one of the greatest actors of his generation: Daniel Day-Lewis. After Phantom Thread, a captivating documentary reveals astonishing anecdotes about his career, like this time when he became a pro boxer for a film!



Daniel Day-Lewis fans: get your party ready for Sunday, October 17. Arte pays tribute to the immense actor with the broadcast from 8:50 p.m. of Phantom Thread, before that of a new documentary. Entitled Daniel Day-Lewis: The Heir and directed by Jeanne Burel and Nicolas Maupied, it looks back on the prolific career of the actor at the 3 Oscars.
From his early days in the theater, to the actor’s complex relationship with his poet father, to all the characters he has melted into, the voice of Elsa Lepoivre of the Comédie Française tells how and why the Briton is established as one of the greatest actors of his time in just twenty films.
Rare images and filming secrets
Combining rare family images, extracts from his filmography and television interviews, the documentary returns to several filming secrets. If we (re) discover that he spent months in a wheelchair, spoon fed, during the filming of My Left Foot, his incredible capacity for immersion does not stop there!



Arte
In 1997, Daniel Day-Lewis became Danny Flynn in front of Jim Sheridan’s lens for The Boxer. In order to best dress the costume of this fictional boxing champion, former member of the IRA, the actor himself fractured his nose, but that’s not all.
Above all, he trained for a long time alongside boxer Barry McGuigan, world champion in the 80s. A job that lasted no less than two years, and which made Daniel Day-Lewis reach the level of the 10 best middleweights. British! “I don’t think I’m good enough to do otherwise”, He then explains to his playing partner Emily Watson.
An astonishing anecdote among many others present in the documentary Daniel Day-Lewis, the heir, broadcast on October 17 at 10:20 pm on Arte, and available on Arte.fr.
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