Royal Shakespeare Company

Before They Were Famous: Stage Roles – Nov 13, 2020

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Damian Lewis in Cymbeline

by Tristram Kenton | The Guardian | November 13, 2020

Cymbeline by William Shakespeare
Damian Lewis as Posthumus Leonatu
Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Venue: Stratford-upon-Avon
1997

Cymbeline, King of Britain when Augustus Caesar was Emperor of Rome, has a daughter, Innogen, and two sons who were stolen in infancy. The queen, his second wife, has a son, Cloten, whom Cymbeline wishes Innogen to marry, but she has secretly married the commoner Posthumus Leonatus who was adopted as an orphan and raised in the Cymbeline family. Cymbeline banishes Posthumus to Rome, where he meets Iachimo, who wagers with him that he can seduce Innogen. Arriving in Britain, Iachimo realizes that she is incorruptible, but, hiding in her bedroom, obtains evidence which convinces Posthumus that he has won the wager. Posthumus orders his servant Pisanio to kill Innogen at Milford Haven, but instead Pisanio advises her to disguise herself as Fidele, a page. In Wales,she meets her brothers, who were stolen twenty years before by the banished nobleman Belarius. Cloten pursues Innogen to Wales in Posthumus’ clothes, determined to rape her and kill Posthumus. Instead, he is killed by one of her brothers, and his decapitated body laid beside Innogen, who has taken a potion that makes her appear dead. When she revives, Innogen/Fidele joins the Roman army, which is invading Britain as a result of Cymbeline’s failure to pay tribute to Rome. Posthumus and the stolen Princes are instrumental in defeating the Roman army. A final scene of explanations leads to private and public reconciliation.

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Rake Magazine Interview: A True Leading Man – Feb 15, 2018

On February 15, 2018August 15, 2021 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Easy Company

by Tom Chamberlin | The Rake Magazine | February, 2018

Source: The Rake Magazine – Photo by: Kalle Gustafsson

In an exclusive interview with The Rake, Damian Lewis tells Tom Chamberlin why we all, in spite of ourselves, love an anti-hero.

Lewis – from Life to Homeland, Wolf Hall to Billions – has become the finest purveyor of modern drama’s moral ambiguities. In fact, writes Tom Chamberlin, if you can think of an actor who has influenced our golden age of television more than him, speak up…

Among the more ambiguous archetypes of the celluloid age, that of ‘leading man’ is perhaps the least defined. Far from the specific criteria of commedia dell’arte and melodrama, in which the characters are demarcated (bad guy = black hat and moustachioed, etc.), the leading man is purely subjective. Arguably he is the origin of celebrity, pulling screen presence into the limelight of fame. But the list of leading men over the years has shown that no colour, size, hair, manner or cultural identity has ever had dominion over the sobriquet. That is until Damian Lewis entered the fray. For Lewis is a man who, above anything else, is an exemplar of leadership and integrity at a time when the acting world could use a dose of it.

Damian Lewis takes charge of rooms when he enters them. Photoshoots with celebrities are often led by either the photographer, who squeezes every image he or she can from the available time; the stylist, whose job is to make sure a well-curated variety of clothes appears in the magazine; or the publicist, who tends to be the powerbroker. The ‘talent’ can often struggle through the day (except, of course, former Rake cover subjects), regarding the experience as a necessary nuisance. Not so with Mr. Lewis.

Continue reading Rake Magazine Interview: A True Leading Man – Feb 15, 2018

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Damian Lewis Talks Career and Craft at SAG-AFTRA, Fan Fun with Damian Lewis, May 4, 2016

On May 4, 2016October 8, 2017 By Site Administrator Comments Off

Damian Talks Career and Craft at SAG-AFTRA

by JaniaJania, Fan Fun with Damian Lewis, May 4, 2016

source: Getty Images

Creativity is a strange beast. At its narrowest definition, it is the skill of creating something original and new using nothing but one’s imagination. But that would exclude a lot of us from the act of creativity, wouldn’t it? How many of us are capable of conjuring up some idea, art, or thing completely from scratch? An impossible task, even for the creative geniuses among us. Nothing is truly original. It’s all about processing what has come before and presenting it in new and “creative” ways. “Creative problem solver” is one of those phrases you see on resumes a lot. Try telling a mathematician or a software engineer that what they do doesn’t involve creativity and you’re bound to get an earful in exacting detail of just how wrong you are. Thus, not an easy thing to get a handle on, creativity.

Read the rest of the story at Fan Fun with Damian Lewis

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Blue Blood, Blue Collar: Damian Lewis’ Transformations, The New Yorker, January 18, 2016

On January 18, 2016October 16, 2020 By Damianista Comments Off

The actor probes his characters, but his method isn’t Method. “I’m Damian Lewis, not Daniel Day-Lewis.”

by Lauren Collins | The New Yorker | January 18, 2016

At a corner table in the dining room of Marea, a restaurant on Central Park South, the conversation was smooth but disputatious. Three men in suits were drinking red wine and eating pasta that cost thirty-four dollars a serving. One of them was a hedge-fund manager, a famous short seller. Another was the financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin. The third man, in from London, was the actor Damian Lewis.

Sorkin had made the introduction. The hedge-fund manager and Lewis were doing most of the talking. “Does your business have a societal benefit?” Lewis asked. He wanted to know what made a hedge-fund manager more than “a paper shuffler.”

The hedge-fund manager said that he and his peers basically function as market-based regulators—that they have a financial incentive to expose wrongdoing. Sorkin had set up other audiences for Lewis with financial machers. One of them urged Lewis to consider an underperforming company with entrenched management or a sclerotic board: an activist investor, even if he came in and cut things and fired people—well, that’s capitalism.

Continue reading Blue Blood, Blue Collar: Damian Lewis’ Transformations, The New Yorker, January 18, 2016

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Damian Lewis and Mark Rylance Star in PBS Masterpiece’s ‘Wolf Hall’ WSJ Magazine, Wall Street Journal Magazine, March 5, 2015

On March 5, 2015October 8, 2017 By Site Administrator Comments Off

Original article at WSJ Magazine

Damian Lewis and Mark Rylance Star in PBS Masterpiece’s ‘Wolf Hall’

The veteran actors bring a new perspective to the Tudors in ‘Wolf Hall,’ a six-part series on PBS based on Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize–winning novels

By Andrew Goldman
March 5, 2015 3:36 p.m. ET

Continue reading Damian Lewis and Mark Rylance Star in PBS Masterpiece’s ‘Wolf Hall’ WSJ Magazine, Wall Street Journal Magazine, March 5, 2015

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The Appeal of Damian Lewis – Sept 4, 2013

On September 4, 2013January 5, 2019 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Why We All Love Damian Lewis

by Rebecca Cope | Harper’s Bazaar | September 4, 2013

British actor Damian Lewis is no ordinary Hollywood hunk. In fact, at first glance, he’s far from it – where is the perma-tan, the blonde hair, the muscles? Lewis is a thoroughly British pin-up. With his strawberry blonde hair, pale skin and plummy accent, not to mention his impeccably posh pedigree, he’s part of a new group of power-Brits taking over the world. Not convinced? Let us analyse his appeal for you…

The Brody effect

As with all great performances, it’s extremely difficult to separate Damian Lewis the actor from Nick Brody the Homeland character. Damaged, brave, vulnerable, sexy and totally unpredictable, Brody is the ultimate reformed bad boy, and we want to rescue him. So. Much.

We all love redheads in 2013

Redhead, ginger, strawberry blonde – however you want to label it, russet hued locks are enjoying a serious vogue in the last few years. From Florence Welch to Lily Cole, Prince Harry to Jessica Chastain, anyone worth their salt knows that carrot-tops are cool – and woe betide anyone who denies it.

He’s a family man

Despite the fact that his fame has reached dizzying new heights since Homeland, Lewis is a family man at heart, more happy in the company of his wife Helen McCrory and their two two children, Manon and Gulliver.

He’s “well-brought-up”

Lewis is infamous for being polite, gentlemanly and an all-round nice guy, and that’s largely attributed to his background and education. Born in St John’s Wood, he’s related to two Lords (at least) went to Eton and was an actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company. We rest our case.

He’s funny

As his previous stints as a guest host on Have I Got News For You in 2006, 2009, 2020 and 2012 have proven, Lewis is witty and intelligent, which is exactly how we like our Hollywood stars. Here he is being funny on the Jonathan Ross show.

See photoshoot and printed magazine version here
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Damian Lewis: “I’m still trying to make it”, Epigram, May 20, 2013

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Original article here

Interview: Damian Lewis

by Edward Carden
Saturday, 25 May 2013

I was fortunate enough to secure an interview with actor Damian Lewis for my student newspaper. This is the result:

A household name both sides of the Atlantic, Damian Lewis came to international prominence starring in Band of Brothers, furthering his reputation in The Forsyte Saga, Life and numerous stage plays. A consummate actor of theatre, film and television, his recent triumph in Homeland won him a Golden Globe and an Emmy. I tried to uncover a few pearls of wisdom from the most exciting British actor of the moment. Continue reading Damian Lewis: “I’m still trying to make it”, Epigram, May 20, 2013

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Damian Lewis: Making it Big on Small Screen, The Irish Examiner, October 14, 2012

On October 14, 2012October 9, 2017 By Site Administrator Comments Off

Making it big on the small screen

Sunday, October 14, 2012

By Craig McLean

It’s been a slow and steady rise to stardom for Damian Lewis. But now he’s hit the jackpot with an Emmy win for his role in Homeland. He talks to Craig McLean about fame, fatherhood and fan clubs.

Continue reading Damian Lewis: Making it Big on Small Screen, The Irish Examiner, October 14, 2012

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The Double Life of Damian Lewis, Times/Sunday Times, September 22, 2012

On September 22, 2012September 29, 2021 By Site Administrator Comments Off

Original article in the Times

AND HE DOES THE SCHOOL RUN…
From brooding Marine in Homeland to North London family man – Damian Lewis tells Robert Crampton about his double life

Good news for Homeland fans. The second season starts soon. Even better, Damian Lewis, when I ask him about the likelihood of a third season, says, “I think this show will run five or six years unless they screw it up. As long as we can keep it credible… I don’t see why we can’t just keep going on and on and on.” For those of us – 2.7 million of us, to be precise, very good for Sunday night Channel 4, and including every critic in the country, all of them in rapture – who spent Monday mornings this spring debating the twists and turns of the previous night’s episode, the promise, from the show’s co-star, no less, of lots more to come is thrilling indeed.

Continue reading The Double Life of Damian Lewis, Times/Sunday Times, September 22, 2012

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Soldiering on: Damian Lewis in Homeland, The Telegraph, February 4, 2012

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Soldiering on: Damian Lewis in Homeland

After his breakthrough 10 years ago in Band of Brothers, Damian Lewis’s finest work has been for television, his latest role that of a US Marine held captive for eight years

By Craig McLean
7:00AM GMT 04 Feb 2012

Photo: Channel 4

Damian Lewis opens our conversation with a sheepish mention of his ardent admirers. ‘I’ve a set of fans who call themselves – you’re not allowed to laugh – Damian Bunnies.’ Their name seems to be a reference to those other copper-top characters, the Duracell Bunnies. They have been following him since his 2001 breakthrough in Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed Second World War series Band of Brothers, ‘and they’re absolutely lovely. In the end, I realised they knew so much about me, I let two of them run a fan site.’

Continue reading Soldiering on: Damian Lewis in Homeland, The Telegraph, February 4, 2012

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Damian Lewis Interview, Channel 4, February 2, 2012

On February 2, 2012October 9, 2017 By Site Administrator Comments Off

Damian Lewis interview

02 FEB 2012

You WILL answer our questions, Lewis…

The following feature is available free for reproduction in full or in part.

Damian Lewis is sitting opposite me, drinking tea in a wood-panelled library in a discreetly opulent Central London hotel. With his clipped Old Etonian accent and understated self-confidence, he seems the epitome of Englishness. Which is why it’s surprising that so many of his highest profile roles have been Americans.

Continue reading Damian Lewis Interview, Channel 4, February 2, 2012

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Damian Lewis Interview for The Misanthrope, The Telegraph, November 24, 2009

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Damian Lewis Interview for The Misanthrope

By Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph, November 24, 2009

Damian Lewis talks about appearing with Keira Knightley as she makes her West End debut in an updated version of Moliere’s The Misanthrope.

Damian Lewis could well be the luckiest actor in London. Or the unluckiest. Luckiest in that he’s about to play the lead in The Misanthrope, which – with tickets flying out of the box-office at record-breaking speed – must be accounted one of the most eagerly awaited West End openings of the year. Unluckiest because the main reason for all the mounting hullabaloo is his co-star – Keira Knightley.

While there’s no disputing the combined allure of the assembled cast – Tara Fitzgerald and Dominic Rowan are also names to conjure with – when it comes to added spice, Knightley’s promised theatrical debut is eye-wateringly hot stuff. The prospect of a live encounter with the ravishing Pirates of the Caribbean star, recently ranked the second highest paid actress in Hollywood, has tipped the internet exchange price for tickets into triple figures. We’re potentially in the same realm of hysteria as that which enveloped Jude Law’s Hamlet, when fans queued through the night for a chance to bag a day-seat.

If the flame-haired Lewis, 38, feels any anxiety or concern about the fact that Knightley looks set to be the centre of much frenzied attention in the coming weeks, he’s not confessing to it when we meet. His last stage appearance, as the inwardly tortured businessman Karsten Bernick in Ibsen’s Pillars of the Community earned him rave reviews at the National in 2005. The part of the people-hating Alceste – the biliously witty anti-hero reconceived as a hip playwright in Martin Crimp’s smart update of Moliere’s 1666 classic comedy – should cement his reputation as one of theatre’s finest talents. But will he get his chance to capitalise on the opportunity?

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