Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in Spielberg Drama
Daniel Day-Lewis has embodied Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's upcoming drama "Lincoln."
The renowned director opened up about filming which took place last fall and released an exclusive new image from the forthcoming historical drama.
In the image, Day-Lewis is dressed in full character as the 16th President of the U.S., to whom he bears an incredibly uncanny resemblance.
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The Oscar Award-winning actor was rumored to have secluded himself for a period of time in order to get into character as Lincoln. While Spielberg denied the rumor, he explained Day-Lewis' likeness of Honest Abe for the actor not only resembles the former president but it a quiet and powerful leader also.
"Daniel was always conscious of his contemporary surroundings," said the legendary director. "Daniel never went into a fugue state. He did not channel Lincoln. All that stuff is just more about gossip than is it about technique."
Spielberg went on to describe the iconic president not only as his character but as a person.
"Lincoln had a very, very complicated- and at the same time, extremely clear- inner life," continued Spielberg, according to Entertainment Weekly. "He thought things out. He talked things out. He argued both sides of every issue. And he was very careful in making a decision. As a matter of fact, his opponents and his enemies criticized him often for being impossibly slow to a decision."
Spielberg first decided to make the movie about Lincoln over a decade ago, but the project has been slow coming. "Lincoln" will cover the last four months of the President's life during which he strategized the close of the Civil War to ensure that slavery was abolished.
"Our movie is really about a working leader who must make tough decisions and get things done in the face of overwhelming opposition," Spielberg told EW.
Spielberg noted the important time period "Lincoln" follows.
"Lincoln's realization that the Emancipation Proclamation, the thing he is most known for, was simply a war powers act that would easily be struck down by any number of lawyers after the cessation of hostilities after the Civil War," said the director. "He needed to abolish slavery by constitutional measure- and that's where we start."
Along with Day-Lewis, the film sees Sally Field portray Lincoln's wife Mary Todd, while his sons Tad and Robert are played by Gulliver McGrath and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, respectively.
The cast also includes William Seward as Lincoln's loyal Secretary of State and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens, "one of [Lincoln's] most engaging and challenging adversaries, a radical member of Lincoln's own party," said Spielberg.
"Lincoln" is scheduled for release on Nov. 9.
