Press

What’s On
Date and Author - ??
(First posted 17 November 2001)

You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

With Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks as co-executive producers, and featuring some of the UK and Hollywood’s hottest talent, Band Of Brothers promises to be anything but your run-of-the-mill war-time drama.

Based on the book by highly respected American historian, Stephen E Ambrose, the series follows the real-life saga of a US paratroop unit’s part in the D-Day Landings.

What’s On caught up with Damian Lewis (Hearts And Bones, Warriors) to talk about working with Steven Spielberg, the effects of war and staying out till five in the morning…

What’s On: Tell us about Band Of Brothers.

Damian Lewis: ‘Band Of Brothers’ shows us the horror of war. The series demonstrates the effect of war on a group of young men. History doesn’t have much impact if you just issue a bunch of dates and military manoeuvres about the Germans coming up the right flank. It is most effective when it features real people, and when the real human cost is evident.

WO: Was it nerve-wracking playing a real person?

DL: When I first sat down to watch ‘Band Of Brothers’ with Dick and the other veterans at the world premiere in Normandy, it was incredibly nerve-wracking. When you’re playing a real-life person and he’s there, you want everyone to react positively to your portrayal of him. It’s not just a question of whether it’s a credible performance, but whether it’s a credible performance as him. At the end, I was relieved because the other veterans came up and said: ‘You’ve nailed him’. That took a lot of the pressure off.

WO: Tell us about the audition.

DL: I met Tom Hanks on the Friday, and he was very enthusiastic but I didn’t think I’d got the part. So I went out with a mate till five in the morning, only to be woken at eight by the casting director saying: ‘Mr Spielberg wants to see you at 12′. I had four showers… but I still felt drunk. When I got to Spielberg’s office they had photos of Dick Winters as a young man all over the walls, and I sat down next to a guy who was the spitting image of him. He said ‘I’m here for Dick Winters,’ and my heart sank. I thought, ‘They’ve brought me all the way over here to tell me that this guy who looks like Dick Winters’s love child has got it!

WO: How did you get on with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks?

DL: I learnt what kids they are. They’re so normal because they absolutely adore what they do. They’ve never allowed their status as Hollywood royalty to interfere with what they love. Steven will sit for hours with you and a tea-boy telling you exactly how he got a particular shot in Jaws.

WO: How is Band Of Brothers different from other war-time dramas?

DL: What makes ‘Band Of Brothers’ different is how tirelessly the producers have stuck to Stephen E Ambrose’s book, which is not a work of fiction but a well-respected history text. It is a documentary drama in a way that ‘Saving Private Ryan’, ‘Pearl Harbor’ and ‘U571′ never were. They were fictionalised; this is immaculately researched and completely accurate.

WO: How do you think the audience will react to the series?

DL: I hope viewers come away from this thinking that what the men of Easy Company achieved was extraordinary. It is important that they’re immortalised in this way.

Band Of Brothers is on BBC Two on Fridays and BBC One on Wednesdays.