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More from the BAFTA Q&A

The audio of Monday’s BAFTA Q&A with Damian Lewis and David Harewood is now available on Youtube. You can download it here from our Media archive.

The HuffPost has an article on the Q&A:

“You have to have a black man and a red head”, says Damian Lewis, explaining the American success of his espionage thriller Homeland.

Lewis and his fellow Brit co-star David Harewood have received a fantastic reception in the States for their roles as Sergeant Nicholas Brody, a marine and former prisoner of war, and Director of the CIA Counterterrorism Center David Estes, respectively.

The Golden Globe Award-winning drama, which also stars Claire Danes as determined CIA agent Carrie Mathison, has taken the US by storm. It’s reportedly Barack Obama’s favourite television programme and The New York Post have called it “the best thriller on American TV”, while the Los Angeles Times notes “it’s the first telling of a post-9/11 story that is all the things it should be: politically resonant, emotionally wrenching and plain old thrilling to watch.”

Now Lewis and Harewood are getting the chance to show off their lauded work back home, as Channel 4 brings the drama, loosely based on Gideon Raff’s Israeli television series Prisoners of War, to UK screens in February.

The compelling series centres on an American soldier (Brody) who was taken prisoner during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Left for dead, he miraculously returns to the US after years in captivity and the nation welcomes home their hero. However, tightly-wound CIA officer Carrie, who is battling her own psychological demons, is solely convinced that all is not as innocent as it seems.

Carrie puts her career on the line as she pursues her theory that the intelligence behind his rescue was a setup – and that he may be connected to an Al-Qaeda plot to be carried out on American soil.

At a sneak preview of Homeland at BAFTA’s headquarters, with Lewis and Harewood on hand to discuss their roles, it is clear that Homeland is going to become addictive. It’s not just a brilliantly-plotted espionage thriller with compelling and fascinating characters, it’s also a brave exploration of the difficulties of fighting terrorism a decade after September 11.

But how did they feel when they received the script for the first time – were they sure they were on to a winner?

“It was very exciting. The show sets itself up as a thriller and of course there’s a page turner left at the end as he’s standing staring at the White House. But what struck me was what they took on thematically, in just an hour’s worth of TV. The depth both in incident and character is something we don’t see over here,” explains Lewis.

Read the rest at the The Huffington Post UK.

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More of Damian’s Hidden Talent

People.com has a clip of Damian demonstrating his ‘hidden talent’ (TV Guide has a similar clip). He shows up 43 seconds into the video. You can download the clip from our archive here.

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BBC America Interview

Click below for a video clip of Damian at BAFTA LA’s 18th Annual Awards Season Tea Party on Jan 14th. You can download the HD version of the clip from our Media archive here.


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On Weekend Wogan, New project news

Damian Lewis was on Weekend Wogan on Sunday. You can listen to it here at the BBC radio site (his part begins at the 1:24 mark) or you can download here from our Media archive.

He said in the interview that he’ll next be working in Italy on Carlo Carlei’s adaption of Romeo And Juliet. The film is being touted as “Romeo and Juliet” for the “Twilight” generation. More on the project:

IMDb – Romeo and Juliet
Variety – Paul Giamatti joins Carlei’s ‘Romeo’

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Damian Shares His Red Carpet Tips

Click below for a video clip of Damian at GBK’s Golden Globes Gift Lounge event on Jan 14th. You can download the clip from our Media archive here.

 

 

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More video from the Golden Globes

Click below for a video clip of the cast of Homeland being interviewed backstage at the Golden Globes. You can download the clip from our Media archive here.

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In LA on Saturday

Click below for a candid video of Damian and Helen out and about in LA on Saturday. You can download the clip from our Media archive here.

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More from the Golden Globe Awards

I’ve posted loads more pictures from the Golden Globes to the gallery:

Gallery Links:

2012/01/15 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards
2012/01/15 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards – Press Room
2012/01/15 The Weinstein Company’s 2012 Golden Globe Awards After Party

Here are a couple video clips from last night. You can download them from our Media archive here.

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On Ron Bennington Interviews

You can now download the interview Damian Lewis did for the SiriusXM radio show Ron Bennington Interviews here from our media area. It’s a bit longer than the print interview that was posted at the Interrobang website – there’s more discussion on Homeland and you’ll hear the full story on how Damian got his black eye!

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NYTimes.com Interview


 

The Showtime counterterrorism thriller “Homeland” has been a breakout hit this fall, earning impressive ratings and raves from critics and the online multitudes who feverishly parse its twists and turns.

But Damian Lewis, the British actor who plays the tormented Marine at the heart of the series, knows the good will could vanish next week if “Homeland” fails to deliver a satisfying conclusion to its first season.

“Television audiences are ruthless — look what happened to ‘The Killing,’ ” he said, referring to the AMC drama that alienated many viewers with an ambiguous season-ending episode. How will the “Homeland” finale, scheduled for next Sunday, avoid such pitfalls?

“It will give answers in an episodic way while leaving you on a cliffhanger, ready for next season,” Mr. Lewis said. “People need revelation, and then they need resolution.”

The series was initially animated by the cat-and-mouse tension between Carrie Mathison, an unstable C.I.A. officer played by Claire Danes, and Mr. Lewis’s Sgt. Nicholas Brody, a former P.O.W. turned war hero who might also be an undercover jihadist. More broadly the show explores notions about identity and belief, Mr. Lewis said.

“What are your values and what will you do to defend them?” he added.

For Mr. Lewis, a London native and veteran of British dramas like the remake of “The Forsyte Saga,” “Homeland” offers another opportunity to dust off the near flawless American accent he brought to shows like HBO’s lauded “Band of Brothers” and the short-lived but well-regarded NBC series “Life.”

While visiting New York recently he talked with Jeremy Egner about “Homeland” and life as a redheaded role model. Here are edited excerpts from that conversation.

Q. Why do you think “Homeland” has gotten such a positive response?

A. The simplistic answer is it’s a thriller, really well told. It’s different from a plot-driven thriller like “24,” which was a bit like crack TV — it kept you on the edge of your seat, but they didn’t spend a lot of time with the psychology of the characters. This takes its time and is a little more pensive. The fact that people are watching and responding to it shows that the anxiety perhaps hasn’t died away yet.

Q. You’re a British actor living in London, how did you end up playing an American war hero on Showtime?

A. I just got a phone call. “Band of Brothers” was my first time playing an American, and it was my first time to have that kind of exposure here and globally, because “Band of Brothers” became such a big deal for people. I’ve played Americans ever since.

Q. You played one in “Life,” which people liked even though it only lasted two seasons. Is that why they thought of you for “Homeland”?

A. An interesting insight into the ruthlessness of studio executives: I was having a conversation with Alex Gansa, a creator of “Homeland,” and I said, “So you guys must have seen ‘Life’ and liked me in it, right? That’s the most recent thing I’ve done over here.” And he went, “No, Damian. You actually nearly didn’t get the job because of ‘Life.’” Because I was the lead guy on a show that the people at Fox 21 [which produces “Homeland” for Showtime] didn’t consider to be a hit — it wasn’t “House” or whatever. And I went, “Right, well it was kind of a hit — people loved that show and it was honored by AFI.” And he said, “Two seasons. And you were the lead guy.”

 

Read the full interview at NYTimes.com.

 

The NYTimes.com website also posted a video of Damian discussing a scene from Sunday’s upcoming episode, “The Vest”. Watch it below. You can download the clips from out media area here.