Popular Actors Who Shamelessly Faked Their Retirement

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Acting can sometimes be a tough task. Not just acting, the fame, the stardom, and anything the actors do is no secret. This all can sometimes be hard for some people. So, they end up retiring. They are given a great farewell and sent off to live the rest of their lives away from Hollywood. But sometimes, these actors are just faking it and come back to the industry. Here are a few actors who faked their retirement and came back to Tinseltown eventually.

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Joaquin Phoenix faked his retirement

Joaquin Phoenix actors who faked their retirement
Joaquin Phoenix

In 2008, Joaquin Phoenix announced his retirement saying that he wanted to pursue a career in Hip Hop music. But things got a bit confusing when the news of him appearing in a documentary started. The documentary was being created by Casey Affleck. Many started growing suspicious about the fact of whether the actor has really retired or not. In 2010, I’m Still Here premiered at the Venice Film Festival and many started asking questions. Soon after the premiere, Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck cleared the confusion, saying it was a mockumentary spoof film experiment. The two just wanted to see if the media would believe it. Since then he has starred in a number of movies. Even won an Oscar in 2020 for Joker.

Robert Redford regretted retiring

Robert Redford actors who faked their retirement
Robert Redford

And so he came back. The famous actor announced his retirement in 2018 after the completion of Old Man and the Gun. But the actor came back and reprised his role of Alexander Pierce in Avengers: Endgame. He told Entertainment Weekly confirming his claim from 2016, “Never say never, but I pretty well concluded that this would be it for me in terms of acting, and [I’ll] move towards retirement after this ’cause I’ve been doing it since I was 21.” He later confessed in an interview with People’s Magazine that he regretted retiring and so he came back.

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Terrence Howard did not really retire

Terrence Howard faked their retirement
Terrence Howard

After announcing to retire as soon as the sixth season of Empire was complete in 2019, Terrance Howard came back. He said that he was done acting and pretending. He also told Extra, “I love the cast members. I will miss them a great deal, and the crew… I’m just focusing on bringing truth to the world.” But maybe he was not. The actor is announced to appear in a sci-fi thriller film titled Beneath, which will be released this year. The announcement was made in 2021 and the film is directed by Gene Fallaize.

Michael J. Fox came back from retirement once

Michael J. Fox faked their retirement
Michael J. Fox

Back when the actor was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991, he announced his retirement. Michael J. Fox was determined to find a cure for his condition. But then in 2000, he founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation and came back to a more active career. He voiced some famous characters like Stuart Little and the protagonist of Atlantis: The Lost Empire. But in 2020 his health started to decline and Fox released a memoir. It announced the actor’s final retirement, “There is a time for everything, and my time of putting in a 12-hour workday and memorizing seven pages of dialogue is best behind me … I enter a second retirement. That could change because everything changes. But if this is the end of my acting career, so be it.”

Daniel Day-Lewis won Oscars after retiring

Daniel Day-Lewis faked their retirement
Daniel Day-Lewis

After finishing the shooting of The Boxer, the actor Daniel Day-Lewis announced retirement. He became an apprentice to learn shoemaking, but it lasted only 3 years. He then returned to act in Martin Scorsese‘s Gangs of New York, before which his hiatus whereabouts weren’t shared. His acting as Bill the Butcher received about 35 nominations, including one Oscar. The actor won a BAFTA. He then won two Oscars in the 80th and 85th Academy Awards for acting in the movies There Will be Blood and lincoln respectively.

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Related: Popular Actors Who Were Replaced During Production & Fans Didn’t Notice

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Written by Gargi

Articles Published: 464

Gargi Mishra is the Senior Editor at FandomWire. Serves as the Editor for writers and pens hard-hitting, industry-shaking, ace-tier editorials herself. A film student, she's the repository of everything infotainment at FandomWire. Above all, she loves K-Pop, K-Dramas, and Anime.