Categories Billions Interviews

Billions Stars Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti Tease Potential Season 7 Team Up

Axe: Swagger in Too Tight Pants

by Ileane Rudolph | TV Insider | August 1, 2023

[This interview was conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike authorization.]

Former hedge fund mogul Bobby “Axe” Axelrod (Damian Lewis) did not give up his business empire easily. At the end of Season 5 of Showtime’s Wall Street thriller Billions, it took a two-pronged attack to drive Axe from New York City to Switzerland, turning him from a swaggering master of the universe into a financial fugitive. New York State Attorney General Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) had him on trumped-up money-laundering charges, and billionaire nemesis Michael Prince (Corey Stoll) bought Axelrod’s huge assets way below market price. But now Axe has reentered the ring for this seventh and final season, his charming, ruthless confidence intact.

Continue reading Billions Stars Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti Tease Potential Season 7 Team Up

Categories A Spy Among Friends Album Mission Creep Band of Brothers Billions Food/Dining Hamlet Homeland Interviews Music Never Judge a Man by His Umbrella Once Upon a Time in Hollywood She Comes The Radleys Tour Dates Wolf Hall

Damian Lewis: Man on a Mission

On The Record

by Paul Kirkley | Weekend Magazine | July 27, 2023, Issue #658

Damian Lewis has the acting world at his feet – so why has he stepped out of the comfort zone to release a debut album and take it on tour? He tells Paul Kirkley about the challenge of changing career lanes – and why the first person he needed to convince was himself.

Damian Lewis has a cast-iron excuse for having slept through his 10am appointment with Weekend – he’s been up all night shooting scenes for his latest role as a vampire in supernatural comedy The Radleys. And vampires, famously, are not morning people.

Continue reading Damian Lewis: Man on a Mission

Categories Album Mission Creep Interviews Music

Damian Lewis’s Favourite Musical London Hotspots

Victorian Loos and Celtic Singalongs: The Music Scene That Made Damian Lewis

by Jess Phillips | TimeOut Newsletter | July 10, 2023

Before becoming one of Hollywood’s go-to tough guys in shows like Band of Brothers and Homeland, Damian Lewis was a busker, snaking his way into Leicester Square and Green Park tube stations and dragging his guitar across Europe on the back of his motorbike. During lockdown he rediscovered his love of music and has since performed at Wilderness Festival, Black Deer Fest and Cheltenham Jazz Festival, releasing his rock n’ roll and jazz-inspired debut album, Mission Creep, last month. From converted toilets to Celtic singalongs, he talks us through the London music scene that shaped him.

Continue reading Damian Lewis’s Favourite Musical London Hotspots

Categories Album Mission Creep Appearances Events Gallery Interviews Music Sports

Damian Lewis Sings National Anthem at the British Grand Prix

A Jazzed Up Rendition

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | July 9, 2023

Damian opened the proceedings at the grid ceremony of the Formula 1 Aramco British Grand Prix on race day, Sunday, July 9, 2023. From the starting line he performed the British National Anthem “God Save the King” with a jazz twist and a saxophonist. The day before, Saturday, July 08, 2023, Damian rocked the Paddock by performing songs from his debut album Mission Creep after the qualifying event at Silverstone Circuit in Northampton, England,

View more images from race day/national anthem (DAY 2) in our Gallery here.
View more images from paddock performance/qualifying event (DAY 1) in our Gallery here.

Continue reading Damian Lewis Sings National Anthem at the British Grand Prix

Categories Album Mission Creep Interviews Music

Award-Winning Actor Turned Rock Star Damian Lewis Reveals His Backstage Demands

“A Small Towel, Some Water and a Bottle of Tequila”

by Simon Gage | Metro SixtySeconds | July 7, 2023

You’ll know Damian Lewis, 52, from award-winning roles in shows like Homeland, Band Of Brothers and Billions, but you won’t know him in his new incarnation as a singer/songwriter about to do shows with his own band. When his wife, actress Helen McCrory, died he turned to music and came up with a bluesy, rocky, self-penned album called Mission Creep and – with the support of his children – he’s getting it out there.

Were people surprised when they heard you were releasing an album?
Er, yes…is the short answer. My close friends and people I’ve grown up with know that I play the guitar and sing.

Continue reading Award-Winning Actor Turned Rock Star Damian Lewis Reveals His Backstage Demands

Categories Album Mission Creep Events Gallery Interviews Music

Damian Lewis Is Happy Playing Smaller Venues

The Band All Love Playing Live

by Claudia Cockerell | Evening Standard | June 27, 2023

Damian Lewis is accustomed to the strobe of paparazzi bulbs and crowds of fans clamouring for his attention on the red carpet. At its peak, his hit show Homeland was averaging around 7 million weekly viewers. But Lewis is the latest actor to pivot to music, and last week he played an intimate show to about 150 people at Rough Trade, the record store in East London.

The gig was the first since the release of his debut album, ‘Mission Creep’. His sound is folk-rock, with lots of guitar, hints of jazz, and a crooning voice. His influences range from Neil Young to J.J. Cale. What has it been like to go from gracing blockbuster TV shows to performing to a small crowd at an indie venue, I ask? “Fantastic,” he tells me. “The band all love playing live. But we can’t play bigger venues until we’ve proved ourselves in smaller venues”.

Continue reading Damian Lewis Is Happy Playing Smaller Venues

Categories Album Mission Creep Broadcast Media Interviews Music

Damian Lewis Performed Live on BBC The One Show

Live From the Green Couch

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | June 23, 2023

Actor, producer, presenter and now music star, Damian Lewis appeared on BBC The One Show on Friday, June 23, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. BST for a live performance of his song ‘My Little One’ and discussion with Alex and Gethin about his new debut album Mission Creep. Damian was on vocals with his acoustic guitar while Kitty Live was on harmonica, Dave Archer on electric guitar and Phil Donnelly on bass. Viewers were able to send in questions for Damian to answer by emailing theoneshow@bbc.co.uk. If you missed the broadcast, you have 28 days to view it on iPlayer.

During the interview, Alex asked Damian which artists, either dead or alive, he would have as his headliners at Glastonbury Festival. He replied: “Rolling Stones, Arctic Monkeys- who I saw at the Emirates this week. They were amazing, they’re fantastic.”

Continue reading Damian Lewis Performed Live on BBC The One Show

Categories Album Mission Creep Interviews Music Review

Rolling Stone: Damian Lewis on His Solo Album

‘Down On The Bowery’ Effortlessly Shows Capability of Lewis’ Voice and His Commitment to the Craft

by Nick Reilly  | Rolling Stone Magazine UK | June 22, 2023

As he releases his debut album, acting royalty Damian Lewis tells Rolling Stone UK why he’s under no illusions about proving himself as a musician. Damian Lewis has opened up on releasing his first ever solo album and why he’s ready to deal with any cynicism that his latest venture might attract.

Last week saw the Band of Brothers star release ‘Mission Creep’, a record of largely roots-y Americana, backed by an accomplished band of eclectic musicians. One stand-out highlight comes in ‘Down On The Bowery’, which effortlessly shows out the capability of Lewis’ voice and his commitment to the craft.

Continue reading Rolling Stone: Damian Lewis on His Solo Album

Categories Album Mission Creep Broadcast Media Down on the Bowery Interviews Makin' Plans Music Radio She Comes Zaragoza

Damian Lewis on BBC Radio 2 Blues Show

A Peek Into His Record Collection

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | June 19, 2023

Damian chatted with Cerys Matthews of The Blues Show on BBC Radio 2, which aired Monday, June 19, 2023. He shared his favorite blues tracks ahead while promoting the release of his debut album Mission Creep. The album is inspired by roots, blues, rock ‘n’ roll and jazz. You can listen to the broadcast here beginning around 15:38. The broadcast is only available for 28 days on BBC Sounds so catch it now!

Cerys asked him if he falls in love with characters he has portrayed like Nick Brody in Homeland and Dick Winters from Band of Brothers or does he completely move on. He answered that it’s about a bit of both because the ending of every job, especially long ones that he’s been lucky enough to be a part of on several occasions, that he’s created a work family with people he’s quite fond of and leaving can be bitter sweet; but as a whole, it’s quite good to move on. He doesn’t so much fall in love with characters he plays, but he defends them – that acting is sort of like advocacy and the audience is his jury, which makes you intellectually rigorous.

“I represent them like a lawyer would represent a plaintiff.”

Continue reading Damian Lewis on BBC Radio 2 Blues Show

Categories A Spy Among Friends Interviews Print Media

Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce Dig Into a Real-Life MI6 Double Agent Story

Best Limited Series First-Round Emmy Contender

by Hugh Hart | Los Angeles Times | June 16, 2023

He’s portrayed intense terrorist Nicholas Brody in “Homeland,” domineering mogul Bobby Axelrod in “Billions” and mercurial King Henry VIII in “Wolf Hall,” but Emmy-winning British actor Damian Lewis rarely plays the fool. Breaking type in the fact-based Cold War thriller “A Spy Among Friends,” Lewis chose to portray MI6 operative Nicholas Elliott, who’s stunned by the realization that his best friend Kim Philby is a traitor working for Communist Russia.

The MGM+ limited series, based on Ben Macintyre’s book of the same title, casts Australian actor Guy Pearce (“L.A. Confidential,” “Memento,” “Mare of Easttown”) as the lethally charming Philby. Set in 1963, “A Spy Among Friends” hopscotches through three decades of flashbacks that culminate inside a Beirut safe house: Elliott’s supposed to bring Philby back to England, where he’ll face the consequences of his treachery. Instead, Philby flees to Moscow.

Continue reading Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce Dig Into a Real-Life MI6 Double Agent Story

Categories Album Mission Creep Interviews Music

Damian Lewis on His Debut Album

“Sod that, why can’t I have a go at something else?”

by James Hickie | Music Week | June 14, 2023

You may know him as the star of TV shows like Band of Brothers, Homeland and Billions, plus films like Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood, but Damian Lewis is adding another string to his bow in 2023. This week, he releases his debut album, Mission Creep, via Decca Records.

The journey to this point began a long time ago. A fan of everyone from John Martyn and The Rolling Stones to Velvet Underground and Eddie Cochran, Lewis tried to write songs in his early twenties before his nerves got the better of him. “I didn’t feel comfortable doing it,” he tells Music Week. “I didn’t know how to do it, I wasn’t confident.”

Continue reading Damian Lewis on His Debut Album

Categories Album Mission Creep Interviews Music

Damian Lewis on His Unlikely Rock Reinvention

A Really Happy Accident

by Neil McCormick | The Telegraph | June 10, 2023

Photo by: Rii Schroer for Universal Music

For his next trick, the Wolf Hall and Billions actor is turning rock star – and this time he’s not pretending. “Why doesn’t he stick to acting?!” says Damian Lewis, in a wry pantomime of outrage. The 52-year-old star of hit TV dramas from Band of Brothers to Billions, via Homeland and Wolf Hall, is anticipating the reaction to his boldest career move to date: on Friday, Lewis will release a debut album of his own songs.

“We’re notoriously bad at ­changing lanes in this country,” he says. “I’m fully aware of how dangerous it is for me, tiptoeing into another area of the arts. It’s a bit like standing up on top of the parapet going, ‘Right, take your shots, everyone; throw s— at me!’ ”

Continue reading Damian Lewis on His Unlikely Rock Reinvention