Ronan Day-Lewis’s debut film, Anemone, is a dark, emotional journey into generational trauma. It also just happens to star his father, Daniel Day-Lewis, in the venerated actor’s first film in eight years. How did Day-Lewis the younger go from scampering around sets to running a production of his own? Here are some key moviegoing moments from the director’s early days.

First movie you saw in theaters?
The first movie I remember seeing was Finding Nemo, but I’m sure I saw something else before that — it was either that or The Incredibles. I rewatched Finding Nemo recently and it’s a masterpiece, honestly.

First movie you bought?
Either the first or the second Harry Potter film.

First favorite movie?
I watched Whale Rider when I was around 5, and that made a big impression on me. I became obsessed with it for a while. There was a mythic aspect to it, and I was fascinated by the ocean. I had watched a lot of Blue Planet. And the performance by the main actress [Keisha Castle-Hughes] is amazing. There’s a sense of mystery throughout. And then, of course, My Neighbor Totoro was another big one.

First favorite actor?
Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter.

First movie crush?
The main character from Spirited Away — Chihiro.

First movie that made you cry?
I don’t know if it made me cry, exactly, but I saw [Ken Loach’s] Kes when I was pretty young, and it just devastated me. It was the first time I remember being so sad watching a movie.

First favorite director?
Paul Thomas Anderson. I think Punch-Drunk Love was his first movie I saw, and then I went backward in his filmography from there.

First movie set you visited?
My parents made this film, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, which they shot on Prince Edward Island off the coast of Canada. I think I was about 5 at the time. I remember seeing that they made this set that was a house built into a hill with the grass growing over the roof. It was like a crazy mirage.

First book about movies you read?
I read this book about DIY filmmaking — I don’t remember what it was called — but it had all these tips on how to, like, put your camera on a skateboard or something to get a dolly shot and stuff like that.

First film score that made an impression on you?
The score for Pan’s Labyrinth is so haunting. That and Rosemary’s Baby were huge for me — and they’re similar scores in a way. I wonder if they were thinking about Rosemary’s Baby when they were figuring out the lullaby in Pan’s Labyrinth.

First memorable needle drop?
“Be My Baby” in Mean Streets is a pretty epic one.

First shot from a film that stuck with you?
This isn’t a particularly early memory, but a shot that amazed me — and that we kind of ripped off in Anemone — is in Andrei Tarkovsky’s The Mirror, where the wind blows through the field of grass in the clearing. I was just floored by the depth of it.

First movie of your dad’s that you saw?
It was either My Left Foot or The Last of the Mohicans. The first time I saw him onscreen, the strangest part was seeing him afterward, just around. I’d gotten so used to seeing him in character, and then coming outside of that, he’s just my dad. It’s very surreal. There’s this weird cognitive dissonance where it’s both him and not him, and I kind of have to forget this is someone I know so well.

First time you became aware of your dad’s legacy?
It was through kids at school, when I was around 7. Their parents would show them The Last of the Mohicans, and then they would start talking to me about that. Even though I was on movie sets before then, I didn’t really have any idea what was going on.

The first video camera you bought?
It was like a little Sony camera that had a strap for your hand and a little monitor that would flip out. I was probably 13 or 14. I used it to shoot this zombie movie in my friend’s basement. I was in a phase where I was just watching almost exclusively horror films, and there was this movie on Netflix called Zombie Girl about a girl that makes a feature-length zombie film in her small town. I was really inspired by it. Before that, we’d made some other movies on my friend’s dad’s camera.

First time you thought about directing a feature-length film?
It was around that same time — eighth grade or so. I had a film teacher named Michael Domenica, and he wasn’t just teaching films but he’d give us assignments where we’d make shorts. I started to write my first feature script when I was 15, and everything took off from there.

First scene you wrote for Anemone?
The one where we discover Ray [Editor’s note: played by Daniel Day-Lewis] in the woods. The camera is gliding through the trees, and then we find him hacking at the roots in the clearing.

Last movie you bought?
I can’t remember off-hand, but it was almost certainly something that Ben Fordesman — the DP on Anemone — and I were using for visual reference. We looked at Autumn Sonata. We actually looked at the third Harry Potter film. We looked at Knife in the Water, because a lot of it takes place in this really confined environment with a couple of people. We were studying how to frame people claustrophobically within a tight space.

Last notable film discovery?
I hadn’t seen Morvern Callar until recently, and so that got me obsessed with Lynne Ramsay and her films.

Last movie you saw in theaters?
I have definitely seen something since then, but I keep thinking about The Brutalist. I’ve been so tunnel vision finishing up Anemone that I haven’t seen enough movies in theaters recently, but I got to see that on the big screen, which was a great experience.

 The Anemone writer-director’s Film History also includes Studio Ghibli, Whale Rider, and his dad.