Oscar award winning Daniel Day-Lewis feels most at home in his beloved Wicklow

The life he leads in the little village he calls his refuge

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Daniel Day-Lewis and his wife Rebecca Miller on the red carpet at the 2013 Oscar Awards

Photo by Getty

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He is said to obsessively practice his twin hobbies of shoe-making and woodwork, as well as riding for hours on his push bike. He is said to be contemplating taking up stonemasonry now that ‘Lincoln’ is over.

His insistence on staying in character even when not on set has infuriated some fellow co stars including Liam Neeson, who was furious that Day-Lewis insisted on addressing him by his character's name even when they met in the gym at their hotel when filming “Gangs of New York.”

He lives with his wife Rebecca Miller, daughter of the famous playwright and sons Gabriel, by an earlier relationship, and Ronan and Cashel.

When accepting the honor he said, "On the principle that you should push yourself before you are thrown over, I really don't know what I have done to deserve this," he laughed.

Read more: Daniel Day-Lewis to retire for five years to his Irish farm

"But I'm delighted, absolutely delighted with it."

He is famous or infamous for staying in character. When he played Christy Brown, the paraplegic in his first  Oscar role, Day Lewis was moved around the set in his wheelchair. He allegedly  broke two ribs from being so hunched over.

When he played wrongly convicted alleged IRA bomber Gerry Conlon in the Guildford Four movie “In The Name Of The Father,” he spent three nights in a freezing cold cell instructing people to throw water on him as they passed.

A worker on the film said, "I have never known anything like it.

"We all had to call him by his character's name, even if we bumped into him in the toilets.

"If he was doing a scene where he was being aggressive or having a fight, he would start getting really angry a few days beforehand, and would be glaring and snarling at people on the set.

"You had to know when to steer well clear of him because he could be pretty terrifying when he was in character.

"I must say, I personally gave him a wide berth because I thought he was nuts.

"But I met him socially shortly after doing the first picture with him and he was utterly charming and as nice as pie to me.

"It was as if, during filming, he actually became the person he was playing."

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