First official look at Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln

For my personal taste Daniel Day-Lewis is the greatest actor of this generation. When word came down the line that the extremely personal and reclusive star would be portraying Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’s biopic it immediately became a must on my calendar.

A while back a student snapped an incredible shot of Day-Lewis eating lunch while regaled in full Lincoln mode. It quickly made the rounds but now we have our first official look at Daniel as the 16th President courtesy of Entertainment Weekly.

The film is based on noted historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book, Team of Rivals. The film, Lincoln, follows arguably the greatest and most influential president in U.S. history for his final four months. Spielberg said:

“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. He needed to abolish slavery by constitutional measure — and that’s where we start.”

The director also stated that Day-Lewis managed to capture the unique intangible qualities of who was a very pensive and unique leader:

“Lincoln had a very, very complicated – and at the same time, extremely clear — inner life. He thought things out. He talked things out. He argued both sides of every issue. And he was very careful in making any decision. As a matter of fact, his opponents and his enemies criticized him often for being impossibly slow to a decision.”

This is my most anticipated film of the year. Along with Day-Lewis the film co-stars Sally Field, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Tommy Lee Jones. November 9th will find this blogger at the theater in hopes of movie magic.

For further details I encourage you to check out the piece via EW.

Photo: Entertainment Weekly – David James