Daniel Day-Lewis talks acting method

Rex Features

Daniel Day-Lewis has admitted that he prefers not to speak about his notorious acting method.

The two-time Oscar winner, who stars in the new film Nine, has said that former co-stars have mistaken his work ethic as a "dreadful self-congratulatory thing".

The 52-year-old told Vogue: "Certainly, I’ve always tried to avoid talking about the way I work. But other people have done it on my behalf enough to make it sound like this dreadful self-congratulatory thing. And I don’t regard it like that, at all. It just seems like a game, first and foremost, even if it’s a sophisticated game in some ways.

"I suppose. I suppose it’s a very highly developed form of denial, but some part of me completely denies that I’m a performer."

The Rob Marshall-helmed musical Nine arrives in US and UK cinemas on December 25.