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Damian Lewis: An Actor at the top of his game, The Independent, October 18, 2011

Damian Lewis: An actor at the top of his game

Damian Lewis’s new film focuses on football. He talks to Kaleem Aftab about sport, politics and the problems of acting with Keira Knightley

The Independent Culture

Football is a funny game with a strange habit of dividing families and testing loyalties. In any other circumstance, Damian Lewis would never dream of highlighting any differences he and his wife, the actress Helen McCrory, have over bringing up their children; indeed they always show the upmost discretion in interviews, but the beautiful game brings out a rarely seen masculine tribal instinct in Lewis.

Continue reading Damian Lewis: An Actor at the top of his game, The Independent, October 18, 2011

Categories Media Print Media The Misanthrope

Fame Becomes Her: The Misanthrope’s Damian Lewis Chats About Co-Star Keira Knightley, Theatre.com, January 6, 2010

Fame Becomes Her: The Misanthrope‘s Damian Lewis Chats About Co-Star Keira Knightley

It’s tempting, but misleading, to think of the new London production of The Misanthrope as “The Keira Knightley Show,” if only because the movies’ popular “it girl” is making her West End debut at the Comedy Theatre with director Thea Sharrock’s production of the 17th-century classic. In fact, Knightley has a supporting role as an American film actress named Jennifer (the play’s Celimene updated to today’s celebrity culture) in this rewrite by Martin Crimp of the Moliere original. But it is leading man Damian Lewis, making his own West End debut, who does the heavy lifting as the misanthropic Alceste, a man who can’t help but calling life’s fakery as he sees it—and who has the dubious luck to fall hard for Jennifer. Broadway.com caught up with Lewis, newly returned to London after several years in L.A. starring on the TV show Life, in the midst of the festive season, where the gifted, ever-articulate Londoner spoke of many things, including his famous co-star.

Continue reading Fame Becomes Her: The Misanthrope’s Damian Lewis Chats About Co-Star Keira Knightley, Theatre.com, January 6, 2010

Categories Media Print Media The Misanthrope

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

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 and Keira Knightley - Damian Lewis in 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?

Read the rest of the article here.