Tea and a mag part two...

The time away almost led to him turning the job down when first offered it. "Now, knowing what Homeland is, it's inconceivable I wouldn't be part of it. It would be a small personal tragedy if I'd said no, which I very nearly did. I'm very glad I did it -- I feel like the luckiest actor on the planet at the moment -- but at the same time, those five months can on a personal level feel like something to be got through."

The deal with his wife is when he's not shooting Homeland, her work takes priority. Who does what and when "is an ongoing conversation that will never go away. I would never dissuade her from a job. If she wants to work, she must. I am happy to take time off. I love co-parenting, but it is harder because the roles are less defined and it's an endless challenge to communicate every day."

What if he were offered something really good in the period his wife was supposed to be working? "I've made a commitment to be home November, December, January." Fair enough, but what if it were a dream part? "Then we would have to have A Conversation [his tone implies upper case], which is our clause." Has The Conversation happened yet? "No, but there are already difficulties on the horizon. It's an imperfect world. You heard it here first."

A few years ago, Lewis and McCrory moved to Los Angeles so he could be in Life, a drama that ran for two years. "Gulliver was born there. I was working 75-hour weeks. Helen essentially lived on her own with two small children. She was remarkable." The upshot of that was that he felt he "owed her time. So I took all but two months of 2010 off. It was glorious. Lovely. We're both much nicer when we're being parents at home, full of love and joy."

That's all well and good, I say, but now, though, with this hit on his hands, doesn't he fell he has to make it count? Strike while the iron's hot? "I don't get caught up in that. I've had periods in the limelight before." Besides, he says, there is "a discrepancy in the game I talk and what I end up doing. I have conversations with agents and say, 'Yeah, I'm really committed to being a big film star, let's go for it,' and then they end up frustrated because I say, 'Actually, I'm just going to be at home for a bit with my children.'"

So he discovered the limits of his ambition. Which is fine, I tell him, because it means you must be a fundamentally nice person. "Oh, I wouldn't go that far," he says, ever ready to deflect intimacy with a practised quip. "It shows you can be ambitious for different things. Because I'm certainly ambitious." This said with a steely tone, as if for the benefit of any casting agents reading. "But I'm ambitious in smaller ways, too. I'm not very good at letting the weekend slide by. I want the weekend to be the Best Possible Weekend it can be. I'm not always the most restful person to be with. I throw my toys out of my pram occasionally, get anxious, like anyone."

to be continued 

source damian-lewis.com