Interviews – Damian Lewis

Damian Lewis Telegraph Interview – Oct 16, 2020

On October 16, 2020October 16, 2020 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Big Hitter

By Louis Wise | Telegraph | October 16, 2020

As Billions returns, the actor explains why he isn’t interested in playing 007 – or bothered about turning the big 5-0.

Damian Lewis’s next birthday is the big 5-0: at the risk of seeming indelicate, does it mean people will stop asking if he’s the next James Bond? The actor, star of Homeland, Wolf Hall and Billions, hoots gruffly down the phone. “Well, no! You’re proof of the rule!”

Oh dear. Sorry. I had read this summer he really was dismissing all chances of becoming 007, so it only seemed fair to check. Talking from his home in north London, which he shares with his wife Helen McCrory and their two children, he is happy(ish) to clarify again.

“I don’t want to play Bond. I’m ambitious for different things,” he sighs. “I don’t know who they’ll choose – he’ll be fantastic, or she will be fantastic. But I don’t want to play Bond – even if I was asked!”

Continue reading Damian Lewis Telegraph Interview – Oct 16, 2020

Billions Interviews Magazine Print Media

Industry Mag Staten Island Cover Story – July 19, 2020

On July 19, 2020November 11, 2020 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Accents and How He Handled Overnight Fame

by Joel Keller | Industry Mag Staten Island | July 19, 2020

He may be an officer of the British Empire, but the London native is best known for playing Americans, including Bobby Axelrod in Billions.

Damian Lewis has been playing American characters on and off (mostly on) for 20 years, since he was cast as Maj. Dick Winters in the 2001 HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. He’s played so many American characters that people are genuinely shocked to hear his natural west London-accented voice. He’s so used to it that sometimes he forgets to go back to his natural voice.

“I go get my groceries in an American accent,” he told ABC News in 2016. “And I get halfway through paying and I’m like, ‘I’m so sorry. I’m British, and I have no idea why I’m talking in an American accent to you, but I’ve been doing it all week.”

His American roles have been so prominent in his career that BBC America’s website actually has a listicle with the title “7 Roles Featuring Damian Lewis’ Real Accent.”

Suffice to say, playing American characters has been very good to Lewis. He won an Emmy in 2012 for his powerful turn playing war hero-turned-terrorist Nicholas Brody in the first season of Homeland, and since 2016, he’s played scheming billionaire Bobby Axelrod in another Showtime series, Billions. “Hello, I’m Damian Lewis, one of those pesky Brits,” he said somewhat apologetically when he went up to accept his Emmy.

Continue reading Industry Mag Staten Island Cover Story – July 19, 2020

Billions Interviews Video

I Was Interested In How Taylor & Axe Were Going To Get Along – May 8, 2020

On May 8, 2020 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Taylor Back at Axe Capital

by DJ Sixsmith | CBS Local Denver | May 8, 2020

(CBS Local) – “Billions” is back on Showtime for season five and things are about to get interesting as Taylor Mason is back at Axe Capital.

Asia Kate Dillon has been a trailblazer in their portrayal of the non-binary character Mason and Dillon is excited for fans to check out season five of the series.

“We got through shooting seven episodes and we were shooting episode eight when we shut down production,” said Dillon in an interview with CBS Local’s DJ Sixsmith. “The first seven episodes are going to come out and we still have to film the back half of the season. I went into this season like I do every season with excitement and curiosity. I know very little about what’s going to happen ahead of time. Certain things the producers will let me know, but for the most part I like to be surprised. This season, I was particularly interested in how Taylor and Axe were going to get along, now that Taylor is back at Axe Capital. Also, I was really interested in how the relationship between Taylor and Wendy Rhoades was going to develop.”

Continue reading I Was Interested In How Taylor & Axe Were Going To Get Along – May 8, 2020

Billions Interviews Print Media

Damian’s Q&A Interview on Billions Season 5 – April 30, 2020

On April 30, 2020May 1, 2020 By Gingersnap Comments Off

The Wall Street Avengers

by Maria Estevez | amNY News | April 30, 2020

May 3 will see the release of the fifth season of ‘Billions’, a drama series that follows a legal battle of the U.S. Attorney against a self-made millionaire in New York, played by the English actor. Metro chatted with the 49-year-old to learn more.

Money, power, inequality… humanity has been consumed by the class struggle throughout history, and if ‘Game of Thrones’ showed that fight in an imaginary scene, ‘Billions’ does it as a fable about wealth and power in modern life.

English actor Damian Lewis brings to life Bobby Axelrod, a business titan who can jump out of a plane with his friends before a Metallica concert, pick his children up from school or have an enemy killed without any problem. On the other side of the law, we see a prosecutor Chuck Rhoades Jr., played by Paul Giamatti, heir to the old money that is settling at the prestigious Yale Club, where he will meet Catherine Brant, a successful writer (Julianna Margulies).

When Showtime renewed ‘Billions’ for its fifth season, it came as no surprise. According to the audience reports, the series averages 4.5 million viewers per episode in just the U.S. New episodes will see the alliance between Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) and Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis) being terminated. Both will return to their corners of the ring to continue the fight they started in the beginning.

Continue reading Damian’s Q&A Interview on Billions Season 5 – April 30, 2020

Gallery Interviews Personal and Family Life Photoshoots Print Media

The Double Life of Damian Lewis – April 29, 2020

On April 29, 2020May 1, 2020 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Accidental TV Actor

by Chris Heath | GQ | May 2020 Issue

No actor has conjured the id of the modern American male quite like this highbrow brit who had expected to spend his life in the theater. Instead, Damian Lewis has become a stalwart of premium television, blurring the line between protagonist and antagonist – and emerging as one of the most thrilling actors of his generation.

Damian Lewis sits in the winter sun at a cafe near his North London home, trying to shut out the incessant blare of a nearby car alarm – “It’s annoying, isn’t it?” he exclaims, as though the pent-up politeness of denying this has finally become too much – while he considers how to answer questions about how he came to be the kind of person who has to answer questions like these.

By some combination of happenstance and aptitude, Damian Lewis has become best known for playing memorably imposing American characters on premium-cable TV shows. Most recently he has been the toxic financier Bobby Axelrod on the hedge-fund drama Billions (at press time, still lated to return in May despite the upheaval caused by the coronavirus); nearly a decade ago he was Nicholas Brody, the Marine returning from eight years as an al-Qaida prisoner, on Homeland; a decade before that he portrayed Major Richard Winters, the central character on Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg’s celebrated World War II drama Band of Brothers.

Continue reading The Double Life of Damian Lewis – April 29, 2020