Categories Billions Interviews Media Print Media

Billions: Damian Lewis Talks Season 2, Interview – Feb 20, 2017

BILLIONS: Damian Lewis Talks Season 2 – Interview

The actor talks the evolution of Axe on the Showtime series

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN –  AssignmentX – February 20, 2017

Malin Akerman as Lara Axelrod, Damian Lewis as Bobby "Axe" Axelrod, Maggie Siff as Wendy Rhoades and Paul Giamatti as Chuck Rhoades in BILLIONS | © 2016 Showtime

Source: Showtime

In Showtime’s BILLIONS, now in its second season on Sunday nights, Damian Lewis stars as up from the streets but now very wealthy Wall Street businessman Bobby “Axe” Axelrod. Bobby has drawn the wrath of Deputy District Attorney Chuck Rhoades, played by Paul Giamatti. Their situation was considerably complicated by the fact that Chuck’s wife Wendy (Maggie Siff) has been Bobby’s professional advisor and coach. At the end of Season 1, Wendy separated from Chuck and quit her job with Bobby, disturbing both men.

At the start of BILLIONS Season 2, Bobby embroils Chuck in a massive lawsuit, but the tactic may backfire. The London-born Lewis, who won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of U.S. Marine-turned-terrorist-turned-spy Nicholas Brody on Showtime’s HOMELAND, fills us in on where Bobby and Co. are going this year.

ASSIGNMENT X: Can you talk about the evolution of Axe?

DAMIAN LEWIS: I think Axe is a man who wants to be left alone. He’s a libertarian, he believes that a man should be able to make money. The goal posts in that industry move all the time, so what’s legal, what’s illegal is very hard to prove or disprove a lot of the time. They all take advantage of that all the time, and he a past master at it. I think he just feels indignant and disgruntled that this man has decided to come at him so aggressively, which he has. He’s not going to go away. I think Axe feels that, in order to thrive, he needs to dispose of Chuck Rhoades, so he files this lawsuit against him, and that’s how we start Season 2. After that, there are hard decisions. I think a lot of people are concerned that this show will burn out because [they think] it’s just going to be a show about two men cracking skulls. But actually, I think what they’ve done quite artfully this season is, there’s a whole investigation by his own people into his own office, and I in the meantime am looking at an investment.

Read the rest of the original article at AssignmentX