Click above for previews of next week’s episode “Blind Spot”. Download the clips here.
Category: Media
How Damian Lewis Brought Out Kenny Dalglish’s Soft Side For Film ‘Will’ – Feb 11, 2011
For the Love of Liverpool
by Caroline Frost | Huffington Post | February 11, 2011
“It’s just a very charming script,” explains Lewis, an actor familiar for more gruelling drama (Band of Brothers, The Forsyte Saga). “It tells the story of someone doggedly realising their dream, it’s positive and life-affirming. And you get to see the soft, cuddly side of Kenny Dalglish. What’s not to love?”
Hang on… what’s dour Scot and Liverpool team stalwart Dalglish (and Stephen Gerrard for the Merseyside aficionados) doing in what Lewis calls “a modern-day fairytale”? It appears that was all down to the actor having his own longtime ambition to fulfill.
Damian Lewis: An Actor at the top of his game, The Independent, October 18, 2011
Damian Lewis: An actor at the top of his game
The Independent Culture
‘Homeland’ 1×04 trailer & clip
Click above for previews of next week’s episode “Semper I”. Download the clips here.
Gallery Link:
Television > Homeland (2011) > Screencaps > 1×04 Preview
New ‘Nicholas Brody’ promo clip
Showtime’s posted a new clip of Damian Lewis discussing Nicholas Brody. Click here to download the HD verison.
‘Homeland’ 1×03 trailer + clip
Click above for previews of next week’s episode “Clean Skin”. Download the clips here.
Gallery Link:
Television > Homeland (2011) > 1×03 Preview
New trailer and UK release date for ‘Will’
The UK release date for ‘Will’ has been changed to November 4th.
A 2nd UK trailer for Will has also been released and is available in HD. It’s similar to the long form trailer that was first released, but with fewer shots of Damian. It’s still pretty spoilerish.
Gallery Link:
Films > Will (2011) > UK Trailer 2 HD screencaps
Damian Lewis happy to be troubled in ‘Homeland’
Damian Lewis has played a vast range of characters, from emotionally racked fathers to villainous aristocrats. But his recent television projects suggest that he’s developing a specialty: prisoners who find life outside to have its own considerable challenges.
In NBC’s quirky series “Life,” Lewis played an ex-cop released after years of being wrongly imprisoned. And now in Showtime’s “Homeland,” which premiered Oct. 2, Lewis takes on the role of Marine Sgt. Nicholas Brody, who is rescued after spending eight years in Afghanistan as a POW. Although he returns home a war hero, he is obviously troubled. A CIA agent believes Brody may actually be planning a terrorist attack against America.
“These two men do seem to have similarities,” said Lewis recently by phone during a break in the filming of the drama, which is winding up production of its final first-season episodes in North Carolina. “They both seek revenge. There’s a vigilantism to both of them.”
Brody in the initial episodes is ominously quiet, conveying a turmoil beneath his haunted expressions, highlighted by strikingly blue eyes. “He’s a controlled explosion,” Lewis said.
The British actor, who makes his home in London with his wife and two daughters, has been delighted with the twists and turns in “Homeland.” It stars Claire Danes as driven CIA agent Carrie Mathison, who is battling her own demons as she obsessively pursues her suspicions about Brody. The series also features Mandy Patinkin as Mathison’s mentor.
“I’m surprised by the honesty of the writers — they have remained true to what they had originally pitched to me,” said Lewis, who undertook extensive research, including talking with former soldiers, reading firsthand accounts about post-traumatic stress disorder, and studying the Koran.
He’s invigorated by the complexity of his character and the series’ post-Sept. 11 perspectives: “This is really an explosive and controversial character. And what’s important to me in this piece is that any preconceptions about who’s bad and who’s good are challenged. The world is revealed as less black-and-white than some people believe.”
Executive producer Howard Gordon said he and fellow executive producer Alex Gansa (they previously worked together on “24” and “X Files”) felt that Brody was the most difficult of the main characters to cast and the most difficult to play. “Part of it is not knowing who he is and knowing who he is.” He called Lewis “an extraordinary actor with an all-American face, which is astounding because he’s British. He takes the role very seriously, and he’s done his homework.”
Read the full interview at the Los Angeles Times website.
‘Homeland’ Star Dishes on Charlotte – Oct 5, 2011
Hiking, Swimming, and Southern Cooking
by Staff | Charlotte Observer | October 5, 2011
Q. How are you enjoying Charlotte?
I’d never been to the state before, so it’s been a novelty. We’re staying in a great neighborhood in SouthEnd, and I’ve gone out of Charlotte and I’ve seen the countryside, and I’ve been to see some music here. I’ve got my belly full of some of your Southern cooking.
Q. How are your kids adjusting?
I have two small children, 3 and 4 years old. They love it. They learned to swim here.
Q. Tell me about your character, Sgt. Brody.
Brody is a U.S. Marine sergeant who went missing in action shortly after enlisting. He’s lost in Iraq, presumed dead, and then they find him having been a prisoner of war in an al-Qaida cell. … That’s the premise of the story – whether he is or isn’t a threat, and if he is, whether she’ll (Danes’ character) catch him in time.
Q. It’s interesting that the director included flashbacks with Brody. What do you think they add to the show?
Flashbacks used well are very powerful and certainly in a show like this, a mystery and a thriller. They can illuminate, obfuscate or create an ambiguity. You see Brody committing an atrocity he’s forced to do. It has a huge psychological impact on him. It helps you understand his character a little better after he returns home.
Q. What’s it like playing an American? You’re very convincing.
Thank you. I’ve played Americans a lot. The first time was in “Band of Brothers,” and I was very conscious of Americanisms, and concentrated hard to have an authenticity. When I’m at work, I speak in an American accent all the time, not just when I’m on set. When I leave the house, I become an American and I stay that way all day. It’s sort of become part of me.
Q. How do you like working with Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin?
She’s a sweetheart. She’s smart, funny, talented and a really good cook. I love talking to (Patinkin) about old theater stories. He’s invited me hiking a couple of times, and I get to hear his whole repertoire in the mountains as we go walking along.
Source: CharlotteObserver.com
Damian Lewis Bikes in His ‘Homeland’ – Oct 5, 2011
From Recycling to Bicycling
by Gerri Miller | Mother Nature Network | October 5, 2011
“I enjoyed the contradiction that someone who’s a hero in the nation’s eyes could be that person. That’s a thrilling premise for any show,” says Lewis. “It’s not just about the CIA catching terrorists. It’s a character piece about multiple complex issues, like identity on a political, national and spiritual faith-based ideological level and mental frailties, and how one reconnects with family. As fun as it is to just just be in a thriller I was intrigued that it wanted to tell a broader story.”
His character, Sgt. Nick Brody, has come back to a wife who thought he was dead and has taken up with his buddy (Diego Klattenhoff). “It’s overwhelming for both of them and I’m glad we’re addressing that in a serious way,” notes Lewis. Other plot elements show him behaving erratically and resisting the Marine Corps’ wishes for him to be a poster boy for heroism and re-enlist, all the while being watched on planted surveillance cameras by CIA case officer Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes), who’s convinced he’s hiding something (one of the rather unexpected things he’s hiding is revealed at the end of the second episode).
Lewis, last seen on American TV in the NBC series “Life,” about a wrongly incarcerated cop who returns to the force after years in prison, sees similarities between that role and his current one, noting that both are about men held captive for a long time and return from the experience changed men. But “Homeland” being a cable show, there are certain differences. “I show my ass a lot more,” he laughs. Cable also doesn’t require the seven-year contracts common in network television. “That’s more problematic from a family point of view, because we’re not going to go live in L.A. for seven years,” he explains. “I told my agent, ‘If a great cable show comes along, let me know.’ I’m so lucky this one did.”
Read the rest of the original article at Mother Nature Network
2nd trailer for 1×02
Click above for a 2nd and much longer trailer for next week’s episode “Grace”. Like the other trailers leading up to the premiere, it’s pretty detailed and gives a lot away!
Update: Download the 2nd trailer here.
Gallery Link:
Television > Homeland (2011) > 1×02 Trailer screencaps
As for ratings, according to Variety:
Showtime has reason to be pleased with its series debut of “Homeland,” which drew just over 1 million viewers for the drama’s initial telecast Sunday night. When totaling the midnight and 2 a.m. telecasts, as well as sampling the pay cabler made available via online and On Demand, “Homeland” drew about 2.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen. By comparison, the April debut of Showtime’s “The Borgias” garnered 1.06 million for its initial airing, and “Shameless” drew 982,000 for its January preem.
More on the ratings:
TVLine – Ratings: Homeland Spies Strong Debut, Dexter Premiere Delivers All-Time High
Deadline – Showtime’s New Drama ‘Homeland’ Has Solid Premiere
More from the Disney event
Click above for a very short clip of Damian and his family at Rapunzel’s Royal Celebration at Kensington Palace on Sunday. I also added a few more pictures from the event to the gallery.
Gallery Link:
Public Appearances > 2011 > 2011/10/02 Disney’s Princess Royal Court Celebration