Damian Lewis
Actor, Dad, Redhead, and Ping Pong Champion
Categories Homeland Media Print Media

Damian Lewis Reveals Some of the Secrets of ‘Homeland’, WSJ, Speakeasy, October 14, 2013

Damian Lewis Reveals Some of the Secrets of ‘Homeland’

by John Jurgensen, Speakeasy, WSJ, October 14, 2013

KENT SMITH/SHOWTIME

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damian Lewis as Nicholas “Nick” Brody in “Homeland.”After being absent from the first two episodes of this season’s “Homeland,” Damian Lewis‘s character Nicholas Brody anchored Sunday’s installment, titled “Tower of David.” In a telephone interview, Lewis discussed the strange setting of the episode, the clues it offers to the broader story, and the sorry state of his character, who spends most of the episode in wrenching physical and mental pain.

The fugitive Brody arrives in Venezuela, bleeding from a bullet wound he somehow suffered along the way. He finds himself in a high-rise slum in Caracas, known as the Tower of David after the financier David Brillembourg who originally funded the incomplete skyscraper that was eventually populated by squatters. A gang who lords over the community–and who has a mysterious link to Carrie Mathison–saves Brody’s life but also holds him prisoner. Meanwhile, Carrie is trapped in a limbo of her own in a mental hospital thousands of miles away.

Where was this episode shot?

We were in Puerto Rico. Amazingly, the building was found by a producer who just typed into Google “abandoned building in San Juan,” and this thing came up that looks not dissimilar to the Tower of David in Caracas. We found a shorter version of it, and special effects took care of the rest. Everything you see in it was dressed by the art department and made to look like a functioning slum run by gangs.
Continue reading Damian Lewis Reveals Some of the Secrets of ‘Homeland’, WSJ, Speakeasy, October 14, 2013

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Damian Lewis on Brody’s Life as a Fugitive, AV Club, October 14, 2013

Damian Lewis on Brody’s Life as a Fugitive

by Sonia Saraiya, AV Club, October 14, 2013

The biggest question of Homeland’s third season has been: What about Brody? It seemed like the show had written itself into an impossible situation, porting its main character to fugitive status in the hinterlands of the modern world, while the rest of its characters meandered on in Langley. Homeland has given itself a staggering task in trying to knit together the stories of its star-crossed lovers, Carrie and Brody, while keeping the taut psychological tension of the show running smoothly. Showcasing the Emmy-winning performance of Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody can’t hurt. Last night’s episode, “Tower Of David,”finally brought Lewis back to Homeland, showing us a beleaguered character. He is essentially a prisoner of a Venezuelan gang, and in the episode’s final moments, we see him turning to heroin as a means of escape. Brody’s alive, but in dire straits; as far as dark episodes go, it’s one of the darkest. We spoke to Damian Lewis about Brody’s dark night of the soul, as well as how victimhood and redemption are going to play out for his character.

Continue reading Damian Lewis on Brody’s Life as a Fugitive, AV Club, October 14, 2013

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‘Homeland’ star Damian Lewis on Brody’s return, Uproxx October 13, 2013

‘Homeland’ star Damian Lewis on Brody’s return

Alan Sepinwall, Uproxx, October 13, 2013
Damian Lewis made his first appearance of “Homeland” season 3 in tonight’s episode, “Tower of David,” which I reviewed here. On Friday, I spoke briefly with the show’s Emmy-winning leading man about where exactly he and Brody find themselves at this stage, and how much life he thinks the character has left in him.

As you were coming to the end of season 2 and Brody was about to become the world’s most wanted fugitive, what sorts of conversations did you have with the producers about what your role on the show would be going forward?

Continue reading ‘Homeland’ star Damian Lewis on Brody’s return, Uproxx October 13, 2013

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‘Homeland’: Damian Lewis Talks Brody’s Return, Rock Bottom and TV Fatherhood, Hollywood Reporter, October 13, 2013

‘Homeland’: Damian Lewis Talks Brody’s Return, Rock Bottom and TV Fatherhood

The actor tells THR about his alter ego's increasingly rough road: "For the amount of crying we've been doing for three years…the amount of times I've been pissed on and beaten up naked in showers, I actually should look quite a lot older."
Showtime
Damian Lewis
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Damian Lewis: Homeland has excelled because it reflects political reality, Metro.co.uk, October 5, 2012

Damian Lewis: Homeland has excelled because it reflects political reality

Metro,co.uk, Oct 5, 2012

British actor Damian Lewis, 41, plays Nicholas Brody in Homeland. He talks to Metro about why he thinks the show has done so well and his encounter with Barack Obama . Damian Lewis has been sworn to secrecy when it comes to the second series of Homeland.

Your Homeland character, Nicholas Brody, has been through a lot: kidnapping, eight years held hostage by al-Qaeda, post-traumatic stress disorder. What research did you do? Continue reading Damian Lewis: Homeland has excelled because it reflects political reality, Metro.co.uk, October 5, 2012

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Homeland: Damian Lewis adopts the patriot act, The Guardian, February 18, 2012

Homeland: Damian Lewis adopts the patriot act

How the flame-haired Brit became the star of TV’s heir to 24
by David Stubbs, The Guardian, February 18, 2012
Damian Lewis and Claire Danes in Homeland

Damian Lewis and Claire Danes in Homeland. Photo: Michael Muller/Showtime

Survey Damian Lewis‘s CV and you’ll find he’s had a string of roles that required him to exude a certain kind of laconic, tight-lipped, battle-hardened maleness, holding it together as things fall apart. In 1999, he starred as a lieutenant in Warriors, a BBC production about British peacekeepers. He then crossed the Atlantic and starred first as Major Winters in Spielberg’s Band Of Brothers, and then in Life as Charlie Crews, a detective imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. Now, in new US drama Homeland, he’s playing Sergeant Nicholas Brody, a marine who, while held captive in Iraq, might have been turned by al-Qaida. It’s perhaps his most testing role to date, but one in which Lewis proves remarkably effective.

Continue reading Homeland: Damian Lewis adopts the patriot act, The Guardian, February 18, 2012

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Damian Lewis Collider Interview About Homeland – Oct 1, 2011

When Your Kids Pee on You and Television Shows Your Ass More

by Christina Radish | Collider | October 1, 2011

In the new Showtime dramatic thrillerHomeland, premiering on October 2nd, Marine Sgt. Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) returns home to a hero’s welcome after eight years in enemy confinement.

Even though Brody’s wife, Jessica (Morena Baccarin), and two children are shocked, they are happy to learn that he is still alive. However, brilliant but volatile CIA Agent Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) isn’t buying his story, instead believing that Brody has been turned and is now working for Al Qaeda. With America’s national security at stake, what follows is a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, leading everyone Carrie knows to question whether her conviction is based on fact or is the product of a delusional obsession. Continue reading Damian Lewis Collider Interview About Homeland – Oct 1, 2011

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Damian Lewis on Homeland – Interview

Damian Lewis on Homeland 

Photograph: Patrick Ecclesine/Showtime; Photo illustration: Jamie Divecchio Ramsay

The English actor calls Showtime’s Homeland “contentious.” Classic British understatement?

As an unknown in Hollywood, Damian Lewis took a meeting more than a decade ago with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. It landed him the career-boosting role of Maj. Richard Winters in HBO’s Band of Brothers. Now the 40-year-old English actor plays another American soldier, though a very different one: In Showtime’s new series Homeland, Lewis stars as Sgt. Nicholas Brody, who returns home after eight years as a prisoner of war in Iraq. But CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) thinks the war hero may have been recruited by Al Qaeda. Lewis spoke by phone, between getting acupuncture and flying home to his wife and two small kids in London.

Continue reading Damian Lewis on Homeland – Interview

Categories Helen Media Personal and Family Life Print Media

Celebrity Foodies Take Lucy Hunter Johnston Out to Lunch – June 10, 2011

Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory at J Sheekey

by Lucy Hunter Johnston | The Evening Standard | June 10, 2011

Damian Lewis
I met Harold Pinter for the first time at J Sheekey. He was charming, undeniably rather gruff and imposing, but he adored Helen, so I was happy to let him flirt with her all night while I talked to his wife Antonia. It was in the very early days of our relationship, but I wasn’t jealous; I was proud.

I love being part of the legacy of Sheekey’s. It’s taken a while, though. I didn’t start coming properly until I was in my thirties. Trying to book a table when I was 25 would have felt pretentious; you need to earn your stripes. The Parisian/New York brasserie feel of the place is completely to my taste. They are so warm and welcoming here that they just gather up regulars, and always look after you and find you a last-minute table.

Continue reading Celebrity Foodies Take Lucy Hunter Johnston Out to Lunch – June 10, 2011

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Inspiring Terror, The Sunday Times, February 5, 2011

Inspiring Terror

by Stephen Armstrong, The Sunday Times, February 5, 2011

From the writers of 24, the American drama Homeland is a dark thriller with a top-notch cast and some pretty big questions, says Stephen Armstrong

You can understand a lot about America by watching its television, although the process can be as nerve-racking as observing an alcoholic parent and measuring the number of glasses consumed. If you watch carefully, you can register the state of health of the world’s most powerful nation.

Take the quantum shift between the multi season series 24, American television’s response to 9/ll in 2001, and the new hit serial Homeland, the first season of which ended in December. In 24, agent lack Bauer faced down terror by any means necessary. He beat, tortured, endured and raced towards certain victory, confident that, once the traitors were unmasked, all would be well. You don’t need a newspaper to connect the dots between a certain kind of muscular public opinion and the stuff it watches on TV. The uncertainties of the Obama years, however, have produced Homeland, a dark, paranoid thriller that is effectively an apology for 24. Continue reading Inspiring Terror, The Sunday Times, February 5, 2011