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Written By GingersnapComments Off on Damian Lewis Discusses Theatre on the Stage Door Johnny Podcast
An Extra Helping of Damian Lewis: Act I and Act II
by Jonathan Cake | Stage Door Johnny | January 24, 2023
Back in October 2022 (and released in November of that same year), Damian appeared on the Stage Door Johnny podcast. You can listen to both episodes on Feeds here after scrolling down the page to find Act I and Act II, or you can listen to both episodes on Spotify here after scrolling down the page to find Act I and Act II. You can also listen on Podbean here, page two. Here are the podcast descriptions of each episode:
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Written By GingersnapComments Off on Rake Magazine Interview: A True Leading Man – Feb 15, 2018
Easy Company
by Tom Chamberlin | The Rake Magazine | February, 2018
Source: The Rake Magazine – Photo by: Kalle Gustafsson
In an exclusive interview with The Rake, Damian Lewis tells Tom Chamberlin why we all, in spite of ourselves, love an anti-hero.
Lewis – from Life to Homeland, Wolf Hall to Billions – has become the finest purveyor of modern drama’s moral ambiguities. In fact, writes Tom Chamberlin, if you can think of an actor who has influenced our golden age of television more than him, speak up…
Among the more ambiguous archetypes of the celluloid age, that of ‘leading man’ is perhaps the least defined. Far from the specific criteria of commedia dell’arte and melodrama, in which the characters are demarcated (bad guy = black hat and moustachioed, etc.), the leading man is purely subjective. Arguably he is the origin of celebrity, pulling screen presence into the limelight of fame. But the list of leading men over the years has shown that no colour, size, hair, manner or cultural identity has ever had dominion over the sobriquet. That is until Damian Lewis entered the fray. For Lewis is a man who, above anything else, is an exemplar of leadership and integrity at a time when the acting world could use a dose of it.
Damian Lewis takes charge of rooms when he enters them. Photoshoots with celebrities are often led by either the photographer, who squeezes every image he or she can from the available time; the stylist, whose job is to make sure a well-curated variety of clothes appears in the magazine; or the publicist, who tends to be the powerbroker. The ‘talent’ can often struggle through the day (except, of course, former Rake cover subjects), regarding the experience as a necessary nuisance. Not so with Mr. Lewis.
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Written By GingersnapComments Off on The British GQ Theatre Portfolio – Feb 14, 2018
The Goat Play: For Your Consideration
by Jonathan Heaf | British GQ Magazine | February 8, 2018
British theatre walked tall on the world stage last year. Here, ahead of next month’s Olivier Award nominations, this exclusive portfolio captures the outstanding performers of the past 12 months.
Source: British GQ Magazine – Photo: Charlie Gray
Damian Lewis
Martin Gray in The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? at Theatre Royal Haymarket, London
Goat love; we’ve all been there. OK, maybe not a goat, but what about an attraction to a particularly cute hamster? No? What about your pet dog? Not even after one Guinness too many? OK, we’ll stop, but there’s a point to be explored – about the destructive, uncontrollable nature of human sexuality – and Damian Lewis’ turn last year as a starchitect looking into the abyss of, yes, a goat obsession, staged at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, raised many uncomfortable truths. Starring opposite the electric Sophie Okonedo, Lewis’ performance captured a man’s terror at realizing he is a sexual outlaw trapped in a society where sex, love and marriage have strict, delineated codes.
Official nominations will be announced March 6th. The 2018 Laurence Olivier Awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, April 8, 2018 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. For more information, please visit the Official London Theatre website.
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Written By GingersnapComments Off on The GQ Theatrical Portfolio Due Out This Thursday! – Feb 13, 2018
British GQ: The Theatrical Portfolio Starring Damian Lewis
by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | February 13, 2018
We announced earlier that Damian would be appearing in British GQ Magazine in anticipation of the Olivier Awards.
We can now confirm Damian will appear in GQ’s “Theatrical Portfolio” in the March 2018 issue, on stands this Thursday! And here is the sample magazine cover. Other performers appearing are James Norton, Sienna Miller, Bryan Cranston and Andrew Garfield.
Damian’s theatrical performance as Martin Gray, an architect in love with a goat in The Goat Play, or Who is Sylvia? was an Edward Albee revival that ran from March through June, 2017 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London’s West End. Will Damian be nominated for an Olivier Award for The Goat Play?
We will soon find out when the official nominations are announced March 6th. The 2018 Laurence Olivier Awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, April 8, 2018 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. For more information, please visit the Official London Theatre website.
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Written By GingersnapComments Off on Damian Poses for British GQ in Anticipation of Olivier Awards – Feb 11, 2018
Will He Be Nominated for an Olivier Award for The Goat Play, or Who is Sylvia?
by Olivier Awards | Facebook | February 11, 2018
Source: British GQ/Instagram, Photo by Charlie Gray
We have seen some extraordinary performances and GQ Magazine has caught up with some of the best performers from an incredible year of theatre ahead of the March 6th Olivier Award nominations to capture some beautiful photographs in anticipation of it all.
Damian’s performance as Martin Gray, an architect in love with a goat in The Goat Play, was so remarkable, as was Sophie Okonedo equally riveting. Edward Albee’s revival tragedy ran from March until June, 2017 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London.
The 2018 Laurence Olivier Awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, April 8, 2018 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. For more information, visit the Official London Theatre website.
To see a full gallery of all the top performers, visit the Olivier Awards Facebook page or Twitter announcement and follow British GQ Magazine on Twitter or Facebook.
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Written By GingersnapComments Off on An Actor is Always Reinventing Himself Through his Characters: An Interview with Damian Lewis – April 23, 2017
An Actor is Always Reinventing Himself Through His Characters
by Staff | London Calling | April 23, 2017
Having ventured from the hallowed halls of England’s most historic school to the very top of transatlantic television, Damian Lewis is returning to the city – and the stage – of his youth with a starring role in Ian Rickson’s revival of the Edward Albee-penned The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
As much as some people may find it a step too far to have a ginger James Bond, Damian Lewis has seen his name thrown into that ring many times. But while with his Old Etonian credentials it may seem like a natural fit, for the past few years the flame-haired thespian has owed his career to starring roles on the other side of the pond.
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Written By GingersnapComments Off on Damian Lewis Nearly Fainted on Stage After Bursting Ear Drum Hours Before Performance – April 6, 2017
Damian Lewis nearly fainted on stage after bursting ear drum hours before performance
by ROBERT DEX – The Evening Standard –
Soldering on: Damian Lewis and co-star Sophie Okonedo Dave Benett – Source: The Evening Standard
Damian Lewis revealed he almost passed out on stage last night after perforating his eardrum hours before performing his new West End play.
The Billions actor said he was left in “tremendous pain” and was ordered by producers to see a doctor before he went on stage in the new production of Edward Albee’s The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia?.
Lewis said he fell ill after catching an “awful cold” that was passed round the cast and crew, including co-star Sophie Okonedo, that perforated his eardrum and left him partially deaf.
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Written By GingersnapComments Off on Damian Lewis Says New Role Ideal for Era of Brexit and Trump – April 6, 2017
Damian Lewis Says New Role Ideal for Era of Brexit and Trump
by Jill Lawless – Associated Press – April 6, 2017
Source: The Goat Play and AP
LONDON (AP) — British actor Damian Lewis says his latest role as a man in love with a goat is perfect for our unsettled times.
The “Homeland” and “Billions” star is back on the London stage in Edward Albee’s “The Goat, Or Who is Sylvia,” a tragicomedy about a successful, happily married architect whose sudden passion for a farmyard animal has devastating consequences.
A verbally dazzling, emotionally draining exploration of love and the limits of tolerance, the play’s new London production drew laughter and shocked gasps from its opening-night audience Wednesday.
After the show, Lewis said the play suits a time when “we feel generally more uncertainty and more absurdity in our politics at the moment, both here and in the U.S.”
“And this is a play where something drops out of the blue sky that’s utterly shocking, that’s unexpected and it causes great uncertainty and not a little trauma through the course of the play,” he said.
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Written By GingersnapComments Off on West End Review: ‘The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?’ With Damian Lewis, Sophie Okonedo – April 6, 2017
West End Review: ‘The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?’ With Damian Lewis, Sophie Okonedo
by Matt Trueman – Variety – April 6, 2017
THE GOAT by Edward Albee, Directed by Ian Rickson, Designed by Rae Smith. The Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, UK – 2 March 2017 – Credit: Johan Persson
A married, middle-aged man falls in love with a goat. Edward Albee’s set-up might be simple, but it’s perfectly positioned – silly and shocking and, at its best, achingly sad. “The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?” deserves far better than Ian Rickson’s stagey production starring Damian Lewis and Sophie Okonedo, which plays the joke ahead of the emotional truth. As such, a play that should feel like a brain glitch, one that tap dances over all manner of taboos, emerges instead on an even keel, too level-headed by half. Albee’s tragicomedy throws every convention into question. Rickson and his cast cling to them for dear life.
At a moment of crumbling liberal consensus, uncertainty raging like a wildfire, “The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?” is all too pertinent. Martin (Lewis) is a world-renowned architect, long happily married to a bright, breezy woman (Okonedo). They’re perfect bourgeois liberals, an interracial couple with a gay teenage son (newcomer Archie Madekwe). Their brownstone, in Rae Smith’s design, is a bastion of good taste — Eames chairs and exposed brickwork, a Bauhaus book on the floor. Martin’s just turned 50. He’s a bit out of sorts. And he’s taken up with a goat named Sylvia. They’re in love.
Lewis makes abundantly clear that Martin means no malice and poses no threat. He’s an unworldly, sweet-hearted soul, as helpless as he is harmless. He’s almost too soft for society, an intellectual naïf whose wife steers him through life. Right now, he’s unable to recall simple names or dates, and greets his oldest friend (Jason Hughes) like a familiar face he can’t quite place. It’s as if his brain’s been rebooted. When Lewis pulls up a chair, it’s like he’s forgotten how to sit down. Everything, in other words, is up for grabs.
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Written By GingersnapComments Off on Opening Night of The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? – April 5, 2017
Talk of the Town
by MailOnline Reporter | The Daily Mail | April 5, 2017
Damian Lewis cosies up to glamorous wife Helen McCrory as they toast the opening night of The Goat or Who is Sylvia? on Wednesday.
His new role is a controversial one, with The Goat or Who is Sylvia? a renowned yet divisive play.
But Damian Lewis looked in great spirits after the press night of the new production as he attended the afterparty with wife Helen McCrory.
Beaming broadly, despite the mixed reception, the actor, 46, was suprisingly chirpy at the Villandry, the comfortable and casual grand cafe serving flavourful dishes with a Mediterranean influence.
Looking dapper for the afterparty, the Homeland star donned a fitted blue suit that he teamed with an open collar white shirt.
Meanwhile, Helen looked sensational in a floor length black gown with a sheer overlay that was embroidered with floral detailing.
