Categories Media Personal and Family Life Print Media

Worst Jobs, Career Highs and (TMI!) On-Stage Accidents at the Drama Actors Roundtable, June 13, 2012

Emmys 2012: Worst Jobs, Career Highs and (TMI!) On-Stage Accidents at the Drama Actors Roundtable

12:05 PM PDT 6/13/2012 by Stacey Wilson Hunt , Matthew Belloni

Wesley Mann

Onstage bathroom accidents. A prom date revealed. Ditch-digging before fame. This year’s top Emmy contenders tell all (with a little sprinkling of TMI).

Continue reading Worst Jobs, Career Highs and (TMI!) On-Stage Accidents at the Drama Actors Roundtable, June 13, 2012

Categories Interviews Media Print Media

Woman & Home Interview

 

Damian lives in London with his wife, actress Helen McCrory, and their two children.

What’s your ideal weekend? I’ll get up and read stories to the children before making pancakes – and we all like lots of maple syrup. Then we’ll go for a walk on Hampstead Heath or go into London – the children love running across the wobbly bridge to St Paul’s. We’ll have lunch in Carluccio’s because the clams are a big hit with the children. Then, in the evening we’ll get a babysitter and Helen and I will go out for dinner. On Sundays we have friends round for a big lunch.

My loves
Treacle tart. Preferably with clotted cream and vanilla ice cream.

Mad Men. I watch endless episodes when I should be working.

Liverpool football club. I’ve supported them since I was seven. I was so excited when I struck up an email correspondence with Kenny Dalglish through my work with the charity Soccer Aid.

My hates
Puffball dresses. I never liked them or understood why they were fashionable in the ‘80s. Leg warmers though, are strangely sexy.

Computer games. It’s sad that children don’t spend enough time looking around and being amazed by what’s in the real world.

Traffic rage. Helen and I were cycling in London recently when a van almost knocked us off our bikes and, when I shouted at him to be careful, he got out of his van brandishing a crow bar.

 

Source: Woman & Home

Categories Homeland Interviews Media Print Media

Eye on Emmy: Homeland’s Damian Lewis Talks About Playing No Ordinary Anti-Hero

 

Just as Nicholas Brody received a hero’s welcome upon being rescued from captivity in Afghanistan, Damian Lewis of Showtime’s Homeland has been met with plaudits for his riveting portrayal of the conflicted Marine sergeant, husband, father and… would-be terrorist. Lewis – going for his first Emmy nomination this year, having previously been nominated for the 2012 Golden Globes for playing Brody on this series and in 2002 for his role in HBO’s Band of Brothers – reveals how he makes the potentially reprehensible relatable.

TVLINE | You had to play a character who for much of Season 1 needed to keep us guessing about his agenda. How much did the producers share with you up front?
They gave me a pretty good outline, but what wasn’t explicit from the outset was whether Brody was actually going to try and do something. They never said, “This guy is a terrorist and he will act in a devastating way.”

TVLINE | Actors can get caught up in the idea of playing a likeable character – certainly not an American-bred terrorist. How’d you get past any such concerns?
It was a crackling script. Also, I don’t mind playing unlikeable roles; I’ve done it before. One of the things you should seek to achieve as an actor is that your character is understood somehow. I’ve had people come up to me and say, “You’re a guy who is going to blow up the vice president, you’re lying to your wife and you just generally scare the hell out of us, because you are unpredictable and unknown — and yet we oddly kind of liked you.” If people like what they find, that’s their choice. Some people will still choose to not like you, and that’s fine. But I had one contention: Is there a way of finding in Islam a force for good, a nurturing thing in his life? Plenty of people think that if you’re a Muslim you want to blow people up, which is nonsense, and to pander to that would be irresponsible. We were at great pains to find motivations for him, and they successfully did that.

TVLINE | Ultimately it’s your job to sell us on the fact that Brody believes what he believes.
Exactly. In the 17th century, when actors were given a play, “the argument” was the word for the script – and I approach characters like that. I put forward my side of the argument.

TVLINE | Is there a scene that stands out for you as being particularly difficult?
The interrogation between myself and Claire Danes’ character [CIA officer Carrie Mathison], when I was first brought in [to Langley], is nuanced and carefully colored because the audience doesn’t know how much Brody is hiding. At that point, I had fundamentals available to me – yes, he had been brutalized and tortured physically and mentally, and yes, at some point in captivity he settled into a life that he made peace with – but there were details of his relationship with [Al Qaeda commander] Abu Nazir that I wasn’t fully clear about, so I had to set out my stalls and make choices. Yet I couldn’t just not make any choices, because it would be nebulous and dull.

 

Read the full interview at TVLine.

Categories Homeland Media Print Media

Eye on Emmy: Homeland’s Damian Lewis Talks About Playing No Ordinary Anti-Hero, TV Line, May 27, 2012

Eye on Emmy: Homeland’s Damian Lewis Talks About Playing No Ordinary Anti-Hero

Just as Nicholas Brody received a hero’s welcome upon being rescued from captivity in Afghanistan, Damian Lewis of Showtime’s Homeland has been met with plaudits for his riveting portrayal of the conflicted Marine sergeant, husband, father and… would-be terrorist. Lewis – going for his first Emmy nomination this year, having previously been nominated for the 2012 Golden Globes for playing Brody on this series and in 2002 for his role in HBO’s Band of Brothers – reveals how he makes the potentially reprehensible relatable.

Continue reading Eye on Emmy: Homeland’s Damian Lewis Talks About Playing No Ordinary Anti-Hero, TV Line, May 27, 2012

Categories Homeland Media Print Media

The Look: Mr Damian Lewis, Mr. Porter, May 8, 2012

THE LOOK: MR DAMIAN LEWIS

by Mr Sanjiv Bhattacharya
MAY 8, 2012

Mr Damian Lewis needs no convincing that Homeland is a huge hit, perhaps even a career high. Not because of the critical praise or the awards, or even his Best Actor nomination at the Golden Globes last year. But because in March he was invited to dinner at the White House, along with Mr George Clooney and main guest Prime Minister David Cameron. Continue reading The Look: Mr Damian Lewis, Mr. Porter, May 8, 2012

Categories Download Gallery Guest Appearances Interviews Video

‘Tavis Smiley’ Appearance

Damian Lewis made an appearance on the PBS late-night talk show Tavis Smiley on Friday, May 4th. You can download the interview in mp4 format here from our media archive. The interview should be posted on the Tavis Smiley site by Monday. Update: Added screen captures from the interview to the gallery.

Gallery Link:

TV Appearances > Tavis Smiley HD Screencaps (04 May 2012)

Update: Here’s the interview posted on PBS.

Watch Actor Damian Lewis on PBS. See more from Tavis Smiley.

Categories Download HIGNFY Video

New ‘Have I Got News For You’

Damian Lewis hosting 'Have I Got News For You' on April 27

Damian Lewis was guest host of Friday evening’s episode of Have I Got News For You. Those in the UK can rewatch it on BBC iPlayer. Click below to watch it on Youtube. Click here to download the episode from our media archive. The extended version Have I Got A Bit More News For You broadcasts Sunday, April 29 on BBC1. Update: I replaced the files posted on Friday with the extended version which aired on Sunday.


Categories Download Homeland Video

Video clips from the Appy Awards

Click below for clips of Damian Lewis on the red carpet and on stage – making goofy faces – at the Carphone Warehouse Appy Awards on Wednesday. You can download the clips here from the media archive.