Damian Lewis
Actor, Dad, Redhead, and Ping Pong Champion
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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 Homeland Media Print Media

Damian Lewis: ‘You know you’ve hit the zeitgeist when Obama is your number one fan’, Evening Standard, April 2, 2012

Damian Lewis: ‘You know you’ve hit the zeitgeist when Obama is your number one fan’

The star of Sunday night’s most addictive drama, talks to Craig McLean about playing a Muslim, living between LA and London and why he couldn’t say no to Homeland

CRAIG MCLEAN
Monday 2 April 2012 11:01

Categories Media Print Media Stolen

Damian Lewis: Back in Britain and Starring in Stolen – June 29, 2011

Damian Lewis: Back in Britain and starring in Stolen

The actor has no regrets about leaving Tinseltown for the mean streets of Manchester — and a spot of fishing.

Damian Lewis, the most famous screen redhead since Shirley Temple
Damian Lewis, the most famous screen redhead since Shirley Temple, BBC 

It’s given that most actors don’t have two ha’pennies to rub together. The London-born actor Damian Lewis seems keen to show he’s not one of them – during the interview he holds two pounds coins, clicking them together to punctuate points he is making. It might be a nervous affectation or a show of ostentation. Given the shiny blue suit and polished brogues that he is wearing at BBC TV Centre, it might well be the latter. This is after all, the actor who was thrust into the spotlight in the epic Spielberg- produced mini-series Band of Brothers in 2001, became an overnight sensation, the most famous screen redhead since Shirley Temple, and was whisked off to Hollywood in the wake of that show. But Hollywood didn’t quite work out, and after some dud films and a cancelled TV series, he is back in Britain, his latest role in a BBC TV film Stolen, an earnest, quietly moving film about child trafficking.

Continue reading Damian Lewis: Back in Britain and Starring in Stolen – June 29, 2011