Power Player: Damian Lewis talks new Showtime series ‘Billions’
Damian Lewis as Bobby “Axe” Axelrod and Paul Giamatti as Chuck Rhoades in Billions (Season 1, Episode 1). – Photo: JoJo Whilden/SHOWTIME
Although he’s done extensive research for his role as super-rich hedge-fund titan Bobby Axelrod for Showtime’s intriguing new drama “Billions,” Damian Lewis isn’t about to do his own investing.
“I don’t play the stock market on my laptop; that would be very foolish,” the Emmy winner says with a wry smile, adding that he uses an investment adviser.
You may have already heard the F-word heavy catchphrase from “Billions,” which premieres Sunday, “What’s the point of having (expletive) money, if you never say (expletive)?”
It’s a rhetorical question that Axelrod offers after buying a fabulous mansion — the very definition of opulence — at the east end of Long Island. Up until then, the character Axelrod was a somewhat sympathetic figure in the public’s eye, a Bronx boy in T-shirt and jeans who worked himself up from nothing and has an altruistic streak.
The move, though, only heightens the interest of ambitious and powerful U.S. attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) in Axelrod’s affairs. Rhoades, who is from a powerful family and has an Ivy League background, is already convinced there has to be something irregular involved in the billionaire’s rise.
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