Daniel Day-Lewis would have regretted not working with son Ronan Day-Lewis on Anemone

Daniel Day-Lewis believes he would have regretted not working on a movie with his son Ronan Day-Lewis.

The three-time Oscar winner has returned to acting for the first time since 2017 in the new psychological drama Anemone and explained that he would've felt "residual sadness" if he had turned down the chance to collaborate with Ronan - who has directed the picture.

Speaking to Empire magazine, Daniel said: "It was a residual sadness. Knowing that Ro was going to go on to make films...

"Over the years, since Ronan was tiny, we've done things together, made stuff together. And I had a sort of anticipatory regret that I wouldn't get to work with Ronan as a filmmaker. So we just thought we'd try and cook something up."

The Gangs of New York actor continued: "We felt that we could probably keep it contained; I guess we were kidding ourselves to some extent.

"I didn't expect it to become something that would require such a substantial production because, you know, the whole paraphernalia of filmmaking... I wasn't falling over myself to get back into that, but I just really wanted to work with Ro."

Day-Lewis, 68, explained that he "never" felt as though he had retired during his hiatus from acting.

He said: "Well, one thing I would say is that I never felt that I'd retired. That's a word that's been used.

"I never felt that I retired, I just stopped doing this work because I wanted to work at something else for a period of time. It never occurred to me to retire. I mean, I wouldn't ever retire, I hope."

Day-Lewis is renowned for the devotion he shows to his acting roles and explained that nothing about his approach changed for Anemone, even though he was working closely with his son.

Asked if he had gone about things differently, the My Left Foot star said: "Not at all, no.

"Because from a very young age, and over the years... I definitely tried to protect Ronan from the worst of my excesses. And he had grown up with it, and therefore I felt completely at ease in that.

"Thinking about it now, I could easily have felt self-conscious, but I didn't."

The actor explained that he isn't "closed" to the prospect of more acting roles after working on Anemone.

Daniel said: "I'm certainly not closed to the idea of it. I don't have an indiscriminate appetite.

"The appetite always seems to emerge in relation to something that I've become fascinated with, and I believe that could very easily happen.

"I'm certainly not going to shy away from it. I wouldn't shy away from it."