Tea and a Mag

today: Cherwell salutes you!!
16th May 2011

Damian Lewis is making me a cup of tea. Dressed in Ugg boots, a checked shirt and a stylish knit cardigan, he’s every inch the metrosexual, cool guy about town: down with the kids in more ways than one, he has to head off after the interview to read his children a bedtime story.

Famously flame-headed and Eton-educated, Lewis rose to prominence back in 2001 for his portrayal of Major Richard Winters in the hit TV series Band of Brothers, and since then has been most known for his TV and film work, including the series Life and The Forsyte Saga. But Hollywood was not always his dream.

‘At drama school, all my influences were in the theatre, not in film and TV. I remember standing on the prow of a ship one year heading over to Amsterdam with one of my best friends, and talking about how we were going to be the next generation of theatre actors.

'It was all very romantic – all we wanted was to be at the National, the Donmar, The Royal Court. And romantically theatre still holds a place in my affections, but after Band of BrothersI got invited into this world I knew very little about, and that went on for the next ten years. And the roles I was being offered and the people I was being asked to work with were so exciting that I continued to take work in film and TV, and I look back and wish there’d been more time for theatre.’

Yet Lewis has only regret: ‘foolishly’ turning down a role in Love’s Labour’s Lost to do press for a film (‘not even to do a job!’). He fondly recalls fulfilling his dream of working at the National, ‘bicycling over Westminster Bridge in the dying light, St Paul’s one way, Big Ben the other. But Hollywood bedazzles you, and has its own extraordinary tradition. Some of my biggest heroes are Jack Lemmon, Laurel and Hardy, Cary Grant... I’m equally proud of being part of that tradition, but it’s not in me in the same way.’

Having spent a great part of his working life in America, Lewis is well-placed to comment on the differences between the two cultures. ‘There’s been a healthy cross-pollination between US and UK TV, borrowing ideas, recasting and retelling stories with different cultural references.’ He has played an American so often that he has his own American persona. ‘I stay American all day when I’m playing one, I don’t feel comfortable switching accents. When I was living in LA, sometimes I’d wake up and find myself talking American to people subliminally.’ The persona goes beyond the accent too: ‘It affects the way you move, and your response to things.’ I wonder if this ability to sustain multiple personalities is somehow connected to living a life dedicated to acting, a notion the practical Lewis dispels with an infectious laugh: ‘Not in a deep psychological way – I still want to watch “soccer” and get the cricket scores!’

to be continued on Friday!!