My highlight part two

“Suddenly, the TV industry transformed itself and, arguably, I was in the vanguard of that with Band of Brothers,” he continued. “For the first time, someone was prepared to spend $120 million on a TV show, go and film it abroad, hire local crews and local talent to make use of the tax break — that’s starting to sound a bit like a film to me. Then, after that, Brits were allowed to do American TV, Australians were allowed to do American TV. It had always been a very American thing. I can only think of Pierce Brosnan on Remington Steele. Sure, there was the occasional Brit that showed up in things, but it just got opened up to us and it’s because TV became this more independent-feeling art form and people would go abroad to shoot. The whole thing is terrific for someone like me; I’m just very lucky that it happened in this time.”

After HBO’s acclaimed WWII miniseries Band of Brothers, Lewis starred in 2002’s 10-episode retelling of The Forsyte Saga, 2003’s big-budget adaptation of Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher, 2005’s powerful Keane, and Life, a 2007 NBC drama about a man who is released from prison after 12 years for a crime he didn’t commit.

“After Band of Brothers I was given opportunities and I just had a not very good experience being in Hollywood,” Lewis said nonplused, the passing years having dulled the sting. “At that point, I resolved to follow the good scripts, whether they be in film, TV, theater, or radio. And I’ve done that — mostly. I think I’ll continue to try to do that. I’m not very good at taking projects because there is some perceived wisdom that this is what one does next. If it doesn’t speak to me, I won’t do it. That’s the truth of it.”

If the industry finds Lewis unwilling to play their game that’s because he carries with him the lessons of years and projects past, and reminds himself as he would remind his students: “Just remember that people have short memories. They will love you while they love you, and then after that it’s ‘Damian who?’ That’s show business. You’ve got to just concentrate on doing the thing that exercises you, energizes you.”

Hollywood is — at least for the time being — a much more hospitable environment for Lewis this time around. “I have even more choice,” he said of the projects offered to him with Homeland on his resume and a Best Actor Emmy on his shelf. “I made two or three films, the scripts of which I really liked, and then I didn’t really read any other film scripts I really liked. Gone are the days when you take a movie because it’s a movie. Fifteen years ago, that’s what you did. You don’t do that anymore because you could very quickly be in three very not good films and that’s it — your Homeland window just closed. Because TV is now what it is, you can choose TV and no one looks at you funny and says, ‘Why are you doing TV instead of movies?’”

That notion led Lewis to Wolf Hall, a six-part miniseries adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize-winning novels about Thomas Cromwell (Mark Rylance), the conniving confidant to King Henry VIII (Lewis) during his reign. “I loved the books, I loved Hilary Mantel’s reimagined world, and a little bit of a reappraisal of this central character, Thomas Cromwell, who — certainly if you’re a Catholic — is second only to Satan,” Lewis said.

He was also attracted to Mantel’s incarnation of the oft-played Henry VIII. “We find a man who is not this great philandering, syphilitic Elvis,” said Lewis. “He’s a rounded, complex, Renaissance prince who desperately wants a son and is clearly, in our version of it, at times childlike, impetuous, explosive, tender, and loving. It’s interesting to get a look at Henry in this rounded way — and also quite a fresh way to approach Henry because he’s not the star at the center of his own story. You tell a story about the Tudor court, Henry the VIII is usually the starring role. Thomas Cromwell is the star here, so you get snapshots of Henry and I think it gives us opportunities to show the man, individual moments of him that I think will ring very clearly and loudly in a different way.”

Through that role, Lewis learned that sometimes you must rely on the gifts of others to support and enhance the skills that you bring to the table. “It’s hard to play a king,” Lewis said. “You realize that you have to let external things influence your power. So, [they] put me in these extraordinary clothes — he’s very much the peacock, always the most colorful man there. He’s always got a bit more fur than anyone else, his codpiece is a little bit longer. Then, with the brilliance of Mark and others, they play a slightly more deferential role. Choosing when to make eye contact, choosing when not to make eye contact, stillness, sometimes a measured quality in the delivery: All of those things can help you with status. People who … feel no need to rush, they’re used to being listened to and not interrupted. It’s finding different pace and rhythm.”

Lewis will next return to a place he knows all too well, starring (alongside Paul Giamatti) in an episodic television series for Showtime, Billions, a Wall Street drama written and executive produced by Brian Koppelman and David Levien (Rounders) and Andrew Ross Sorkin (Too Big to Fail). While Lewis learned the hard way what can come from building a character piecemeal as scripts come in, it’s also an exhilarating experience that he can’t wait to tackle again.

“I used to worry that you won’t always know what’s going to happen in the story because, quite frankly, sometimes the writers don’t know,” he said. “They have a broad outline, but things shift and change from week to week. People come in with ideas and they develop a slightly different storyline than they thought they were going to. I’ve come to like the spontaneity of that. Getting a new episode every 10 days is like going to bed, picking up your novel, and reaching the next chapter. And it’s great fun to go, ‘Wow, I did not see that coming — and now I’m going to play that!’”

Perhaps the most important lesson Lewis has taken to heart is to confront the past and not run from it.

“I put myself back in the situation I was in before, which is always a slightly ball-tightening moment,” he said, with a laugh, of committing to another long-term series. “There’s no way of knowing how a show is going to turn out, but it’s the same with film. You can sign up with some of the most respected names in Hollywood and it can be a turkey.

“Everyone’s doing their best, but things don’t always work out. It’s the same in everything you do. I’m going to do a play in the West End (American Buffalo) and it’s David Mamet, so it’s only ours to fuck up. I mean, we won’t try to — but we might!”

source damian-lewis.com