‘Elsinore’ Revisits Daniel Day-Lewis’ Infamous Walk-Off During ’80s ‘Hamlet’ Production

Audiences got the first glimpse at a triumphant and career-defining performance from Andrew Scott in “Elsinore” this weekend, but the Telluride player also delivers another important gift: legendary show business gossip.

Central to the plot is an infamous real-life moment in the history of the U.K. theater — when Daniel Day-Lewis stopped cold during a performance of “Hamlet,” before stalking off stage and never coming back. Ever.

“Elsinore” opens in 1989, during a production of “Hamlet” at London’s National Theater. During a fraught encounter between Hamlet and the ghost of his father, an actor freezes before exiting entirely. The incident shocks audience members and sends cast and crew into a meltdown.

“That’s not supposed to happen,” deadpans a sassy house manager, watching the disaster unfold in real time on CCTV. Director Simon Stone’s camera follows the actor as he storms to his dressing room, where a slammed door reveals Day-Lewis’ name on a placard. The Telluride crowd erupted in laughter and surprise at the reveal. It reminded (or informed) them that it happened in the first place.

“Elsinore” is the heart-wrenching true story of Scottish actor Ian Charelson. The star of “Chariots of Fire” had the chance of a lifetime to replace Day-Lewis as Hamlet in that same production, all while succumbing to complications from end-stage AIDS. He died 7 weeks after bowing out to rave reviews. Filmmakers and producers on “Elsinore” approached the matter sensitively, numerous sources told Variety, and screened a rough cut of the film for Day-Lewis’ reps before the Telluride premiere to get their blessing.

So what happened on that fateful November day in 1989? Actors, academics and press are still trying to solve the puzzle 37 years later. The British media devoured the story, as even then Day-Lewis was synonymous with intense devotion to his craft. Urban legend goes that Day-Lewis saw the ghost of his own late father, the poet Cecil Day-Lewis, that night on stage. In 2012, the “Lincoln” star debunked this myth (though he gave quotes at the time that supported the supernatural anecdote).

That year was incredibly fraught for Day-Lewis. He’d wrapped production on “My Left Foot” and was barreling toward his first ever Academy Award, one he’d win four months later at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in 1990. The same year as the “Hamlet” debacle, he’d also met French actress Isabelle Adjani, with who he reportedly had a tumultuous relationship before a breakup in 1996.

“I work in a certain way, and I never really felt the need to explain it or apologize for it, but in England, they thought I was unhinged,” Day-Lewis told Time magazine in 2012. “The press goes after you, and they don’t tend to let go.”

On the ground in Telluride, we caught up with “Elsinore” producer Gabrielle Tana, who says the moment ultimately reinforces Charelson’s destiny.

 “It was the dream come true. It was carpe diem, and he got an opportunity to do the thing that he always wanted to do,. Ian felt he was washed up, and all of a sudden this gift was there for him,” said Tana.

Focus Features will release “Elsinore” in theaters on Nov. 20.