Press Archive

Marie Claire
25 February 2003
by Sophie Wilson

The Phwoar-sythe saga

Brit actors Ioan Gruffudd and Damian Lewis have already set hearts racing with their classic looks and old style romantic charm. Now the pair are about to turn The Forsythe Saga into the sexiest tv costume drama since Pride and Prejudice.

Interview by Sophie Wilson

Damian Lewis and Ioan Gruffud are practising their posing for the Marie Claire photographer. For Ioan this involves perching on the ledge of an open window, graceful as a panther. ‘They’ve already cast spiderman, you know’, laughs Damian, who avoids the five storey drop , preferring to crouch against the wall looking manly. Tall and robust, he’s the confident charmer to Ioan’s sensitive shy boy.

The actors, who are real life friends, are here to tell us about the Forsythe Saga, a new tv adaptation of the John Galworthy books about 4 decades in the life of a middle class Victorian family. The all star cast includes Rupert Graves and Gina McKee - and if the effect Damian and Ioan’s friendly flirting is having on today’s blushing studio assistants is anything to go by , this is sure to be the sexiest costume drama since Pride and Prejudice.

It is Damian aka the ginger one from Hearts and Bones, who steams in to answer most of the questions. He is full of ice breaking mockney banter - half the time you don’t know whether he’s teasing or not.

Ioan, swashbuckling star of ITV’s Hornblower, is more enigmatic, pausing before he speaks in a deep Welsh murmur that has you leaning forward to hear more. Today a GMTV crew are buzzing around him. ‘If you find out he’s single let me know’ jokes presenter Jenni Falconer. Voted sexiest import by America’s People magazine. Ioan has that effect on women.

The two actors are at an exciting stage in their careers : successful, gorgeous, yet not quite A list. Profiles of Ioan still come with a pronunciation guide (for the record its yo-ann griff-ith). Damian had to wait until 2001 for his big break, in Steven Speilberg’s critically acclaimed tv drama Band of Brothers. Right now, he’s flavour of the month, but he seems genuinely fazed by the attention. ‘I have 24-hour security know (laughs). No my life hasn’t really changed. My friends still take the piss out of me just like they did before.

As if to prove the point, the banter soon kicks in. I ask damian if it’s true he was taken ill with appendicitis on the first day of filming of The Forsythe sage. He shows me the scar from the surgery and then jokes ‘Ioan and I had a bit of an argument over a scene. He slashed me with a knife’. ‘He was in serious pain, bless him’ says Ioan ‘I’d been told it might be trapped wind and so I had a couple of suppositories whipped up my backside’ adds Damian sharing too much information.

The two met on Warriors, the gritty BBC docudrama about British soldiers in Bosnia. Filming in a two bit town in the Czech Republic where the only entertainment was a bowling alley and a pub, the two bonded over 12% proof Czech beer. Damian was relieved that Ioan, who had a bit part in Titanic, didn’t act the big shot. ‘He was the most high profile actor there, but he’s really good at just being one of the lads.

After Warriors, their paths almost crossed when both were offered roles in Ridley Scotts Black Hawk down. Ioan accepted, but Damian declined because he’s had enough of soldiering. It wasn’t until the Forsythe Saga that they were professionally reunited, this time as love rivals. If you like your men with frock coats and stiff upper lips, your in for a treat.

Damian stars as a stuffy lawyer, who is cuckolded by Ioans free-spirited young architect. A previous adaptation was one of the most talked about tv dramas of the 1960’s. So will the modern update be raunchier than the original? ‘It’s about romance and passion, rather than sex’ reports Damian. ‘You’ve got characters kissing but not having full on sex. Anyway I think it is sexier not to show that’

We move on to relationships and here’s a surprise: neither has ever lived with a girlfriend. ’It detracts from the romance of making a home together,’ Damian says, growing serious for once ‘I love the idea of doing it, once you’ve decided that person’s the one you’re going to spend the rest of your life with. People have told me you just know, but I’ve never been close to that’. He met his girlfriend Katie, ‘a feisty blond bombshell’ at a garden party in Kent last year. ‘We got together at a club in Soho. She’s a producer on Channel Four News. She goes away alot.’

For is part Ioan claims he’s been single for the last year with a sanguine, ‘If its out there, it’ll happen.’ Home is a flat in North London, shared with his Cardiff schoolmate actor Matthew Rhys. ‘We’re happily married’, he jokes. As for living with a girl: ‘It’s such a big commitment.’

His longest relationship was for four years with Charlotte, who he met at drama school. Did the pressure of fame lead to the break up? ‘That relationship just ended naturally. It’s a bit of an excuse to blame a break up on work. It’s a factor, but love will conquer everything’

That’s Ioan all over, unashamedly romantic, even slightly unworldly, as only the son of god fearing Welsh schoolteachers could be. There’s no hint of the mega star about him. He doesn’t own a car - round were he lives it would only get nicked. And your not likely to find him sharing canapés with the cast of Hollyoaks either. Working paparazzi circuit is not in his nature: ‘I despise all that. All the people that play that game - the next week they’re going “I’m always getting hounded” its bollocks.’

I ask of 30 year old Damian finds it hard to keep up with 28 year old Ioan. Cue another bout of verbal ping pong.

Ioan: I’m sure its the other way round

Damian: Ioan’s much more mature than I am

Ioan: Damian’s going through his mid life crisis Damian: I’m quite a late developer, emotionally, so I’ve learned alot from Ioan

Ioan: I didn’t really grow up until I was 22, whereas girls develop sooner I was a virgin till I was 22’ Hold on - Horatio Hornblower, a virgin at 22. ‘I think there is so much pressure on teenagers these days to loose their virginity. I’m in the public eye, but I was a virgin at 22 and that’s alright. I’m not embarrassed about that at all, but I’ve certainly made up for it.’

Suddenly Damian pipes in: ‘Here’s why he was a virgin for so long, Have you seen his tongue?’ and Ioan opens his mouth to reveal the longest tongue you have ever seen. Were talking Linda Blair in The Exorcist. ’Women around Wales were satisfied with just that tongue.’ Says Damian, looking slightly jealous.

So what’s next for our glamorous twosome? On Monday Ioan starts rehearsals for the lead in Man and Boy the BBC adaptation of Tony Parsons’ novel. I ask about the newspaper reports that had him earning a £150,000 fee. His smile fades. ‘I’m very angry about that. It’s not true and its incredibly rude and vulgar. And in the Welsh press as well’

Damian is off to Los Angeles for a screen test. He wont reveal the movie, but later its reported that he’s been cast alongside Morgan Freeman in Stephen Kings thriller Dreamcatcher.

While both love working in the States, they seem embarrassed by the glitziness of it all.

‘You can go in a bar in LA and there’ll be famous people, but frankly you can go into a bar in Soho and bump into Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp’ says Damian, somewhat unconvincingly. ’LA is fantastic, the sun shines on you in January and February. But its a holiday camp. Your perception of life isn’t going to be challenged in any way by living there.’

When Ioan mutters, ‘I share that view’ I start to see a common bond. The boys own roles, the intelligent good looks, the no living in sin rule. I put it to them that they are irretrievably old fashioned. They seem quite taken with the idea.

Damian: I thinks that’s rather nice. There’s so much emphasis on cool and hip and trendy these days. There are very few old fashioned filmstars at the moment - someone who brings a Burt Lancaster sort of thing to a movie’ ‘Or Cary Grant’ adds Ioan.

And with that, Britains sexiest exports head out into the bright lights on London, Hollywood…. wherever the road takes them. One things for sure: its going to be a smooth, smooth ride.

The Forsythe Saga starts this spring posted by j_deakin