Tony Blair – Damian Lewis

Real Band of Brothers 20 Years On

On September 9, 2021September 9, 2021 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Rare Footage of Easy Company Veterans: European Reunion Tour 2005

by Normandy Institute & Genesis Publications | YouTube | September 9, 2021

20 years ago today, September 9, 2001, the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers aired its first two episodes. Presented by the Normandy Institute and Genesis Publications, a short film of the 2005 Easy Company European Reunion Tour was released on September 9, 2021 on the Normandy Institute YouTube channel:

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Band of Brothers Print Media

“They Cried Themselves to Sleep”: How Spielberg Put Band of Brothers Cast Through Hell

On September 9, 2021 By Gingersnap Comments Off

The Cast Thought They’d Struck Gold Until They Realized Spielberg Wanted Them to Go Full ‘Method’

by Tom Nicholson | The Telegraph | September 9, 2021

Damian Lewis takes aim in the award-winning series, Band of Brothers. CREDIT: Alamy

Damian Lewis shrieked into a pillow and sobbed. It was 8am. Thinking he’d nailed his final audition with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks for Band of Brothers’ hero Major Dick Winters, the actor had gone out to celebrate and collapsed into bed at 5am. Now it turned out that Spielberg and Hanks wanted another chat – and he was in no shape to face them.

“The biggest meeting of my life, and I’ve blown it,” he wrote in a diary soon after (an excerpt of which he published on his website in 2018). “I’ve had three hours’ sleep and I’m still drunk. By midday, I’ve had three cold showers, five coffees and stubbed my toe a lot. I walk into the office sweating heavily and shaking.”

Fortunately, Spielberg had seen Lewis in Hamlet on Broadway, playing Laertes. The actor clung to this scrap until Spielberg and Hanks began to peel away. “Steven’s off to watch his kid play soccer,” Lewis later wrote. “I want to tell him it’s called ‘football’. Probably not the best time, though. Tom has to go to buy a Christmas tree with his daughter. They leave.”

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London Power 100 News Print Media

Damian Makes 2019’s London Power 100 List – March 1, 2019

On March 1, 2019March 6, 2019 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Damian Ranks #46 on London Power 100 List

by Newsdesk | Film News | March 1, 2019

The new London Power 100 was published today. Actors, actresses and producers made up 20% of the list which shines an alternative spotlight on the key movers and shakers amongst London’s elite.

London Power 100 President Nicholas Taylor explained the list and how it was decided: “After months of deliberating and research the list has collated the top 100 power players worth knowing in London.”

Major stars such as Idris Elba, Daniel Kaluuya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Damian Lewis, Naomie Harris, Tom Hiddleston, Keira Knightley, Letitia Wright, Noel Clarke, Thandie Newton and Jourdan Dunn joined veteran Londoners Sir Michael Caine, Dame Helen Mirren, Dame Barbara Windsor and Dame Joan Collins on the list, which also features royalty, politicians, restauranteurs and business leaders.

Commenting on the film industry’s prominence on the list, Nicholas Taylor said, “film is an industry in which Britain is a world leader – our actors and filmmakers are amongst the very best on the planet and I am delighted to see this diverse, all-encompassing sector so well represented. London is and always has been the very centre of the British Film Industry and the list reflects that with Londoners covering every aspect of the movie industry from the stars of billion dollar Hollywood blockbusters to homegrown independent films.”