Tea and a Mag

Tea and Mag

  I Can't Believe I'm Getting Paid For What I've Always Wanted To Do'

Damian Lewis talks to Gabrielle Donnelly about work, marriage -- and why he'd like to star in a romance.

by Gabrielle Donnelly, Woman's Weekly, July 30, 2013

On screen, Damian Lewis tends to specialise in characters that, frankly, would make your heart sink if your daughter brought them home. They're either withdrawn (Major Winters in Band Of Brothers), tortured (Soames in The Forsyte Saga) or impossibly complicated (Nicholas Brody in Homeland). So it's a bit of a treat to find that, off screen, he resembles nothing so much as a friendly ginger-haired puppy, all jokes, windmill-armed impressions of himself and other actors, and self-deprecatory comments delivered in his real-life accent -- neither American nor old-Etonian (which he is), but down-to-earth London with, endearingly, a hint of his Welsh grandparents.

Softly spoken, and with piercing blue eyes,  he sits in front of me…

"Whether it's Homeland or Romeo & Juliet, great writing has great subtext, meaning there isn't just one thing going on at any one time," he enthuses. "Having so many things happening makes it very interesting to play. Of course, there were some days on Homeland when there was so much going on, I had no clue what I was supposed to be doing, so I just looked slightly blank and everyone thought 'Brody's being complicated,' which is great!"

source damian-lewis.com

Tea and a Mag... Damian's London

Damian Lewis: My London (2005)
The Evening Standard ES Magazine, October 28, 2005


Where do you live and why?
Camden. I've always liked this part of London. I remember, when I was younger, I used to make it along to the Electric Ballroom in Camden High Street on a Friday night and jump up and down to the rock music.

How long have you lived there?
I've lived in North London all my life. I grew up in St. John's Wood, although I was at boarding school a lot of the time. Afterwards, I returned to London to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. I was at Guildhall at the same time as Joseph Fiennes, Ewan McGregor and Jude Law.

What was the last play you saw in London and did you enjoy it?
As You Like It at Wyndhams Theatre with my girlfriend Helen McCrory and Sienna Miller. Helen's performance as Rosalind was quite stunning -- I loved it.

What have been your most memorable London meals?
Long Sunday lunches in great pubs with good wine and good friends. I also like eating at The Wolseley on Piccadilly. I can't really tell if I'm in a Viennese brasserie or a car showroom -- but it's very grand.

What do you miss most when you're out of London?
The magnificent views of the city when you're standing on the top of Primrose Hill or from Waterloo Bridge -- they're breathtaking.

What is your life philosophy? 
Be brave. Regret nothing.

What items are in your winter wardrobe?
Long johns and woolly socks -- especially if it's going to get as cold as everyone is predicting this winter.

Which aftershave do you wear?
Acqua di Gio by Giorgio Armani or something by Christian Dior.

What are your current projects?
I'm currently rehearsing for a Henrik Ibsen play at the National Theatre called Pillars Of The Community, which opens on 1 November. Then I've got Much Ado About Nothing, which is on BBC One, also on 1 November. And there's my film Keane which is being screened at the London Film Festival. I play a man struggling to come to terms with the disappearance of his six-year-old daughter.

-- Bookworm --
What were the last books you bought?
The Spanish Game by Charles Cumming, a spy story, and an introduction to the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. I get most of my books from Charing Cross Road.

-- Little black book --
Who is in your secret address book?
Paradise Cleaners, the flower stall, the Odeon cinema and Tupelo Honey restaurant for its chicken pie -- all on Parkway in Camden. I used to love flicking through books in Regent Bookshop, also on Parkway, but sadly it's now closed.

-- Hot tip --
What advice would you give to a tourist?
Bring a brolly with you.

-- Memory lane --
What is your earliest London memory?
Solving crimes along Abbey Road with my brother Gareth on our Grifter bikes.

-- Air waves --
What do you listen to on your iPod as you travel around London?
In a perfect world I would always be bicycling through Bloomsbury just as my iPod shuffled to Artie Shaw.

-- Top tracks --
What was the last CD you bought?
Damian Marley's Welcome To Jamrock. It's a reggae album by the son of Bob Marley.

-- Globetrotting --
Where were the last three places you went on holiday?
My family house in Wales, then Norfolk and before that Morocco.

-- Power trip --
What would you do if you were Mayor for the day?
Hand out bicycles, free, to everyone.

source damian-lewis.com

Tea and a Mag Belfast Telegraph...2012

Damian Lewis has joked he can "get a bit Burt Reynolds" if he wears a shirt with too many buttons undone.

The British actor likes looking dapper, and credits the fashions worn in TV show Mad Men as his go-to inspiration.

Damian would love to look like hunky Jon Hamm's character Don Draper, but has joked he's sometimes a little off the mark.

"I like that 1960s Mad Men thing that's going on," he told website Mr Porter.

"Equally I can get a bit Burt Reynolds if I wear the right shirt - a few too many buttons undone. It's not a good look but I just can't avoid it happening!"

Damien is famed for his role as Major Richard Winters in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, and is currently starring as Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody in Homeland.

The 41-year-old star looks the part with his short red hair and chiselled features, but insists this isn't why he's won the roles.

"That's what President Obama asked me! He thought it was because I looked like the guy I was playing. So I made a joke - I said, 'No Mr President, it was because of my outstanding leadership qualities and moral probity'.

"And he wasn't sure for a minute - he was like, 'Who the f**k is this guy?'" he laughed.

source damian-lewis.com

Tea and a Mag...

Places To Go ... People To Meet

Damian Lewis is an Old Etonian who plays an American war hero in Spielberg's latest epic, and dreams of being the next James Bond. Emily Bearn meets the young contender.

Sunday Telegraph September 30 2001

Damian Lewis (if the actor's publicists in London, New York and Los Angeles are to be believed) is destined to be pretty big -- he is already big enough to turn up for our interview two hours late. We have arranged to meet at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, which has been Lewis's home for the past six months while he has been filming a new adaptation of Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga for ITV. Journalists and photographers are milling around the hotel's palm-fronded foyer, being sporadically debriefed as to Lewis's whereabouts by Michael, a member of his publicity team, who is directing operations from a mobile telephone. We are plied with complimentary croissants and told that the delay is attributable to Lewis's intense filming commitments, coupled with a recent unscheduled appearance at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, where he had his appendix whipped out.

When he eventually arrives, Lewis looks calm, robust and fairly confident of the fact that he is one of the swifter-ascending stars of the small screen. He is dressed in jeans and a slightly grubby grey shirt; his orange hair is damp or fashionably slicked, and his freckles suggest he has been in the sun. He is 30, but has the sort of pleasant, negotiable looks that mean he could pass himself off as a decade older or younger. After Lewis has dispatched Michael into the Manchester drizzle to buy him bananas, we retire to a suite in which the bed has been replaced by a table bearing yet more croissants. Lewis eats two, with the rapacity of a man who has missed breakfast, pausing between bites to explain the etymology of marmalade.

We are here to discuss Band of Brothers, an American Second World War drama in which Lewis plays Major Dick Winters, the hero who led an élite US Army corps as it parachuted into France on D-Day. The ten-part series (which swallowed a budget of about £86 million and will be screened by the BBC this week) was produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks and has been attacked for -- as one British tabloid put it -- casting an "unashamedly American slant on the Second World War."

Lewis -- who, oddly, is cast as an American -- disagrees. "It's good television, and I think there's also a good history lesson in there," he says. "The British might not get much attention, but then nor do the French." One Briton who does get some attention is Lewis himself: his name sails high on the credits, and the series has gained him a Hollywood agent and publicist and a puff in Talk magazine. His career is now set to continue snowballing, following a recent hand-shaking tour of important film folk in Los Angeles. "I was coerced into having a publicist, but I don't have my own attorney," he says. "Hollywood's fantastic, but I take it fairly unseriously. It's all about self-promotion, which I suppose is what I'm doing now." Though not averse to publicity, he does not seem hungry for it. "At first I was fascinated by how I looked in photographs, but publicity soon becomes just a necessary tool."

It certainly may be necessary if Lewis is to fulfill his less modest ambitions. He says he'd like to co-star with Cate Blanchett and Julia Roberts and wouldn't mind being rich. He'd like a four-storey house in Primrose Hill, not to mention somewhere in the country. "When I'm going to sleep at night I sometimes think of being paid $30 million a movie or being the next James Bond. Who," he asks, clasping his second banana, "would be your next James Bond? Or is that a really annoying question?"

Though Lewis might not be the most obvious candidate for 007 (it's hard to imagine him trading in the banana for a martini), it doesn't seem fair to tout him -- and some have -- as the new Hugh Grant. Despite an Eton education, there is little foppishness about him. "I used to keep my school very quiet because I thought it was damaging," he says, in an accent that sounds studiedly rough around the edges. "I think you can't be really posh and be an interesting actor. I'm a bit of posh rough. At school I didn't play the beautiful raven-tressed characters. I was a redhead so I played the comedy parts. I've never been asked to play good-looking toff lovers." Lewis pauses, his hand freezing en route for his coffee. "Come to think of it," he says, "why not?"

The son of a London re-insurance broker, Lewis says his acting career was launched at his prep school in Sussex where, aged 12, he won a prize for his performance as Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream. ("They were my halcyon days.") By the time he left he had "squawked" his way through five Gilbert and Sullivan productions, and at Eton he won much applause for his performance as Mr. Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby. His prowess on stage was not matched in the classroom, in which he says he "always came last." After leaving school he enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, since when his acting credits have steadily swelled. He has starred in six television dramas -- among them Poirot (1989), Warriors (1999), and Hearts and Bones (2000); an unmemorable Miramax production of Robinson Crusoe (1996), in which he co-starred with Pierce Brosnan; four radio plays; any number of productions with the Birmingham Repertory and the Royal Shakespeare Company, not to mention three audio cassettes. He also briefly alighted on Broadway in 1995, when he played Laertes to Ralph Fiennes's Hamlet in Jonathan Kent's Almeida Theatre touring production. Such is the volume of his fan mail that he says he now replies only to letters that come with a stamped addressed envelope.

By now we have been talking for 45 minutes, and Lewis is already an hour and three-quarters late for his next journalist, a gentleman from Time Out. I ask him whether he could ever see himself as a fully fledged Hollywood star: the house in Bel Air, the personal attorney, the lot. Lewis pauses for a moment, contemplating his semi-peeled banana. "The short answer," he says, "is yes."

Tea and a Mag a look back

      Watch Out For The Young Dudes

Evening Standard 2000

 Young, gifted and British: the new crop of Brit actors seems to have been cast in the mould marked "Good-Looking -- But In An Unconventional Manner". And there is nothing the film industry likes more than faces that stick in the mind long after they've smiled or scowled their way across a screen.

As careers progress and profiles are raised, so the lure of Hollywood -- the money, the agents, the exposure, the opportunity to work with some of the world's most celebrated film stars -- shifts from the stuff of dreams to the hard core of reality. Every generation of British actors yields a crop who go large in Hollywood: check out the CVs of Sean Bean, Dougray Scott, Jeremy Northam, Jude Law, Jonny Lee Miller, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Vinnie Jones. Now there is a new bunch of boys-most-likely to storm the Hollywood citadel. Names like Ioan Gruffudd, James Frain, Matthew Rhys and Dominic West are straining at the leash, checking out the flight schedules between Heathrow and LAX for those all-important meetings.

A lot has changed in the past few years. Time was when an actor took his credibility in his hands by crossing The Pond to exchange his battered Morris Minor for a Porsche, albeit a rented one, in which to cruise down Sunset Boulevard waving at the crowds who, one day, it was hoped, would wave back. With the exception of a few maverick talents -- such as Anthony Hopkins and Steven Berkoff -- very few Brit actors could cross over to Hollywood for a spell, then step back into their home environment without the taint of Hollywood sell-out attached to them like a foul stench. Now, it is perfectly acceptable practice for the exalted likes of Sir Ian McKellen, Alan Rickman, Anthony Hopkins, Ben Kingsley, Nigel Hawthorne and Patrick Stewart to strut their stuff in big budget blockbusters, adding a little theatrical class to the slick movie-star ambience and SFX stunts that typify such productions. It is well known that whenever studio executives want a class act to pep up their banal scripts or bolster the egos of their overpaid stars, they get on the phone to British agents.

 The new breed has come out of the closet, ambition-wise. "People are slowly admitting that we do want that dream," says Ioan Gruffudd. "It's not a cool thing to admit, but we all have it in our heads." When asked if he would turn down the opportunity to play a villain in the next Mission Impossible movie, Matthew Rhys, says: "Absolutely not. I'm a bona fide tart.

" All of which suggests a shameless and refreshingly honest attitude about a business that has traditionally been riddled with deception, peer-group pressure and fear of ridicule. In addition, the new kids on the block are in line to benefit from a more liberal attitude to casting. They will certainly not suffer as much as their predecessors for taking the Hollywood dollar. And the really good news is that they will have had a chance to make a few movies on their home turf, as opposed to shuttling between a local rep and a few telly parts with the occasional film role thrown in. The growth spurt in British movies (whatever their quality) and the changing face of the industry mean that most young actors will have had enough movie experience to prevent the potential intimidation of the leap from small screen to large.

 There is another change: more and more British actors are being called on to play Americans -- a situation that proves the cross-fertilisation between US and UK is far healthier than it once was. We may thank the likes of Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Tim Roth and Daniel Day-Lewis for exploring this particular frontier and establishing a bridgehead in the studios and the audiences of America. Oh, and not forgetting our very own Kenneth Branagh. So who are the next Brit Brat Packers flitting across to the States for breakfast meetings and casting counselling?

Here is a selection of the hottest-to-trot male stars who are likely to give the Yanks a run for their money. Tomorrow's stars today.

Ioan Gruffudd (26) The charming tousle-haired hero of television's Hornblower has also served aboard James Cameron's Titanic (as Fifth Officer Harold Lowe) and suffered at the hands of Disney dominatrix Cruella de Vil in the upcoming 102 Dalmations. Regularly shuttles across to Hollywood for meetings, following the success of Hornblower on US television. Dominic West (29) Declared intention to be the "next Cary Grant". Hot in the States due to his charmingly lovelorn Lysander in Michael Hoffman's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Went on to star opposite Sandra Bullock -- a traditional rite of passage for young Anglos in Hollywood -- in 28 Days. Currently engaged in the new Stephen Herek film with Jennifer Aniston and Mark Wahlberg. Stuart Townsend (27) Billed as "the boy most likely" following his roles in Shooting Fish and Resurrection Man, Dubliner Townsend is honing his Natural-Born-Killer looks for another shot at the Hollywood title with The Venice Project, alongside boffo veterans Lauren Bacall and Dennis Hopper. Still takes time out to return to the theatre and can be seen on stage at the Donmar in Orpheus Descending. James Frain (31) Lively Yorkshire lad with a good track record in Brit telly and films who looks like a cross between Patrick Mower and Rufus Sewell. Made a tactical error by appearing in John Frankenheimer's lamentable Reindeer Games, but has recovered nicely with a blazing performance in Julie Taymor's ferocious Titus with Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange. Daniel Craig (32) Strong-featured, ultra-masculine actor who stormed off the television screen and into movies with an impressive demonstration of strength and versatility in Elizabeth, Love is the Devil and The Trench. Particularly good at playing military blokes, he has a solidity and pugnaciousness that will see him headbutt his way into Hollywood. Has shared the screen with Kim Basinger and lived. Latest project is Tomb Raider opposite Angelina Jolie. Matthew Rhys (27) Another Welsh wizard who is making regular trips across The Pond for encounters with studio executives. Profile skyrocketed when he won the part of Benjamin in The Graduate starring opposite Kathleen Turner. Another Titus contributor and the first recipient of the Patricia Rothermere Scholarship, which was presented to him at the 1993 Evening Standard Film Awards. Damian Lewis (28) Currently working on Dream-Works' 10-part WWII series Band of Brothers, Lewis numbers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks among his associates, who are the right kind of guys to hang out with for a Hollywood wannabe. His old-fashioned good looks give him an edge in period casting. Kenny Doughty (25) Another participant in Titus, the Brad Pittish-Doughty combines youthful roguishness with a Brit slacker style. His brief but impressive CV includes the role of Sir Thomas Elyot in Elizabeth and Young Scrooge in television's A Christmas Carol. One to watch, even if (or possibly because) he looks like he's just fallen off the back of a boy band.

Tea and a Mag part two

Tea and a Mag….continues

  I Can't Believe I'm Getting Paid For What I've Always Wanted To Do'

He's selling himself short, and he knows it. Refreshingly, he doesn't make a big deal of what he does. "I'm actually a bit of a nightmare to work with," he confesses cheerfully. "I try to make it harder work than it is, because I suffer from guilt about having this job. I can't quite believe I'm being paid to do something I've wanted to do forever and which is such fun -- fooling around, putting on costumes, using different accents. ... It's playtime, isn't it?

 . 

He had a privileged upbringing in northwest London -- "although my parents didn't have loads of money," he's quick to point out. "It was my grandparents who made money selling newsprint to Rupert Murdoch's father. And on my mother's side was Bowater-Scott, who made loo roll and stuff like that." Reluctantly, he abandons the pretence that he isn't posh. "So, yes, I suppose you'd say I was privileged."

Now 42, Damian was just 16 when he decided to become an actor, graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1993. He says he spent the next few years "jumping around in tights a lot on stage" doing Shakespeare. "It certainly has its romance, theatre," he says, wistfully. "I though that's what I'd always be doing, actually. I understood being on stage but, for a long time, I didn't really know what to do with a camera. 

And then came a range of roles, culminating with Homeland, the must-watch series with more twists than an alpine road, about a returned American prisoner of war. It's earned him a Golden Globe, an Emmy, worldwide fame, and made him such a familiar face on US telly that many Americans, on meeting him, are surprised to hear that he is in fact British.

"I almost feel that i have an American twin these days," he says. " I have family in America, and when I was a kid, I used to visit them often in Connecticut, so I've grown up around the accent. And between playing Major Winters in Band Of Brothers and Brody, the accent has become almost second nature to me. Homeland is filmed in North Carolina, and if I'm alone there over the weekend, I'll find myself going to the store and talking in an American accent anyway. It's not even something I think about."

The acting lifestyle means a certain level of compromise between Damian and his wife, actress Helen McCrory (who played Cherie Blair in The Queen and Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies). Working on different sides of the Atlantic, with Helen back in England taking care of their children, Manon, six, and Gulliver, five, must have presented challenges?

"Oh, my God! Did you bug my hotel room or something?" he says in mock alarm. "I've just had this conversation with Helen on the phone! No, it's true. My wife is a brilliant, talented actress, who had to shape her career around the family when our babies were very young. Having said that, she managed to appear in four major movies in that time, but only because she was playing smaller roles. I think she's quite keen to take more responsibility in a film now; not necessarily a Hollywood blockbuster, but just something in which she can play a lead role and really show her acting chops. She did some theatre work last year, and I actually took the kids on my own for a month -- well, not on my own, I don't want you to think I'm Superman, we had a nanny! And that worked out well, so we'll see.

"Meanwhile, there's Romeo & Juliet to look forward to, as well, of course, as the new season of Homeland [series three]. That is, so long as they don't kill me, which you never know about!"

Any ambitions left unfulfilled? "I'd like to do a romance," he says, unexpectedly. "I'd really like to do a film where, at the end, I kiss the girl and we both look into the sunset together. But it just doesn't happen for some reason." He laughs. "Maybe my hair's too red. Maybe no one thinks a redhead could ever get the girl."

Truth be told, he doesn't seem too worried about it.

Callout: "I'm a bit of a nightmare to work with -- I make it harder than it is."

 

source damian-lewis.com

Tea and a Mag

I Can't Believe I'm Getting Paid For What I've Always Wanted To Do'

Damian Lewis talks to Gabrielle Donnelly about work, marriage -- and why he'd like to star in a romance.

by Gabrielle Donnelly, Woman's Weekly, July 30, 2013

On screen, Damian Lewis tends to specialise in characters that, frankly, would make your heart sink if your daughter brought them home. They're either withdrawn (Major Winters in Band Of Brothers), tortured (Soames in The Forsyte Saga) or impossibly complicated (Nicholas Brody in Homeland). So it's a bit of a treat to find that, off screen, he resembles nothing so much as a friendly ginger-haired puppy, all jokes, windmill-armed impressions of himself and other actors, and self-deprecatory comments delivered in his real-life accent -- neither American nor old-Etonian (which he is), but down-to-earth London with, endearingly, a hint of his Welsh grandparents.

Softly spoken, and with piercing blue eyes,  he sits in front of me…

"Whether it's Homeland or Romeo & Juliet, great writing has great subtext, meaning there isn't just one thing going on at any one time," he enthuses. "Having so many things happening makes it very interesting to play. Of course, there were some days on Homeland when there was so much going on, I had no clue what I was supposed to be doing, so I just looked slightly blank and everyone thought 'Brody's being complicated,' which is great!"

To be continued….

source damian-lewis.com

Tea and a Mag wrap up part three

You come across as a highly confident individual. Where does this confidence come from?

I think it comes from my family, from my parents, from the certainty that one is loved. It's very important to give that to your children. I think it gives them a sincere confidence. A good experience of childhood sets you up for life. I went to boarding school, and if you have certain attributes you thrive in those places. So I succeeded at school, and it was a happy time for me. I was a natural schoolboy, if you like. I loved sports and theatre, doing school plays, but I didn't work very hard, and in time that came back and bit me in the arse -- I loped through my A-levels so fruitlessly! Luckily I was bright enough to just wing it through. It was a lot to do with luck.

How comfortable are you with the idea of fame?

Tea and a Mag wrap up part two

Homeland tackles some very plausible plot lines. What has it been like to be involved in a show that can often feel uncomfortably close to reality?

It has been part of the great success of the show. The writers have brilliantly picked current political stories -- the obvious example being terrorism, something that is with us now for the foreseeable future. The idea that an upstanding American hero, who happens to be a marine, might change his ideology was a bold story outline to choose. It challenges Americans with the idea that one of your own might turn against you.

Has this idea been the show's key to success?

There's a well-pronounced sense of fear in America, a fear of the "other", and Homeland has largely been a success because it feeds into that. It has also challenged the audience to explore the idea that terrorism, or acts of violence, can be orchestrated by governments, and that it's not as clear-cut anymore. There's no clear hero in this show. It has refused to make judgments, and I think it has been brilliantly nuanced and ambiguous.

What kind of reactions have you had to your portrayal of a Muslim?

I've had people come up to me and say it's one of the most sensitive portrayals that they've ever seen. In spite of the fact that Brody was prepared to blow everybody up in a suicide mission, his faith always provided a very personal source of nourishment. We always depicted his faith in an intimate, personal and very sincere way, and a lot of people I've spoken to have been thankful for that.

In the show you had to pray in a faith that is not your own, demonstrate symptoms of PTSD, and recover from a severe heroin addiction. What kind of research and preparation did you do?

Well, my research is pretty conventional. I'm not an out-and-out method actor, but I do like to stay in character a lot during filming. I don't need to go and live in Iraq for three months to embed myself -- well I can't, I've got a family! -- but I certainly spoke to a lot of Muslims, and here in London I went to the London Central Mosque, and I read the Koran and its teachings. Similarly with PTSD and heroin addiction, I watched a lot of video footage and spoke to addicts and people who work to help those suffering. A lot of my research is based on the anecdotes of real people.

Was Claire Danes the best Carrie the producers could have cast?

Can you imagine if the part had been played by any other Hollywood actress, anyone with an ounce of vanity about them as a performer? Claire has no vanity. She's committed to making sure she represents the story in the best possible way. Her performance is totally and utterly committed, terrifyingly so at times. I know a hundred other actresses who wouldn't be prepared to commit to the role in the way she has. I think it has been an amazing thing for her.

Were you ready to say goodbye to the role?

Yes. I'd known for some time that this would be Brody's last season, so I was well prepared. Still it was such an enjoyable job that I'll miss Brody. I have no idea where they'll take Homeland next, but I bet it will be brilliant. Some people have said that the end of season three felt like a series finale. It brought the first story line to a close, but I think they'll find many more equally intriguing ones.

to be continued 

copyright hunger mag source damian-lewis.com

Tea and a Mag wrap up

see here again the brilliant Hunger Mag interview as our tea and mag wrap up...

Damian Lewis is a confident character, and he has been known to stir up the occasional controversy, be it for his comments at the end of 2013 about his fear of becoming a "slightly over the top, fruity stage actor who eventually lands film work playing wizards", or for signing a Homeland DVD set to President Obama with the joke, "from one Muslim to another". There is, however, an obvious humility to the 43-year-old actor, who puts a lot of his fame down to good luck.

Before making it big, Damian began his acting career as a mischievous boy in London's famous Abbey Road. At the age of 16, he started his own theatre company, and in 1993 he graduated from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He took to the stage, working with the Royal Shakespeare Company when he caught the attention of Steven Spielberg, who later cast him in his television miniseries, Band Of Brothers. In 2002, he came close to swooping a Golden Globe for his part in Spielberg's show, but he had to wait until 2013 to put one on his mantelpiece, for his masterly portrayal of Nicholas Brody in Homeland.

With Homeland seemingly wrapped up for Damian, he has left the show at the top (or hanging from a crane, to be precise). This year he returns to the big screen alongside Nicole Kidman, James Franco and Robert Pattinson in Werner Herzog's latest film, Queen Of The Desert. Beyond that the actor continues to keep us guessing. It seems Homeland may have rubbed off on him in more ways than one. ...

Hunger: Damian, you have spent a lot of time working in the US, playing American characters and perfecting your accent. Do you still feel wholly British?

Damian Lewis: Yes, I do. I'm glad you ask about Britishness rather than Englishness, as I feel very British. I feel everything that being British has to offer. I think we can take a great delight in our Celtic traditions as well as our more Anglican ones. I've really enjoyed working in America, but there is a cultural difference. It's a very conservative place. I feel the grandeur of America.

What home comforts do you make sure you always have with you when you're away?

PG Tips so I can have a good strong cup of tea every morning.

And what did you miss the most when you were filming Homeland?

When filming Homeland, I spent most of my time in Charlotte, North Carolina. It's a very large and spread-out place where you rely heavily on cars. I missed the clamour of London; it's a much more condensed city where you can exercise your senses. I love getting out of cars and getting on the tube. I also missed riding my bicycle, and of course, going to the pub.

What do you think about the idea that we're currently witnessing a British "takeover" of Hollywood?

You say currently, but I've been asked this question solidly for the past ten years, and that's the truth. I think it feels more pronounced now because the television landscape has changed. It's become more visually ambitious. The American industry has started to look abroad, filming in places like Britain and using British actors. I consider myself very lucky to have been working during this time of change, where there was a shift in creative appreciation between film and television. This really opened up Hollywood to British actors even more, and that's why you see a lot of us going across to America to play these brilliantly written, fantastically conceived long-running television shows, not just films.

Homeland tackles some very plausible plot lines. What has it been like to be involved in a show that can often feel uncomfortably close to reality?

It has been part of the great success of the show. The writers have brilliantly picked current political stories -- the obvious example being terrorism, something that is with us now for the foreseeable future. The idea that an upstanding American hero, who happens to be a marine, might change his ideology was a bold story outline to choose. It challenges Americans with the idea that one of your own might turn against you.

to be continued 

copyright hunger mag source damian-lewis.com

Tea and a Mag Cherwell salutes you ....part two

Lewis decided he wanted to be an actor aged 16, when he and friends started a theatre company at school. ‘I’d sort of stopped working by that point and decided I didn’t want to go to university, I was doing lots of sport and acting instead’.

After graduating from drama school he played an extraordinary variety of prestigious roles, including Hamlet in Regent’s Park aged just 23, a job which he claims he was given because he was the only one the director could hear properly.

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.

Tea and A Mag

Sunday Express
25th May 2003

Damian Lewis looks terrible. With his copper-coloured hair slicked back and his fair skin etched with lines, he could pass for 60. Which is a tribute to the make-up artists who have just aged him for 30 years for his part in The Forsyte Saga.

ITV’s hit costume drama is now entering its second series. The first pulled in 10 million viewers and the pressure is on to keep them, but Damian is taking it in his stride. ‘This job is great fun,’ he says. ‘We’ve all become friends and its good telly too. There’s so much rubbish around that if something’s good it will get watched.’

Tea and a Mag: PBS Interview with Damian Lewis on Forsyte Saga

source: Damian-Lewis.com

PBS Masterpiece Theater has, for years, brought into American living rooms the greatest British TV productions. The Forsyte Saga is no exception. In fact, it stays among the most beloved installments on Masterpiece Theater and ranks only behind the landmark “Upstairs, Downstairs” in a 2007 fanpoll.

PBS had a phone interview with Damian Lewis back when they broadcasted The Forsyte Saga  on TV. In the interview, Damian Lewis gives us his perspective about Forsyte Saga as well as about his character, Soames Forsyte.

Tea and a Mag Hunger mag part two

Homeland tackles some very plausible plot lines. What has it been like to be involved in a show that can often feel uncomfortably close to reality?

It has been part of the great success of the show. The writers have brilliantly picked current political stories -- the obvious example being terrorism, something that is with us now for the foreseeable future. The idea that an upstanding American hero, who happens to be a marine, might change his ideology was a bold story outline to choose. It challenges Americans with the idea that one of your own might turn against you.
Has this idea been the show's key to success?

There's a well-pronounced sense of fear in America, a fear of the "other", and Homeland has largely been a success because it feeds into that. It has also challenged the audience to explore the idea that terrorism, or acts of violence, can be orchestrated by governments, and that it's not as clear-cut anymore. There's no clear hero in this show. It has refused to make judgments, and I think it has been brilliantly nuanced and ambiguous.

What kind of reactions have you had to your portrayal of a Muslim?
I've had people come up to me and say it's one of the most sensitive portrayals that they've ever seen. In spite of the fact that Brody was prepared to blow everybody up in a suicide mission, his faith always provided a very personal source of nourishment. We always depicted his faith in an intimate, personal and very sincere way, and a lot of people I've spoken to have been thankful for that.

In the show you had to pray in a faith that is not your own, demonstrate symptoms of PTSD, and recover from a severe heroin addiction. What kind of research and preparation did you do?

Well, my research is pretty conventional. I'm not an out-and-out method actor, but I do like to stay in character a lot during filming. I don't need to go and live in Iraq for three months to embed myself -- well I can't, I've got a family! -- but I certainly spoke to a lot of Muslims, and here in London I went to the London Central Mosque, and I read the Koran and its teachings. Similarly with PTSD and heroin addiction, I watched a lot of video footage and spoke to addicts and people who work to help those suffering. A lot of my research is based on the anecdotes of real people.

Was Claire Danes the best Carrie the producers could have cast?

Can you imagine if the part had been played by any other Hollywood actress, anyone with an ounce of vanity about them as a performer? Claire has no vanity. She's committed to making sure she represents the story in the best possible way. Her performance is totally and utterly committed, terrifyingly so at times. I know a hundred other actresses who wouldn't be prepared to commit to the role in the way she has. I think it has been an amazing thing for her.

Were you ready to say goodbye to the role?

Yes. I'd known for some time that this would be Brody's last season, so I was well prepared. Still it was such an enjoyable job that I'll miss Brody. I have no idea where they'll take Homeland next, but I bet it will be brilliant. Some people have said that the end of season three felt like a series finale. It brought the first story line to a close, but I think they'll find many more equally intriguing ones.

copyright hunger mag

You come across as a highly confident individual. Where does this confidence come from?

I think it comes from my family, from my parents, from the certainty that one is loved. It's very important to give that to your children. I think it gives them a sincere confidence. A good experience of childhood sets you up for life. I went to boarding school, and if you have certain attributes you thrive in those places. So I succeeded at school, and it was a happy time for me. I was a natural schoolboy, if you like. I loved sports and theatre, doing school plays, but I didn't work very hard, and in time that came back and bit me in the arse -- I loped through my A-levels so fruitlessly! Luckily I was bright enough to just wing it through. It was a lot to do with luck.

How comfortable are you with the idea of fame?

Being a star is much better than not being one. It's good fun. It does elevate your life in extraordinary ways. For example, I was invited to have dinner at The White House, and I chatted with President Obama. I'm proud of the fact that I think of myself as an actor's actor, before being a star, but I have become one and that really is down to luck. I'm not doing anything different than anyone else; it's just a question of landing the right project. I don't think I'm better in Homeland than in other things. It just became an enormous hit.

Has your life changed much since becoming famous?

I feel very proprietorial about London. It's my town and always has been. It's slightly mad to walk through the West End during peak tourist season. I'm not going to lie, some days I don't deal with it very well because I'm in a hurry. You don't go out to have your photo taken, so if someone asks you for your photo, it really is down to your mood. You want to oblige people and you are grateful for their support, but if you stopped for everyone during the course of the day, you simply wouldn't get your day done. Sometimes I'm just busy. I'm always late!

Who is your toughest critic?

I am, but if you're going to do things where you create for other people, you invite other people's opinions and judgment, so you immediately place yourself in a vulnerable position, and of course you seek appbrobation. You like people to say, "Oh, darling, it's wonderful!" but you must know yourself what you have created. I think that's essential. You must gauge it only using the strictedst and the highest bars. You must know yourself, that's why I don't read the reviews, particularly during a theatre production. It's sort of arbitrary.

If one of your children decided they wanted to act, would the idea fill you with delight or despair?

Well, it has worked for me and it has worked for my wife, Helen [McCrory]. We were really lucky. My parents backed me and they weren't actors, so it must have been terrifying for them. So I would absolutely back my children if they wanted to be actors, if I thought hey had talent! That's the critical thing -- how do you let them down gently if you see them at 16 and they suck?

copyright hunger nag

Tea and a Mag

Today and Wednesday....

Hunger Mag...read this brilliant interview here and on Wednesday on DFI

copyright hunger source damian-lewis.com

Damian Lewis is a confident character, and he has been known to stir up the occasional controversy, be it for his comments at the end of 2013 about his fear of becoming a "slightly over the top, fruity stage actor who eventually lands film work playing wizards", or for signing a Homeland DVD set to President Obama with the joke, "from one Muslim to another". There is, however, an obvious humility to the 43-year-old actor, who puts a lot of his fame down to good luck.

Before making it big, Damian began his acting career as a mischievous boy in London's famous Abbey Road. At the age of 16, he started his own theatre company, and in 1993 he graduated from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He took to the stage, working with the Royal Shakespeare Company when he caught the attention of Steven Spielberg, who later cast him in his television miniseries, Band Of Brothers. In 2002, he came close to swooping a Golden Globe for his part in Spielberg's show, but he had to wait until 2013 to put one on his mantelpiece, for his masterly portrayal of Nicholas Brody in Homeland.

With Homeland seemingly wrapped up for Damian, he has left the show at the top (or hanging from a crane, to be precise). This year he returns to the big screen alongside Nicole Kidman, James Franco and Robert Pattinson in Werner Herzog's latest film, Queen Of The Desert. Beyond that the actor continues to keep us guessing. It seems Homeland may have rubbed off on him in more ways than one. ...

copyright hunger mag source damian-lewis.com

Hunger: Damian, you have spent a lot of time working in the US, playing American characters and perfecting your accent. Do you still feel wholly British?


Damian Lewis: Yes, I do. I'm glad you ask about Britishness rather than Englishness, as I feel very British. I feel everything that being British has to offer. I think we can take a great delight in our Celtic traditions as well as our more Anglican ones. I've really enjoyed working in America, but there is a cultural difference. It's a very conservative place. I feel the grandeur of America.

What home comforts do you make sure you always have with you when you're away?
PG Tips so I can have a good strong cup of tea every morning.


And what did you miss the most when you were filming Homeland?
When filming Homeland, I spent most of my time in Charlotte, North Carolina. It's a very large and spread-out place where you rely heavily on cars. I missed the clamour of London; it's a much more condensed city where you can exercise your senses. I love getting out of cars and getting on the tube. I also missed riding my bicycle, and of course, going to the pub.

What do you think about the idea that we're currently witnessing a British "takeover" of Hollywood?

You say currently, but I've been asked this question solidly for the past ten years, and that's the truth. I think it feels more pronounced now because the television landscape has changed. It's become more visually ambitious. The American industry has started to look abroad, filming in places like Britain and using British actors. I consider myself very lucky to have been working during this time of change, where there was a shift in creative appreciation between film and television. This really opened up Hollywood to British actors even more, and that's why you see a lot of us going across to America to play these brilliantly written, fantastically conceived long-running television shows, not just films.

copyright hunger mag source damian-lewis.com

Tea and a Mag... Man of Style: Damian Lewis

You know that we like fashion and style on this blog... So, what could be better than an interview with Damian Lewis about HIS STYLE? Oh, and we love the fact that he does it Damian-style. 

Here is an InStyle interview from October 2013. ENJOY!

Man Of Style: Damian Lewis

Conspiracy, paranoia, national insecurity. It's all in a day's work for the Emmy-winning star of Showtime's obsessive watercooler hit Homeland. Off the clock he comes clean about his knack for accents, penchant for '70s cop shows, and dubious fashion decisions (winklepickers?).

by Kenya Hunt, In Style, October 2013

It's been decades since Damian Lewis graduated from England's Eton College, a school that boasts 19 British prime ministers -- in addition to Princes William and Harry -- as alumni. But as far as the star of Showtime's nail-biting series Homeland is concerned, school is still in session. "I like how acting allows you to be an autodidact, to continue learning through your life," he says. "It's been fascinating to work on Homeland because I'd never read the Koran. Now I've been to mosques, and I've picked up bits of Arabic. My character, Brody, is a POW, so I've done research on post-traumatic stress disorder. In fact, I was stopped today by three Canadians who had been injured while serving their country. One had suffered from PTSD and recently watched Homeland. 'That was my life,' he said. It matters to me to be able to tell a story well."

You also studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and performed with the National Theatre. Did you ever see yourself in the role of Sergeant Nicholas Brody or any of the other soldiers and cops you've played on the small screen?

I didn't. American TV is so far removed from my experience and what I expected I would do, which was to be a great theatre actor. I had no notion of the worlds of television and film. I realize now that I'm part of a wonderful tradition of cop shows that I grew up watching with my friends and family: Kojak, Columbo, Hill Street Blues. Back then it felt like we were being introduced to a foreign, exotic place. England was very dreary in the 1970s and '80s, and we were broke. I mean, we were really broke. America seemed to have a little stardust sprinkled over it. So when I think about that, doing a show like Homeland is my destiny.

How have these roles influenced the way you dress when you're off duty?

Well, sometimes I just like to look like a guy. And my guy look is kind of an American one. It's a pair of nice, comfortable jeans -- probably Lucky Brand -- a T-shirt by Rag & Bone, and desert boots. I quite like caps too. But if I were going for a more urban vibe, I'd wear darker, tighter jeans and some boots with a few buckles and things on it -- maybe something by All Saints.

source: Damian-Lewis.com

It doesn't seem likely Brody will be sporting this ensemble anytime soon.

No, I don't think so. The most fashionable item I wear in Homeland is my dress-blues uniform and some boxy suits. When Brody became a congressman, the suits did get a little bit better. But American congressmen have very conservative taste. They're not going to work in a well-cut Tom Ford or Thom Browne suit. Before we started the show, the costume designer tore out a whole lot of pictures of me and asked, "What does Damian like to wear?" The first thing she said when I walked into her fitting room was, "You're a dandy!"

If you could reduce your wardrobe to a single uniform, what pieces would you include?

It would need to be versatile enough for meetings and just walking around the streets. I'd go for narrow pants from Kenneth Cole or Donna Karan, shoes by Prada or Paul Smith, and a John Smedley V-neck. I also like fitted shirts from Turnbull & Asser, Armani, and Prada.

Were you always so sure about your sense of style? What's the earliest outfit you can recall?

I remember my brother and I wearing identical brown flared corduroys and fur-collared lumberjack jackets. We were like 8 and 6 years old, and they were all the rage. They had a bomber-jacket shape. Oh, and we had those pudding-bowl haircuts.

Blogprof's note: I guess he is talking about these jackets and haircuts. Cute! 

source: Times and private copyright by Damian Lewis

Sounds smashing. Did your closet take a turn over the preppy at Eton?

I played sports, but I wasn't wearing tennis sweaters and pastel chinos. I went for drainpipe pants and winklepickers like everybody else.

Winklepickers?

Well, this is an interesting thing. Since we're talking about fashion, the winklepicker was a sleek gentleman's boot with a pointed toe -- not that dissimilar to what I've got on now -- that was popular in the '60s. They were big again in the '80s but longer and pointier than the original version -- very new-wave rocker. I was extremely fond of my winklepickers. I'd wear them with tight drainpipes and a paisley shirt.

Paisley! Now that's a bold look. Are there any fashion moments that make you cringe?

All of them [laughs]. I made some very, very bad choices in the '80s.

source: Damian-Lewis.com

I've heard that you refuse to wear a clip-on tie. Are there any other sartorial shortcuts you won't take?

I stubbornly refuse to let my wife fasten my cuff links because I think a gentleman should know how to do it himself. But when you get to the left hand it's hard. My tip is to buy a swivel-head type rather than the chain-style cuff links because they're easier to work with.

Speaking of your gorgeous wife, Helen McCrory, she is a successful actress in her own right -- not to mention the mother of your two young children [Manon, 7, and Gulliver, 5]. How do you balance your home life with five months of filming Homeland in Charlotte, NC?

There is a lot of guilt that comes with this job because you often go away for three or four weeks at a time. The only reason Homeland works for our family is because two of those months are the summer holidays. And because Helen's self-employed, she can choose to be off and bring the children to be with me for two months. If she had another job I probably wouldn't have done the show because I couldn't have been away from them for that long.

There's been some talk of Homeland, which is now in its third season, moving on without Brody one day. What's your take?

Let's face it -- he should have been dead already! He's kind of getting away with murder, right? So I don't know. Maybe Brody will never die. Maybe he'll just go away for periods of time and linger like a bad smell, like a toxin. Because that's kind of who he is. Brody is a victim of the savagery of war, and he comes back a broken and changed person. He's helpless, rudderless, a bit like a tumbleweed blowing around. He gets so confused that he thinks about changing sides. But like all victims, Brody is dangerous, affecting and influencing every situation he's in. Whatever fate has in store for the character, either he'll survive it or he won't. The only thing I can say for certain is that his journey will be complex and riveting.

source: Damian-Lewis.com