Press Archive

In Style
May 2002
By Laura Campbell

RED HOT AND SEXY

The ice blue eyes, the battered leather jacket, the great roles (Band of Brothers, The Forsyte Saga)…meet the new (red-headed) Steve McQueen

Imagine a modern day Steve McQueen in the making, complete with jeans, battered leather jacket and a mean two-wheel babe-magnet parked up outside. Now meet Damian Lewis, who, in the past two years, has become something of a TV (and soon to be Hollywood) pinup - first with Warriors, based on the war in Bosnia, then the love-on-the-rocks Hearts and Bones. An impromptu meeting with Steven Speilberg and Tom Hanks landed him the lead role (and yet another Army uniform) as commanding officer Major Winters in the £80 million BBC war epic Band of Brothers.

Fiercely in demand, Britain’s most wanted redhead is turning down offers left, right and centre. Later this year, he hits the big screen alongside Morgan Freeman and some unwelcome aliens in Dreamcatcher, but in the meantime catch up with him as the star of ITV’s new six-part 19th-century costume drama, The Forsyte Saga. Is there any role he’s still hankering after? ‘I’d love to play a rock star’ he says, ‘I’d like to play Elvis, but I’m not sure they’d let me.’

In your latest role [The Forsyte Saga] you’re trussed up in top hat and tails. Did that help you get into character?
It always does. I play a Victorian gentleman so I had the stiff collar, braces, cane, black shoes, long tail coat. It influences the way you talk, the way you move, the way you sit in a chair. Even off camera the clothes feel weird; it affects your physicality.

Have you ever had to wear anything embarrassing?
Once on stage I had to wear a whalebone dress, corseted to push up the boobs, and four-inch heels, a wig and lots of make-up, but I didn’t really find it embarrassing, I quite enjoyed it.

Is there anything you wouldn’t wear or do?
Take my clothes off.

Never?
Maybe with a three-month warning. That would give me just enough time to start doing Pilates and get my abs in shape.

Do you keep fit?
I don’t have a fitness regime because I play a lot of sport - tennis and football - so I stay fit that way. I’d like to do yoga and feel soft and loose and creamy in my hips. I feel a bit cranky and stiff.

Didn’t you have to do rigorous training for Band of Brothers?
We were put through proper Army training for greater authenticity. So, when we came to it, we all held our weapons the right way and didn’t have to think about the technicalities of soldiering and could concentrate on acting. We had five-mile runs every morning and then 45 minutes of physical training. We had to do field manoeuvres, close-order drill (basically marching exercises) and midnight marches for three hours with full back-packs on and weapons etc. It was absolutely knackering.

You had a beard recently - was that for a job?
Yes. I am working on a film called Dreamcatcher [based on the book by Stephen King], which is directed by Lawrence Kasdan, with Morgan Freeman, Tom Sizemore, Jason Lee and Thomas Jane. It’s an $80 million movie with aliens, special effects and It’s good fun. I am about to go back to Vancouver where we are filming for two months. I play one of four friends and get possessed by an alien so I play two people for the rest of the movie.

You were up for playing a Bond baddie - what happened?
I pulled out in favour of Dreamcatcher.

Would you consider playing James Bond himself?
If everyone can get used to me saying ‘My name is Bond, Ginger Bond.’ I think it would be good. I think it would work.

Describe your style.
Today I’m in leathers and jeans as I’m on my motorbike [a red Honda VFR 750]. This sweater is Armani, these jeans are Diesel and that’s my Steve McQueen leatherjacket. Steve McQueen epitomises cool in the way that no one else does.

Are you a jeans or suits man?
I do suits. I like Gucci suits and shirts and I’ve got a really nice Aquascutum suit which is very conventional in an English sort of way - kind of Sixties with two vents. Suits must always have a double vent at the back, it’s very important.

What about big industry events?
Burberry is huge in LA so for the Golden Globes I wore a really nice Burberry tux and to the Band of Brothers premiere I wore a Hugo boss tux that was given to me.

So you’re quite fashion-conscious?
I do like clothes but I think what I probably try to do is wear expensive clothes and make them look scruffy. I have a very nice Prada mac - sort of retro sixties crombie style - which is also very Steve McQueen.

Do you like shopping?
Yes and I love shopping for girls. I love buying underwear.

Agent Provocateur perhaps?
You think I’m a pervert. I wouldn’t go there for classy stuff - la Perla, Lejaby etc.

Do you go with your girlfriend? [TV producer Katie Razzall]?
No, surprises. Always surprises.

Does she influence your style?
No, although there’s one jacket I wear that she really doesn’t like. She says it makes me look dirty so I don’t wear it.

Do you have a say in what she wears?
I’ve bought her quite a few clothes I suppose but I think it’s more fun to buy someone something than go through a nightly shall-I-wear-this selection process. I seem to get it right most of the time. You know when you’ve got it wrong as the thing doesn’t get worn.

What’s your biggest fashion faux pas?
A pink cheesecloth shirt I used to wear when I was about 20. It was my dad’s. He bought it in Delhi in the Sixties. It was really, really nice but it just didn’t go with my pale skin and red hair.

The Forsyte Saga is on ITV now.

Thanks to Bar!