Damian Lewis
Actor, Dad, Redhead, and Ping Pong Champion
Categories Billions Homeland Interviews Media Print Media Wolf Hall

After “Homeland,” Damian Lewis Looked To His Past To Plan His Future

Damian at the 2015 TCA Winter Press Tour

The Homeland alum relied on two decades of invaluable Hollywood lessons to tackle lead roles in a pair of new television projects, BBC Two’s period drama Wolf Hall and Showtime’s high-finance pilot Billions.

When Damian Lewis faced the press on Jan. 19, for the first time since he was killed off Showtime’s Homeland in December 2013, the 43-year-old still bore an uncanny resemblance to Sgt. Nicholas Brody, thanks to his close-cropped hair, rigid posture, and clean-shaven face. But it quickly became clear that, on the inside, he couldn’t be more different than the man who signed on to the series in 2011.

Thanks to Homeland, Lewis — who calls himself an “autodidact” — was afforded some incredibly unique learning experiences. “I love doing projects where there’s something to be learned,” Lewis told BuzzFeed News, sitting at the far end of a long, empty dining room table of an ornate hotel conference room in Pasadena, California. To properly bring Brody to life, he studied the Qur’an and learned about the Islamic faith and the experiences of U.S. Marines deployed in Afghanistan. “The wonderful thing about acting is you can be on a 40-year university course.”

But Lewis has also grown through the wisdom gleaned from his own professional mistakes — again, most recently through his role on Homeland, for which he won an Emmy Award in 2012.

Lewis’ character, Nicholas Brody — an American prisoner of war who was rescued and returned home a changed man (not so spoiler alert: He was a sleeper agent for the enemy) — was not designed to remain on the series indefinitely. But when the show clicked with critics and fans took a shine to Brody’s burgeoning relationship with CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes), the creators’ initial plan was scrapped. But by the third season, many viewers had grown weary of the duo’s increasingly operatic romantic entanglements and the character was, as initially planned, killed off in a brutal and shocking death scene.

“He had to go,” Lewis said, without hesitation. “When I took the show, I was really of the understanding I would only be there for two years. I stayed for a third season because TV rollover came into play: ‘This is our show and we can’t get rid of him.’ I think the one area of the story the writers weren’t clear would work was this relationship. So when it worked, they were ambushed by success of that central storyline and they had a problem because people were now tuning in to see this relationship.

“We set out to make a different drama: a show about the flawed characters at the center of a flawed central intelligence agency that is protecting the interests of a flawed country in the name of a flawed idea — which is called democracy — against a bunch of radical, violent people. This was our big central idea and [then we had] people tuning because they want to see if these people are going to get together or not.”

A Brody-less Season 4 of Homeland premiered in October 2014 to promising reviews, as hopeful critics noted the show looked to be returning to its roots. That promise paid off — in spades — as Homeland experienced a complete creative resurrection. “I think they did a brilliant job of just extricating themselves, tiptoeing away from the situation,” Lewis said of the fourth season, which went on to earn rave reviews. “What they’ve been able to do in Season 4 is get back to the nuts and bolts of the CIA and this great, brilliant, flawed character, the manic-depressive at the center of it all.”

Homeland’s presence is still felt in Lewis’ life. “It can be aggressive, that kind of adulation,” he said, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. “People can go a little bit crazy, so there’s quite a lot of manhandling in the streets. Now I know what it must have been like to be Brad Pitt for an entire lifetime, ever since he did that scene in Thelma and Louise where he took his top off — I’m straight and that scene did it for me as well. There’s a very small group of people who have lived at that elevation and at times it was overwhelming, but I’ve enjoyed slightly calmer waters subsequently.”

Continue reading After “Homeland,” Damian Lewis Looked To His Past To Plan His Future

Categories Billions Homeland Media Print Media Wolf Hall

After “Homeland,” Damian Lewis Looked To His Past To Plan His Future, Buzzfeed, January 20, 2015

After “Homeland,” Damian Lewis Looked To His Past To Plan His Future

The Homeland alum relied on two decades of invaluable Hollywood lessons to tackle lead roles in a pair of new television projects, BBC Two’s period drama Wolf Hall and Showtime’s high-finance pilot Billions.

Categories Awards Media Personal and Family Life Print Media

Damian Lewis is awarded his OBE from fellow Old Etonian Prince William, Daily Mail, November 26, 2014

‘It’s like being made a prefect’: Actor Damian Lewis is awarded his OBE from fellow Old Etonian Prince William

Continue reading Damian Lewis is awarded his OBE from fellow Old Etonian Prince William, Daily Mail, November 26, 2014

Categories Homeland Media Print Media

Emmys: ‘Homeland’s’ Damian Lewis on Brody’s Brutal End and Viewers’ Reactions (Q&A), The Hollywood Reporter, June 2, 2014

Emmys: ‘Homeland’s’ Damian Lewis on Brody’s Brutal End and Viewers’ Reactions (Q&A)

9:00 AM PDT 6/2/2014 by Ray Richmond

Showtime, Damian Lewis on “Homeland’

The actor reflects on the demise of his controversial character, the show’s passionate fan base and the thrill of playing “a baddie.”

Continue reading Emmys: ‘Homeland’s’ Damian Lewis on Brody’s Brutal End and Viewers’ Reactions (Q&A), The Hollywood Reporter, June 2, 2014

Categories Homeland Media Print Media

‘Homeland’ Star Damian Lewis Says No Finale Could Have Pleased All Fans, The Hollywood Reporter, December 18, 2013

‘Homeland’ Star Damian Lewis Says No Finale Could Have Pleased All Fans

by Michael O’Connell

"For some, he was one of the main reasons to tune in to the show," the actor tells THR. "But for other people, he was the reason the show couldn't grow."
Showtime
Damian Lewis
Categories Homeland Media Print Media

‘Homeland’: Damian Lewis talks about finale tragedy, Entertainment Weekly, December 17, 2013

‘Homeland’: Damian Lewis talks finale tragedy

Homeland 312

Damian Lewis is breaking his silence on the season 3 finale of Showtime’s Homeland. Below, the Emmy-winning actor says goodbye to Nicholas Brody, his popular Homeland starring character who was executed in a public square in Tehran during the show’s last episode of the season Sunday night. Lewis reveals what it was like to shoot his agonizing last scene, what he thinks Brody was thinking in those final moments and his feelings about the show’s future without him.
Continue reading ‘Homeland’: Damian Lewis talks about finale tragedy, Entertainment Weekly, December 17, 2013

Categories Homeland Media Print Media

Damian Lewis on the Season Finale of ‘Homeland’, New York Times, December 16, 2013

 Damian Lewis on the Season Finale of ‘Homeland’ (Spoiler Alert!)

Dave Itzkoff, New York Times, December 16, 2013

Nicholas Brody, the Marine and prisoner of war turned sleeper agent turned congressman played by Damian Lewis on “Homeland,” was all but a ghost in the most recent season of this Showtime thriller. Having gone on the run at the end of Season 2, Brody was largely absent from Season 3 — except for one episode, in which he resurfaced in Caracas, Venezuela — and then in the year’s final arc, he proceeded to make up for lost time.

Continue reading Damian Lewis on the Season Finale of ‘Homeland’, New York Times, December 16, 2013