The man, often hailed as the greatest screen actor of his generation, is famous – some say notorious – for his obsessive attention to detail in building character. His latest role, playing Abraham Lincoln, is no exception

In playing the revered 16th president of the United States, the 55-year old actor adds to the series of New World archetypes he has tackled on screen. He has moved from the fleet-footed, fictional scout Hawkeye in The Last of the Mohicans to the compromised religious settler John Proctor in The Crucible and on to the society figure of Edith Wharton's Newland Archer in The Age of Innocence. Later, he embodied the ferocity of the mobster Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York and the obsessional frontiersman Daniel Plainview in There Will be Blood.

The British film critic David Thomson once said that Day-Lewis "knows how to grasp an audience without noticing them" and in Lincoln the actor again delivers what could be called a total performance. He adopts an odd, light, cracked voice that has divided audiences so far, although Spielberg claims he won the role by sending him a recording of the way he felt Lincoln ought to speak. Day-Lewis also surprises by bringing out the folksy manner and homespun humour that apparently belied the intellect of the great man.