Categories Keane Print Media

Always Maximize Your Shooting Time: Lodge Kerrigan on Keane

Damian’s Magnetic Band of Brothers Role Leads to Keane

by Erik Luers | Film Maker Magazine | August 19, 2022

If every film is a document of its own making, then Lodge Kerrigan’s Keane, shot in real locations in and around New York City in 2004, is also a depiction of the period in which it was made. Viewing the film on the occasion of a new digital restoration by Grasshopper Film that begins a theatrical run at Film at Lincoln Center today, I was struck by the numerous billboards and posters placed atop taxi cabs that the film’s lead character, William Keane (Damian Lewis), obliviously walks by. Short of pointing at the screen, Leonardo DiCaprio-style, as I noticed a poster for the upcoming season of The Sopranos or a cab ad advertising Bernadette Peters in Gypsy on Broadway, I appreciated the unintentional media ephemera that pops into the background of many of Kerrigan’s frames—such are the unexpected pleasures of filming in live locations!

When we first meet the title character, the unemployed, unstable redhead is wandering the Port Authority bus depot in an effort to retrace the steps he took when his daughter was abducted months prior at the complex’s basement level. When he’s not putting himself through this agonizing recreation of brutal trauma, Keane is living in a hotel and getting drunk, snorting cocaine, hooking up with various women in bathroom stalls,and purchasing children’s clothes for the eventual return of his kin. Something feels off: when Keane informs a character later in the film that he was married once but is now divorced, we begin to suspect that that might not be true and grow unsure as to whether there ever was an abducted daughter to begin with. When, back at the hotel, Keane encounters a down-on-her-luck mother (Amy Ryan) with a young daughter (Abigail Breslin), we fear that Keane may see something in the girl that reminds him of his. Sure enough…

Continue reading Always Maximize Your Shooting Time: Lodge Kerrigan on Keane

Categories Keane Print Media

Interview: You Can Never Be 100 Percent Sure – Lodge Kerrigan on Keane

Masterfully Harrowing Psychodrama

by Isaac Feldberg | Roger Ebert.com | August 18, 2022

Across a body of work both compassionate and uncompromising, the filmmaker Lodge Kerrigan has maintained a distinctive physical proximity to the emotionally isolated characters he depicts living in society’s margins.

“Clean, Shaven,” his 1993 debut, worked rigorously to approximate the inner reality of a paranoid schizophrenic, conveying his visual and auditory hallucinations in all their abrasive force and abstraction. 1998’s “Claire Dolan,” meanwhile, applied a chillier, more disassociated kind of gaze to its study of an upscale New York sex worker, observing appointments through the windows of looming glass high-rises as if peering inside a fishbowl.

Continue reading Interview: You Can Never Be 100 Percent Sure – Lodge Kerrigan on Keane

Categories Keane Print Media

Interview: Lodge Kerrigan on Keane, the Magnetism of Damian Lewis, Steven Soderbergh’s Cut and the Economics of TV vs. Film

Magnetism of Damian Lewis

by Ethan Vestby | The Film Stage | August 18, 2022

Often a re-release is granted to some long-cherished classic or cult sensation. In the case of Lodge Kerrigan’s Keane, which played the festival circuit through 2004 and received a small theatrical run in 2005, a much-underseen film has been given another chance to find the audience it’s long deserved with a brand new 4K restoration courtesy Grasshopper Film.

The titular Keane (played impressively by Damian Lewis pre-Homeland and Billions) a mid-30s man suffering from schizophrenia and on a fruitless quest to find his lost daughter through the purgatory of New York City. Coming across Lynn (Amy Ryan) and her young daughter Kira (Abigail Breslin) living in precarity in the same motel, and soon finding himself taking care of the young girl while her mother tends to waiting tables. Keane begins to see her as potentially his lost daughter, which leads him down a dark path of recreating and revisiting his past.

Continue reading Interview: Lodge Kerrigan on Keane, the Magnetism of Damian Lewis, Steven Soderbergh’s Cut and the Economics of TV vs. Film

Categories Keane Print Media

Interview: Lodge Kerrigan on Remastering Keane, Rehearsing on Location and More

Mesmerized by the Performances

by Patrick Preziosi | Slant Magazine | August 15, 2022

As American indie cinema continues to make startlingly popular in-roads into extremely suffocating subjectivity—as evinced by the success of the Safdies’ Good Time and Uncut Gems, as well as the critical attention paid toward Eliza Hittman—it’s important to uphold the foundational impact of Lodge Kerrigan’s four films. The last decade and change has seen the director lending his talents to television, most notably The Girlfriend Experience, and, now, ahead of the release of the 4K restoration of his 2004 film Keane, it’s as good a time as any to reacquaint oneself with the singular potency of Kerrigan’s artistry.

Even after the visceral puzzlebox journey of 1993’s Clean, Shaven and the unnerving stateliness of 1998’s Claire Dolan, Keane still has a sideswiping power, which proved Kerrigan not to be some nominal provocateur, but a true disciple of some of the most penetrating of American directors of the back half of the 20th century, from Frederick Wiseman to John Cassavetes. As the eponymous William Keane, Damian Lewis ably registers both insurmountable grief and a more subtle mental imbalance: Perpetually searching for his missing daughter in and around the Port Authority Bus Terminal, where she was abducted some months earlier, Keane is a man reasonably drowning in obsession and paranoia, compounding his personal, stalled-out investigation with drugs and alcohol.

Continue reading Interview: Lodge Kerrigan on Remastering Keane, Rehearsing on Location and More

Categories Keane Print Media

Lodge Kerrigan’s ‘Keane’ Gets 4K Restoration and U.S. Theatrical Release With Grasshopper

Keane is Back

UPDATE 08/13/22 – Damian will attend an in-person Q&A on Saturday, August 20, 2022 at 6:30 p.m. at Film Lincoln Center in New York and the event will be moderated by Christopher Abbott. For ticket information visit their website here.

“The Girlfriend Experience” director Lodge Kerrigan’s 2004 movie “Keane,” starring Damian Lewis and Abigail Breslin, is getting a 4K restoration and a U.S. theatrical release.

Grasshopper Film snapped up distribution rights to the critically acclaimed pic, which is executive produced by Steven Soderbergh and produced by Andrew Fierberg. “Keane” — in 4K — will premiere in cinemas in early 2022, followed by releases on VOD, TV and home video. (The movie received a limited theatrical release in New York back in 2005.)

“Keane” turns on William Keane (Lewis) who is struggling to cope six months after his six-year-old daughter was abducted from New York City’s Port Authority Bus Terminal while traveling with him. Repeatedly drawn to the site of the abduction, Keane wanders the bus station, compulsively replaying the events of that fateful day as if hoping to change the outcome. When one day he meets a financially strapped woman, Lynn Bedik (Amy Ryan), and her seven-year-old daughter, Kira (Abigail Breslin), at a transient hotel, Keane becomes increasingly attached to Kira and uses her to fill the void left by his own daughter’s disappearance.

“Masterfully written and directed, with incredibly committed performances from Damian Lewis, Amy Ryan and Abigail Breslin, Lodge Kerrigan’s third feature feels as urgent and vital today as it’s ever been,” said Grasshopper Film CEO Ryan Krivoshey. “We are thrilled to be working with Lodge on the re-release of ‘Keane’ and can’t wait for audiences to see this beautiful new restoration in theaters.”

Continue reading Lodge Kerrigan’s ‘Keane’ Gets 4K Restoration and U.S. Theatrical Release With Grasshopper

Categories Audio Billions Broadcast Media Guest Appearances Interviews Ping-Pong Podcast Video

Video Interview & Podcast: Damian’s Guest Appearance on Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist – April 22, 2018

Sunday Sit-Down and Podcast with Willie Geist

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | April 22, 2018

Source: NBC Today Show

On Sunday, April 22, 2018, Damian appeared on NBC’s Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist at New York City’s Spin to discuss insider tips about what’s to come on the upcoming season of Billions, Damian’s breakout role in Band of Brothers, his American and British accents, and he even showed off his crazy ping-pong skills in this video. For additional interview video snippets and extras, view our original announcement.

Watch the interview video and listen to the full-length podcast below, and don’t forget to visit our Gallery for the latest photos.

Podcast:

Damian says of Billions and playing Bobby Axelrod, “This season we descend even further through the circles of hell. And as each personable, individual soul blackens and darkens because of the corrupting influence of power and money, we see the stakes just rise higher and higher. It’s really good fun. You know, this is a show about assholes being assholes. That’s why he’s [Axe] fun to play. He’s a predator, he prowls, he’s looking for prey – that’s a good metaphor for hedge fund guys who are looking for the injured wildebeest off the back of the pack that’s under performing. He’s got a swagger about him. He’s an alley cat. He’s a scrapper, he’s that boxer who lives on his wits and who’s wits are just a little bit quicker than everybody else’s so he can roll and he’s got quick feet.”

Over the last two years, Willie has sat down with some of the biggest names in news and pop culture — from actors and musicians to presidents and CEOs — to talk about the stories behind their success. Starting now, these entire conversations will be available every week on the “Sunday Sitdown” podcast.

Categories Band of Brothers Billions Homeland Keane Our Kind of Traitor Print Media Wolf Hall Your Highness

Damian Lewis’ Path from Band of Brothers to Billions – March 23, 2018

Damian Discusses His Most Pivotal Roles

by Emily Zemler | LA Times | March 23, 2018

Source: LA Times – Photo by Genaro Molina

“I am interested in the imperfections in people,” Damian Lewis says. “I’m interested in the contradictions and in the moral struggle that often exists in all of us.”

This sensibility threads through many of the actor’s film and television characters, particularly his current role as shrewd hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod on “Billions.” The Showtime series returns for its third season tonight, bringing us even closer to understanding what exactly makes Bobby tick.

“He’s a fiercely loyal man,” Lewis says about Bobby. “He’s ruthless. He’s extremely competitive. For him, the game is everything. The playing of the game is the thing — and it is a game, so winning the game is paramount. He enjoys it.”

The role is a big shift for Lewis, 47, who got his start on British television before coming to the attention of American audiences in Steven Spielberg’s World War II epic miniseries “Band of Brothers.” Although Lewis has since had several career-defining roles, particularly as Nicholas Brody in “Homeland,” that project lingers as one of his most important projects.

“Some jobs are just gigs, but some jobs have the ability to be life-changing,” he notes. “They just alter you in some small way. ‘Band of Brothers’ was definitely one of those.”

Here Lewis discusses several of his most pivotal roles:

Bobby Axelrod, “Billions” (2016-2018)

“What attracted me to Bobby Axelrod was to get to play a man who is willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants and see where that takes him personally. To find out, during the course of the show, how corrupting that is on a man who is prepared to cross one line after another. What does it do to one’s soul? I saw that as potentially where it was going. And it’s enormous fun. He’s a form of gangster and it’s fun playing that kind of guy.”

Continue reading Damian Lewis’ Path from Band of Brothers to Billions – March 23, 2018

Categories Fan Questionnaire Interviews Print Media WebChat

Damian Lewis Webchat: Your Questions Answered – April 19, 2017

From Sweet Packets and War Heroes to Myths of Private Education

by Staff | The Guardian | April 19, 2017

Categories Homeland Print Media

Damian Was Third Choice to Play Homeland’s Nick Brody – Jan 12, 2016

Damian Lewis had to fend off Ryan Philippe and Patrick Wilson to play Homeland’s Nicholas Brody

by Sarah Doran – RadioTimes – January 12, 2016

Source: Showtime

Showrunner Alex Gansa reveals the British actor wasn’t top of the list of Showtime’s potential leading men for the espionage thriller.

He may now be one of TV and film’s most famous redheads but did you know Damian Lewis very nearly missed out on his role as Homeland’s Nicholas Brody?

 When casting for the US show began, Lewis wasn’t Showtime’s (the network Homeland debuted on) first choice for the role. In fact, he wasn’t even the second, despite showrunner Alex Gansa’s determination to see him step into Brody’s shoes.

“When we first brought him up, everyone was very negative about the suggestion,” Gansa told The New Yorker. Their hesitation had a lot to do with the failure of Life, a cancelled NBC police procedural drama in which the British actor had played the lead character.

“That carries a pretty big stigma,” Gansa said. “The network really wanted Ryan Phillippe; Patrick Wilson passed. I kept talking about Damian until I got a call from the head of the studio saying, ‘Look, Alex, please do not bring up Damian’s name again.’ Hanging up the phone in my office – I think we were two weeks from the start of principal photography – I was like, Are we going to cast Ryan Phillippe in this role?”

That’s right. A non-Lewis Brody very nearly happened. We know, you guys. We know.

Continue reading Damian Was Third Choice to Play Homeland’s Nick Brody – Jan 12, 2016

Categories Charity Keane Personal and Family Life Philanthropy Print Media Supported Causes

Damian Lewis: Film Inspired My Prince’s Trust Role

Ambassador for Prince’s Trust Influenced by Keane Role

by Fred Attewill | Metro | March 25, 2013

Homeland star Damian Lewis’s role as a homeless man moved him to become an ambassador for a charity helping disadvantaged young people.

The 42-year-old star became involved with the Prince’s Trust after research for his 2004 film Keane, in which he played a man who suffered a nervous breakdown, showed him how easy it was for a comfortable lifestyle to fall apart.

Lewis said: ‘It’s alarming how few steps I trod in the film from a successful life to a breakdown into homelessness – and many kids are closer than adults to this because they don’t have support networks.

Continue reading Damian Lewis: Film Inspired My Prince’s Trust Role

Categories Media Print Media Uncategorized

Damian Lewis: Making it Big on Small Screen, The Irish Examiner, October 14, 2012

Making it big on the small screen

It’s been a slow and steady rise to stardom for Damian Lewis. But now he’s hit the jackpot with an Emmy win for his role in Homeland. He talks to Craig McLean about fame, fatherhood and fan clubs.

Continue reading Damian Lewis: Making it Big on Small Screen, The Irish Examiner, October 14, 2012

Categories Homeland Media Print Media

Soldiering on: Damian Lewis in Homeland, The Telegraph, February 4, 2012

Soldiering on: Damian Lewis in Homeland

After his breakthrough 10 years ago in Band of Brothers, Damian Lewis’s finest work has been for television, his latest role that of a US Marine held captive for eight years

Damian Lewis in Homeland

Photo: Channel 4
Damian Lewis opens our conversation with a sheepish mention of his ardent admirers. ‘I’ve a set of fans who call themselves – you’re not allowed to laugh – Damian Bunnies.’ Their name seems to be a reference to those other copper-top characters, the Duracell Bunnies. They have been following him since his 2001 breakthrough in Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed Second World War series Band of Brothers, ‘and they’re absolutely lovely. In the end, I realised they knew so much about me, I let two of them run a fan site.’