Daniel Day-Lewis doesn't strike us as a man to be shy on set, after all you don't become a double Oscar winner and one of the most revered actors of your generation by getting camera fright.
However the enormity of the task that fell to him in playing 16th President Abraham Lincoln made him clam up with shyness as he wanted to do the history justice.
According to Entertainment Weekly, at a Q&A to promote the film he said: “I was extremely shy about taking on this wonderful task. I’m not keen on history being tampered with … to any extent. I felt with this man particularly, that it might just be impossible to find the life in him that would help tell this story.”
What may have been making him a bit more nervous though is that Spielberg called his actors by their character names, which in his case meant "Mr President", Spielberg admitted as much when he indicated that it wasn't at Day-Lewis's request, saying: “It wasn’t because he said, ‘You must call me Mr. President.’”
The film is tipped as the ultimate Oscar-bait, bringing together Day-Lewis, Spielberg and the iconic US President, but the actor was still worried about what people thought of his performance and joked about there not being any contemporary recordings so people couldn't question him.
The 'Gangs of New York' star said: "There are some early recordings, but no contemporary recordings. Luckily for me, nobody can say positively, that’s not what he sounded like.”
PHOTOS: The New York premiere of 'Lincoln'
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