Damian's Dominion: The Damian Lewis Digest

THE DAMIAN DIGEST
A Library Of Excerpts From Articles About Damian Lewis

DAILY EXPRESS SATURDAY MAGAZINE, 01/14/06:

"A friend said to me the other day that maybe I shouldn't go to quite so many parties. I am photographed out quite a lot, and he was concerned for my integrity as an actor. But I feel secure with the work I do, so I think I'll keep going to parties!"
"If you never read about yourself, then there is no reason to think you are anything different from the way you are when you hang out with your friends in the pub."
"I'm from a stable family background, my parents were very solid," he says. "I do believe in staying together."
"I met Tom [Hanks] and he was friendly and enthusiastic, but I didn't think I'd got the part [in Band Of Brothers]. So I went out on the lash with a mate till 5 am, only to be woken at eight by the casting director saying, 'Mr. Spielberg wants to see you at 12.' I had four showers, but I still felt drunk!" After an informal chat with the director, he was still far from confident, until Spielberg's assistant asked him if he was free to attend boot camp. "I jumped up, shouted 'Sure am, buddy', and kissed everyone in the room."
"If people with red hair can be perceived as sexy and land romantic leads, then that has to be good for redheads in general! Tom Hanks said to me, 'You're going to be the first ever red-headed film star!'"
Now, as director of a production company called Picture Farm, he is also branching out into film producing. His debut feature, which goes into production later this year, is The Baker, a comedy thriller written and directed by his brother, Gareth, in which Damian also stars. He is relishing taking on the extra responsibilities. "It's really exciting to broaden my horizons," he beams. "I love acting, and want to explore different roles, but I'm too curious to leave it at that. I've got a great appetite for all this activity. It's good to be mentally agile -- that's what keeps you creative. I'm very lucky I'm in a line of work that I adore. The quality of life of a successful actor is second to none. I'm trying not to sound smug, but yes, I do love my life. I don't know how else to put it."

PRESSUREWORKS, 01/31/06:

"I studied Spanish at 'A' level and I've always enjoyed Spanish cultures."

PRESSUREWORKS, 02/07/06:

"People are embarrassed to be politicised. I suffer from that a bit. There's an English sense of reserve, a little bit."
"There's a traditionally held view that if you're trying to help poor people then you sit somewhere on the left of the political spectrum. I reject that view and I come at working with Christian Aid on the reduction of poverty from an entirely independent standpoint."
"A little bit of a grasp of cause and effect is useful for everybody and if the way I live my life in London, with all the trappings of a capitalist northern European city then, you know, I -- I think it's just right to know a little bit about ... where did my coffee come from and how did it get here? I drink coffee every day of my life! And if I'm having bananas on my muesli every morning, where are my bananas coming from? But am I saintly? F... -- far from it. There are small changes one can adapt to in one's life. I might sound like an unlikely candidate by some of the things I say but ... I do have an urge quite often to stick a finger in the eye of political correctness..."
I imagined myself milking the cows at six every morning being just as happy -- although that's rubbish, as I probably wouldn't last a week."
"I think if you are politicised from a young age and you want to campaign, instinctively you feel that's what you want to do, then that's what you should do. Artists in all media are compelled to do what they do equally or perhaps even more strongly than anyone else. Actors have to act because they have to.The ideal situation is to have successful artists campaigning, who are already fulfilled to a degree by what they've created and can use the confidence that they've gained from their artistic endeavours to do something more political."

TELEGRAPH, 02/18/06:

Inspiration: "Dustin Hoffman."
Favourite films: "The Graduate, The Apartment, Singin' In The Rain."
Trailer essentials: "CDs, script, bananas."
High point: "My brother Gareth and I making our first feature together, The Baker."
Low point: "Forgetting the entire third act of Princess Ida in front of the whole school when I was 11."

ORLANDO SENTINEL, 02/23/06:

"Band of Brothers came out of the blue," he says. "The Forsyte Saga offered me a totally different opportunity. As an actor, you have only so much control. Make sure you're good. That's all you can do."

LOS ANGELES TIMES CALENDAR, 02/24/06:

Lewis said he lied early in his acting career about having attended Eton College. "That was a fear of typecasting. For example, when someone wanted to know what school I went to, I'd just make one up. Like, 'Oh, a place you've never heard of, in Oxfordshire, it's called, you know, Oysterton Minarette High, whatever. I didn't think it would help, coming out of drama school and being 'the Etonian actor. I think my decision to keep it quiet has been vindicated."
America was a part of his childhood, he said. "I have an American godfather. I have cousins in Connecticut. My father lived in Chicago for five years. We spent holidays here when I was younger. I couldn't say I have a good American accent because of that. I always considered dialects to be part of acting and actors should be able to do accents. I now know that's not true. I realize it's just a fluke. I'm just lucky."
He has ... branched out from acting to sign on as a director of a production company, Picture Farm Ltd., that includes his brother Gareth, Rupert Wyatt and Adrian Sturges. "A family joke was that my brother might give me a job in his first movie. I might really need it. Maybe I would help him make his first film by acting in it. As it happened, the last five years for me have been really good, and so it's worked out."
Though he's only a part-time producer at this point, he said he aspires to have a company similar to George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh's Section Eight with people who are "really committed to making films, in a place where I can really develop material and commission scripts."
He has the most fun in discovering for himself what works and what doesn't. "That's the point about everything. Whether it finally succeeds or fails, there's no satisfaction in listening to other people say, 'Oh, you'll never make it work,' and go, 'Oh, yeah, you're probably right.' If it's not going to work, I want to discover for myself that it can't work."

VARIETY, 03/24/06:

Speaking of the collaboration with his helming bro, Damian said, "It's a great feeling to be working with him as one of his producers. I am just getting my head around being bossed about by him as one of his actors."

THE TIMES, 04/20/06:

"If we accept that actors have a fairly healthy dose of vanity, then I would say that mine responds more to peer approval than it does to limelight."

THIS IS GWENT, 04/24/06:

"It is great to get out of the big city and I will miss it here [in Grosmont, Monmouthshire, Wales] when we leave [upon completion of filming The Baker]. But I have a home near the Brecon Beacons to come and visit when I want. My father is Welsh, and although my brother and I were brought up in London, we love it here."

MARIE CLAIRE (UK EDITION), 04/06:

Bolivia highlight: "Standing above Lake Titicaca at 6 am watching the fishing boats leave the shore."
Idea of heaven: "Outdoor table tennis with champagne and foie gras."
Last time you were star-struck: "On a red carpet in L.A. I was having my photo taken and turned to see Dustin Hoffman politely waiting with a bemused expression. I scuttled away, but he called me back to get a photo with him."

BBC, 04/06:

Damian says it's been "fun" working with his kid brother [on The Baker]. "It helps because there are a few short cuts he uses with me -- which sometimes also become short fuses! -- and I'm enjoying it tremendously working with him. It is a little bit of a dream come true."
"We always had this romantic idea that we should do the film together," says Damian, between takes at a disused office block on location in Cardiff. "Because he's my brother I know this sounds biased, but The Baker is funnier than any comedy I've read in the last however-many years."

CHRISTIAN AID NEWS, SPRING 2006:

"If you've travelled much in the Third World -- and I taught in Soweto when I was 20 -- you will have seen poverty."
"I got up at six in the morning to milk one of his [Abraham Mamani's] cows. It was like grappling with a giant Wall's sausage. ... I found myself wondering whether I'd enjoy his lifestyle, milking my cows at six every morning. But of course, that's nonsense. I'd last about a week."

THE WESTERN MAIL, 05/06/06:

In something of a romantic notion, the brothers [Damian and Gareth] have decamped to Wales [for the filming of The Baker], a place they class as home due to their North Walian father Watcyn and a second house which they have occupied in Llandeilo for more than 25 years. ... Holidays and weekends were spent either in Llandeilo or around the beaches of Porthmadog, celebrating St David's Day was a childhood event and the Welsh team was the only one to back in rugby.
The pair have been born to make a film together as friends of the Lewises' parents, father Watcyn and their late mother Charlotte, will attest after watching their childhood performances and plays. "We have been doing this since we were tiny kids making up characters and putting on plays," says Damian. One such play was The Chewing Gum play, with the central character a young boy called Masdaq, which, from what can be gathered through the pair's laughter, was about a young boy and a piece of chewing gum which went all around the room.
The Lewis Brothers, a coupling that Damian sees as romantic venture like the highly successful film partnership of the Coen Brothers, had their first screen outing in a short film that Gareth put together in New York. Damian, at the time, was treading the boards in Hamlet for the RSC but stopped to pose with cigarettes moodily on street corners while egged on by his brother behind the camera.
"Obviously there is a romantic notion of working with your brother, if you get on with each other which we do. From a personal point of view I am totally entirely sentimental about working with my brother. It seems a bit of a romantic ideal, like the Coen Brothers. It has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life and my professional career without a doubt."
I'm no longer amazed that they aren't fighting like cat and dog, but I am amazed that they've got so much work done. Because off camera they are so keen to mug about, especially when it comes to taking the cover shots for this magazine. It is the second time photographer Steve has attempted to get some vaguely serious shots of the pair together. Damian, I am assured, enjoys having his picture taken. And the evidence of numerous magazine fashion shoots where the actor has pouted his way through a selection of designer clothes in some interesting colours seems proof of that. Gareth is not so keen. So when you attempt to get them to hold moody poses it all falls apart. The pair have literally minutes to spare after the lunch break before heading back into Grosmont for a long afternoon of shooting, but still they cannot stop fooling around. Humorous catalogue poses are rife and the "grown men" can't help pulling faces and making bunny ears above their respective siblings head.
All this from a man who many see as a serious thesp. "Well that depends on what people have watched. I have always liked doing comedy, it's fun. I have done almost as much comedy as serious roles," says Damian.
Choosing the right project is very important for the 35-year-old. "I would have found it difficult to commit to this if I didn't think it was a brilliant work. It's funny, charming and a really good story," says Damian. "It has always been my intention to get involved with projects earlier than the acting stage and this was the perfect opportunity to do that with my brother's first feature."
About juggling producing and acting: "First and foremost it's fun," he says. "I enjoy having two heads on. Every now and then it creates stress and the cooker boilers over but then you get on with it again. Overall it's even more fulfilling than acting. I love acting in itself but one of its greatest attractions is that it comes without any responsibilities, except for the very, very important creative process of portraying someone interestingly and convincingly. But it's a very cocooned way to spend your time. I remember talking to Tom Hanks when he was directing and producing and he said that he much preferred acting now because it really felt like an escape and playing."
"When you start off as a young actor it's everything to you, you want it to be everything and for it to feed your soul and curse through every vein in your body. It has that importance, that intensity of purpose. Now, it's not that it's become less important for me, it's just there is a different energy, I feel more playful now."
He recently became engaged to actress Helen McCrory and the pair are looking for a home, planning the wedding and preparing for the arrival of their first child later this year. When asked about the busy year ahead, he stretches back and nonchalantly says, "I'm living life and creating life."

ITV, 05/27/06:

"I didn't sleep last night I was so nervous [about playing in today's Soccer Aid pro-celebrity charity match for UNICEF at Old Trafford in Manchester]. But I kept running and running and I should have scored at the end."

SUNDAY MAIL (GLASGOW), 06/04/06:

"I want to do well in my career but how do you get to the top without compromising your private life? It's tough but I think you can do it."

SAMARITANS.ORG, 08/25/06:

"We all know what's best when you have a problem is to talk it over -- 'to get it off your chest.' But sometimes there are reasons, especially for kids when they feel it's something they don't want to share. It's essential then that they've got somewhere to find the support they need and I'm totally behind the confidential service Samaritans' volunteers give 24/7."

THE BIG ISSUE, 08/28/06:

"I don't think acting is rocket science. I think it's more an exercise of the imagination -- using your imagination to put yourself in a situation -- and I believe that very strongly. But having said that, after about three weeks on this film [Keane], I do remember starting to feel a bit fragmented in my mind. It was quite an interesting thing but it scared the living bejesus out of me to be honest."
"I'm aware that this may all sound pretentious -- but if you're functioning well as an actor and you're allowing your imagination to be that broad, and sponge-like, you risk psychosis."
"I don't tend to take my work home with me. When it's a wrap, it's a wrap and a cool beer is usually the way forward."
"Dreamcatcher was a big $80 million studio movie, and I was taken along in the excitement and the rush of it. I loved working with the guys in it and the crew but it was a real eye-opener into just what a bloated and protracted affair making a big studio movie is. The resources and time available to you lends itself to lazy filmmaking. I remember just sitting in Vancouver day after day in my hotel room, waiting to do a single line against a green screen. It wasn't stimulating."
"You work for intense periods of time as an actor and then have time off, so when you have those periods of work, you want them to be as intense and as challenging as possible. It's a sort of junkie behaviour, in a way."
"What's appealing about production is the overview you have, but there's also a lot about it that's frankly clerical and secretarial. I'm not naturally good at that. Definitely not."

EXPOSURE, SUMMER 2006:

"There was always this romantic notion that we [Gareth and I] would make a film together, so I was always attached to it emotionally. Gareth would run drafts by me and I would give him notes. Then really it was in the last two or three years when we became a bit more cohesively a partnership, when our production company Picture Farm came into being, that we really focused on trying to get it made. The script changed for the better and then it was ready."

THE INDEPENDENT, 09/09/06:

His screen icons are Steve McQueen and Gary Cooper, stars who had a natural economy with words. "If you set up an intensity and a stillness to someone, you only have to show a flicker of a smile and it will show volumes. "He also loves the way De Niro actively listens. "He does it brilliantly. It's his listening that gives him his mercurial quality. It shows a certain humility." The same could be said of Lewis, although he unapologetically "enjoys frivolity". When I arrive for the interview he and his publicist are wading through a heap of party invitations; Lewis himself ironically brandishes the VIP discount card Versace have just sent him. "Not quite my type of clothes," he laughs, dressed down today in chinos and a leather jacket.
"You can't do something that is morally vacuous or dysfunctional and then write it off saying, 'It wasn't my film, I was just doing a job in it'."
"If you only do issue-based drama, you can become a boring wanker. Fluff is good, fluff has its place."
"The thing the film [Keane] illustrates is how easy it is for any of us healthy, functioning middle-class types to tip over -- it's five short steps to welfare cheques and homeless nights and drug abuse, and before you know it you've slipped right through the cracks in society. ... It's very easy to walk round, steer clear of, patronise ... show animosity to the wino on the street, the guy or woman with needle tracks up their arm. I've lived in Camden for five years and your first response is: 'Go and do it somewhere else', which is completely unhelpful. We're always told, 'Don't give to people begging because you'll only feed the next fix', which is clearly what happens, but there is an act of some compassion just by giving the money. The only real answer is to devote your time to a charity and do it through a formal system. Doing the film taught me a sense of sympathy and understanding that I perhaps have been slow to have before."
"Dramatically it's always more interesting to conceal rather than reveal things."
"The treatment of people with red hair is inexplicable. Let's not even go there, it's so boring. I've tried to explain it cogently and rationally and objectively, but every time I do I just feed the argument. I don't know where it all comes from, but it certainly exists. In the future, I've promised myself to look into the history of it. But until then, I've sworn not to say any more on the subject."
A cricket ball broke his nose as a child, so he couldn't breath through it. "Before I had it operated on I used to stand on stage with my mouth slightly open. Perhaps it made me look a little gormless."
Lewis was born in London in 1971 to an upper-middle-class family. His mother was an actress (later on the board of the Royal Court theatre); his father made his fortune as an insurance broker. "We come from quite a loud, garrulous, curious, challenging family. At Sunday lunches the volume levels were cranked right up. If you didn't get your point out, saying it loudly, quickly and succinctly, you didn't get it in, so there was a lot of confidence bred from that."
When he was eight he was sent to boarding school in Sussex. "Each summer we staged a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. I used to sing the solos. I had a sweet treble voice." From there he moved to Eton. Age 16, he formed his own theatre company and put on a production of Nicholas Nickleby. It was a blissful time, but he acknowledges, "when you go to boarding school at an early age, you learn to cope very quickly with your environment. That can create extraordinary social dexterity, but it can also leave you rather emotionally arrested, even if you appear superficially sophisticated and poised. If someone sees through that to who you really are, then those are... interesting moments." It's significant that he chose to go into acting, which he describes as "resolutely un-old-school-tie-ish. There's nothing 'inherited' about being an actor. You sink or swim."
"It might sound smarmy but I enjoy nothing more than allowing a woman of an older generation through the door first, or getting up and offering her a seat. And I always cross the street late at night if I sense my presence is making a woman nervous. I don't care if anyone finds it quaint. In fact if I heard anyone suggest that it was patronising, I would find it hard not to laugh in their face."
As a teenager he was part of the generation growing up with feminism. "I remember feeling this overwhelming sense that one had to be sensitive to female preoccupations. Which is good and a natural part of one's education, but there was a sense that we were all trying too hard to find out exactly how to be 'new men'. Meanwhile, feminism was going through what many feminists would agree was a bit of a wrong turning: there was this idea that you had to behave like a man and be a ball-breaker to be empowered. Whereas today I think women realise they can use their own femininity, their own womanliness even, in a very powerful way."
"I think Helen is the best actress of her generation, but I'm biased. She's got a very rare ability to play leading women as total character parts."
Thoughtful, self-deprecating, he worries about spending too much time in a fantasy world. "Why do you think so many actors are only half-developed people? It's very easy when you're a young actor to have these intense, explosive friendships for short periods of time, because you can control what's shown of you. Then you go on to your next job and reinvent yourself again. I think it's important to find something constant." One senses the influence of McCrory.
He openly admits he got himself into a state of anxiety making Keane. "I found if I looked behind myself enough times, and found people staring at me, it made me feel uncomfortable. I did slightly scare myself. Mind you, I talk to myself anyway," he laughs.
Lewis has known grief. His mother died in a car accident in India in 2001. "My mother's death is the single most important thing that's happened to me in my life." Did he access her loss for Keane? "It's completely different, that's what I mean when I say that, for me, acting comes from the imagination," he says firmly. "It's just my mind applied to the script and I imagine the rest. But," he adds softening, "if you've had tragedy in your life, you need to assume it has affected you in subliminal ways, and that will inform the way you judge your next performance. You might just get to a point in your life where you think: 'Life's too damn serious and too important to be doing fluff'."
As for Eton, he thinks the reputation for poshness is misleading. "The ruling toffs of old have now been integrated so much into the very middle-class professions of the media. My generation are the first to move into acting and film and I think -- maybe it's naïve -- that's helped lessen any prejudice towards Eton."

THE GUARDIAN, 09/15/06:

"A natural part of aging is discovering your limitations, and it's painful. It's taken me quite a long time to realise I have any. They've never become apparent."
"[Being an actor is] very self regarding."

THE HERALD, 09/22/06:

Damian Lewis has just ordered a drink and is attacking a bowl of nuts as if he hasn't eaten for days. In fact, given that his fiancée, actress Helen McCrory, has just been in hospital giving birth to their first child -- a daughter called Manon -- that may be the case. "They're coming home from the hospital tonight," he says, "so I'm scrubbing floors. ... I'm in a daze of love and happiness. I imagine it's like being on drugs."
"If there's a message in the film [Keane], it's that it's not far for any of us to fall if a series of events happen that you can't cope with. Before you know it you might be self-medicating in public toilets, whether it's having sex with random strangers or taking coke on the quiet -- it'd be easy to become delusional, paranoid and anxious. ... Being a part of this film helped me understand what these people are going through. The majority of them are in great pain. I'm not going to pretend I've been a regular at the local soup kitchen as a result of having done this, but it's certainly given me a greater understanding."
Much of the hype around him came in the wake of Band of Brothers, which saw producers Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg hand-pick him. "That gave me an opportunity to go to Hollywood -- and I chose not to. I never aspired to be a film star."
The son of a successful north London reinsurance broker, Lewis's rather privileged upbringing meant that he was fighting the foppish Hugh Grant stereotype from the off. He used to keep his time at Eton quiet in certain circles, believing "you can't be really posh and be an interesting actor", which may account for why the edges have been shaved off his accent and for his attraction to characters such as Keane. Having begun acting at his prep school in Sussex, his time at Eton saw him play Squeers in a production of Nicholas Nickleby, to much acclaim. He ditched university in favour of enrolling in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. "At university, the social aspect didn't really interest me," he says. "It felt a bit contained. It didn't feel like it would be enough. Still, if it hadn't worked out, I don't know what I'd have done. There's nowhere to fall back on in the acting world. You either make it or you don't."
As unlikely as this seems in light of his huge successes, Lewis has shored himself up against such an eventuality by joining a production company, Picture Farm Ltd, with his younger brother, Gareth, who has written and directed Lewis's forthcoming film, The Baker. ... The enterprising Lewis, who began a small theatre company when he was 16, is also a producer on the film. "I find this a lot harder than acting. It comes far less naturally to me. It feels like hard work -- and I try to avoid that if I can."
"We had an Iranian friend across the road called Mazdak -- and myself, Gareth and him made up these little plays, and we'd ask our parents to sit down and watch them," he recalls. "Gareth and I used to have these alter egos called Bob and Charlie. We both had Grifter bikes and we would bomb around the streets, solving crimes as our fictional characters. It was a lot of fun."
I ask him what he admires about [Helen] as an actress. "Everything," he replies.
On how he plans to enjoy fatherhood in the near future: "I can't wait," he says. "I'm hungry. You have to be patient and enjoy each moment as it happens. You get so excited by the moment you're in that you want to get to the next one too quickly. I wonder what my daughter will be like in three weeks."
Determined to carry on acting in all three mediums -- theatre, television and film -- Lewis says there's no great master plan to his career. ... "There's nothing pious in what I'm doing. I'm just as vain as the next person. But I want to try to be great at what I do, before being known."

MY SPACE (from MARMALADE MAGAZINE), 11/08/06:

"I try to be diverse in the roles I choose, there are too many limitations on what it means to play a lead role. Actors who are less conventional end up playing the smaller character roles, when actually it would be far more interesting to see those sorts of actors and actresses in the lead roles."
"I choose roles that challenge me as an actor. The best scripts are always hard fought over and money is always a factor."
"Acting can be very therapeutic, like meditating. You go somewhere and you imagine yourself as part of a world that is not yours. You escape. Even if it's into a chaotic or tragic world, it still has a meditative quality. It still has the quality of removing yourself from the realities of everyday life."
"Sometimes the best way to fix something is to break it. I think it's essential. There can't be too much form. In order to be creative you're constantly breaking in a constructive way. Anarchy is fine as long as there's a doctrine in place for something else. If it's smashing things for smashing sake, then I have no time for that."
"Once you're in character you're so focused and blinkered it's like playing football, you zone out everything around you and you just concentrate for ninety minutes. When I worked with Larry Kadsdan on Dreamcatcher, he said actors were like athletes, you sit around in trailers for a long time and then you come out after being delayed for six or seven hours, it's quarter to midnight and you might have been sleeping, but you have to be primed. Like a hundred meters sprinter, you've just got to hit it and be focused and concentrated. It's a good analogy. Band Of Brothers was like a marathon, filming for eight months."
"There are celebrities and actors and I consider myself the latter."
"I think Philip Seymour Hoffman is a really interesting actor, I'd love to work with Al Pacino and Merrill Streep. I don't think I'd shy away from anything; Ian McKellen did Coronation Street and loved it! It didn't do his reputation any harm!"

CAMBRIDGE FILM TRUST, 05/30/07:

"I don't consider myself a 'Method' actor. Although, [Keane] is as close, perhaps, as I've ever come to staying in character, taking it home."

HARPER'S BAZAAR (UK EDITION), 05/07:

What is your favourite "guilty pleasure" film? "Grace."
What is your favourite scene in Some Like It Hot? "Lemmon dancing with a flower in his mouth."

THE OBSERVER, 06/10/07:

Big break: "I've never had a big break -- more lots of mini-breaks."
Career high: "I've always loved being at the National. It is so romantic cycling across Waterloo Bridge."
Career low: "That cornflakes ad."
Would love to work with: "Cheek by Jowl, Shared Experience and Complicite. I'd like to work with Mark Rylance as well."

CELEBRITY GOSSIP, 07/18/07:

"I like to have a couple of dialect lessons just before I start each show, but after that, I find it's very easy. I just stay in it. I feel confident. I stay in my American accent when I'm surrounded by American people, and it's easier for me to do that then go back and forth from English to American ... (Switches to English accent) ... so no. I find it pretty easy."
Why did you want to do an American TV series? And do you have any theories why so many British actors want to do TV series? "I couldn't get an English one. ... No, I'm just joking. ... Well, I wanted to do -- well, I've said no frequently to American TV series. It's a big commitment, a potential six years if you're on a hit show. I love this script. It always starts with the script. I met Rand [Ravich], find him to be an intelligent, witty, talented, intensely annoying individual. And we -- and I trust the scripts will remain that way, will continue in that vein. I think he and Far have a great partnership going. I think it really can be an extremely interesting series. I think you can do things in longform that you often can't do or cannot do at all in two hours of feature-film making. And I read a lot of unbelievably crappy film scripts. So it was just nice to get a decent script. And why are there a lot of Brits over here? Because you keep asking us. Thank you very much."

DESERET MORNING NEWS, 08/10/07:

On performing with an American accent: "I like to have a couple of dialect lessons just before I start, but after that, I find it's very easy."
"Why are there a lot of Brits over here? Because you keep asking us. Thank you very much. And it's the center of the world's film industry. ... You've had foreigners infiltrating, I'm afraid, ever since (the movie business) started a hundred years ago. It's where you can come and do very good work. It's where the most talented people come, and it's where they're rewarded well for what they do. Whether you're Brit, French, Swedish ... it doesn't matter. And that's why it's exciting to be here and to work here."

THE BAKER - PRODUCTION NOTES - BANKSIDE FILMS, 08/07:

Like most young boys, brothers Gareth and Damian Lewis enjoyed bike rides. After school and on the weekends they would get on their bikes -- in this case Grifters -- and go exploring, winding their ways through the streets around their childhood home. Growing up in Abbey Road, North London, the brothers would spend their time conjuring up characters and embarking upon specific adventures, solving crimes and charting new territories.
"Gareth and I are really close. We grew up together, playing and we had these two characters, Bob and Charlie, I don't know where that came from but we used to run around on our Grifters. We loved those bikes, and sure BMXs were cooler, but I wouldn't have changed it."
On working with his brother, Gareth, on The Baker: "This was always going to be an untried process. But because we have this company that we're partners in, Picture Farm, we sat in an office quite a lot together. You tend to light each other's fuse so quickly that you can't back off in time, sometimes. So we've worked out when to back off. When you respect someone's talent it's a lot easier, so even if we didn't get on I'd always respect his talent, because the script is great. It's funny, and it's a real actors' script, with great characters and funny situations. Working with him as director and me as actor, we did a bit of that in New York. It was a film school and we worked on a short film. Overall though this has been pretty easy."
"I think Gareth always wanted me in the movie; or he's far too polite to say so if he didn't. Gareth wrote it when we we're living together, and we always had this romantic notion that we'd make the film together but there was no real sense that that would ever happen back then. Then it came into sharper focus the last two years when the script changed. It just started to form a little bit; before, for the sake of the family it was just two brothers saying, ‘yeah we'll make a film together'. And the family saying, ‘oh, that would be so lovely,' and what have you ... but I have always been attached to it and I really wanted to get seen; I've always thought it's funny and it was a great role for me to play."
Both Gareth and Damian spent a great deal of time in Wales when they were growing up, thanks to their patriotic Welsh father.
"I'm quite romantic about my Celtic roots. And although I went to school in England, grew up in London, we've always been made aware of Welsh roots by dad, who's been very keen to stay in touch with his Welshness, even though he can't speak more than five words of Welsh! It's London-Welsh, I guess! But certainly some locations in the film come directly from the local villages and towns in West Wales near where we near where we live."

LOS ANGELES TIMES, 09/16/07:

Lewis, best known for "Band of Brothers," "The Forsyte Saga" and the BBC drama "Friends and Crocodiles," was volunteering for Christian Aid, one of the U.K.'s oldest charities, when he got a call from NBC asking if he'd be interested in the part. He said he agonized over the opportunity, since working in Los Angeles could mean lengthy separations from his new family. Lewis' wife, actress Helen McCrory, is pregnant with their second child. "We were discussing the possibility of moving out of London for a few years," he said. "I've grown up all my life in Northern European cities. It rains a lot. The skies are gray. It might be fun to go live on the Pacific Ocean." NBC has ordered 12 scripts and will presumably await audience reaction before ordering the remaining nine. Until then, Lewis said he'll be renting his place on the Pacific.
Lewis, who has much experience as a Shakespearean actor, said the TV scripts he has been given to read lately are of higher quality than the film scripts. "I like long-form drama. There's the opportunity to do something over a period of time," he said. Steven Spielberg's "Band of Brothers," for example, was able to achieve much more than his film "Saving Private Ryan," Lewis said. Lewis said he found the "Life" scripts and the role of Crews particularly strong. After talking with producers, Lewis said he knew he would be working with an "intelligent, talented and creative" group. As long as they were given creative freedom, he said, he concluded "it could be a happy experience."
While some, including Lewis, have joked that British actors may cost less, the actor chalked the trend up to coincidence. British actors are often offered roles but aren't available to accept them, he said. "It was a coincidence that everyone said yes. Then a good proportion of those who said yes had their projects picked up. "Talent has been coming from abroad for 100 years," he said. Hollywood isn't just the center of an American industry, he pointed out. "It's the center of a world industry. Talent from around the world will pass through here at some point. "The large numbers of British actors says more about the strength of television," he said. "Television has changed massively in quality in the last 10 years as quality films struggle to be made. The lines and boundaries have blurred between film and TV."
Lewis' latest role has already been likened by some critics to Hugh Laurie's idiosyncratic genius doctor in "House." The character also recalls Kyra Sedgwick's offbeat LAPD detective in "The Closer" or Vincent D'Onofrio's eccentric whiz in "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." But Lewis had only one response to such speculation. "Comparisons," he said, paraphrasing Shakespeare, "are odious."

INSIDE PULSE, 09/26/07:

"You can never do enough research. ... I always go about researching a role ... through literature, through videotape, documentaries, footage, and interviews with people who might have had some experience there. Research is always important. I enjoy that aspect of it so I always do it."
"I've have a very confused and complex psyche as a result of some strange and extraordinarily profound events in my early childhood, which I can't go into now. But I hope I bring some craft, which I've learned along the way; and a little bit of instinct to the role [of Charlie Crews in Life]. It's fantastic. It's actually a really great privilege to have the creator of the show and the producer of the show be the writer as well. Often you find as an actor you want to get access to the writers. With no disrespect to directors and/or producers, it's often the quickest and most direct way to get information about the script. So having Rand around daily or at the end of the phone has made the whole job a lot easier and has enabled me to access Charlie Crews that much quicker. I think we have a really good relationship, and it's in both of our interests to maintain that. We were talking the other day about the symbiotic relationship of writer and actor over the course of a TV series because I think you both find the character and each one of you informs the other person. It goes hand and glove. You can't work without the other. So I suppose if the relationship is not functioning well, that could be a hindrance; but if it does work well, then hopefully it broadens your bases with which to work from and it enriches the process. I think Rand and I have that and that's actually what's tremendously exciting about going forward into episode 10, 11, 12, where we are heading now, and hopefully into episode 17, 18, 20, 22 is just where we can go with it. Neither of us fully know the full potential of that. Rand, I hope, is at least steps ahead of me at this point."
On becoming an actor: "It's pretty conventional actually, I'm afraid. I was acting at school. I loved doing it at school. I went to what you would consider a slightly antiquated and quaint little English boarding school, slightly Dickensian in its outlook. It was about 1980 and they used to put on a Gilbert & Sullivan musical every year; and I that's really what I was doing. I was singing in Gilbert & Sullivan musicals slightly eccentrically for four or five years and I loved it. And then when I was about 16 at my secondary school, I got to go with some friends and we set up a little theater company and put on a show. And I went to drama school. We have a more comprehensive system of drama schools, three-year diploma schools at home. They're now full-degree courses, but they weren't back then. I did three years at Roder and came out, and was lucky enough just to get going rightaway. I did all that horrible stuff, getting an agent, and then I was doing classical theater, a lot of classical theater; Royal Shakespeare Company and I worked on Broadway; and I was doing that. And then I suppose in terms of you guys having any kind of idea of who I am, it really happened with Band of Brothers in 2001. So the last six, seven years. And I've been doing TV and film and theater and radio and mixing it up ever since then. That's what I do."
"When I'm on set I speak in an American accent all day. I just stay there. It's easier for me. It keeps me closer to the character. So one of our props guys, in fact, was a Sheriff in LA County, Kern County, and he flew helicopters for a long time. I speak a lot with him daily. We have a technical advisor. I speak with him daily. When the SWAT team guys come on for scenes when we need SWAT team and they're all retired officers, I speak to them. It's just putting yourself next to those people who have had the experience and you just rub up against them and you hope some of it rubs off on you. That is often the best way of doing it. You can read as much as you want; you can watch as much documentary footage, but just standing in front of a guy who's done it is always the most helpful."
On the pressure of starring in a prime-time television show, and whether he think his performance could "make or break" this show: "Pretty much. It keeps my enormous and very fragile ego in check for a period of time, which is nice. It's every actor's dream to be offered a role of this magnitude, of this size; and the responsibility that comes with it. So I love it. The more complex answer is, yes it's exhausting; yes, the hours are long; and it can create problems within production. Just how the hell do you keep your lead actor going? You want him on screen, but you don't want to kill him or her in the process. In terms of what I think is what you're angling at a little bit as well, in terms of maintaining an audiences' interest in one person. There are many, many examples over he course of time where there's been a single lead that people who fall in love with from Rockford to Kojak to Magnum to House, as you said. ... Often with what you might consider to be a conventional procedural, there's not much of an other story going on often and it's a little cursory. It's not particularly compelling. I think the reason is because it's very satisfying to have a crime solved each week and seeing it done well, and it's fun. I know I enjoy that as a viewer trying to work out who did it and why they did it. But the bigger and further-reaching story is the more personal story that centers around Crews, which is this conspiracy story. And I think that's the grown-up section of this show. I would come back each week to find out how his investigation into the biggest crime of his life, which is him. That's the biggest case he has going. It's his own case, what the hell happened?"
On his intense roles and whether he's that intense in real life: "Well 10 years of boarding school in the English countryside, it's like being institutionalized, a lot of repressed emotion in there; and really it's just therapy. You might take that seriously and maybe it is true. Maybe I haven't really fully examined that. I do answer this question quite a lot. I've done a lot of comedy. But I'm assuming you're referring to Dick Winters in Band of Brothers, or possibly Soames Forsyte, in The Forsyte Saga, of which I know is played well out here on PBS. I think my view on that is that if you capture the essence of someone really conflicted at the heart of a serious drama with elements of tragedy in it possibly, I think they register with an audience just that much more strongly than lighter comic roles. I think you have to do sort of 10 comic roles for every sort of strategy role that you play. But I think if I am attracted to those sorts of characters, intense characters or serious characters, I think it's not so much that they're intense and serious. I think I'm interested in people who are conflicted. That's the most interesting character to play. It allows you to explore subtext. It means there is a subtext and those things that are in Rand's writing are plenty. There's all of that, but there's also a wonderful comic touch in this and in Charlie Crews, and there really is the potential with Charlie Crews to play everything, to play the whole range of human behavior, which after all is all acting is. At its best it's just behavioral. So I'm really just drawn to good writing, what's concealed and not revealed. Perhaps that's a particularly English thing, as the English don't let their emotions out that much. But it's those things, which are concealed, and I think it's always far more interesting to watch an actor try not to reveal something than that moment of revelation. So I think also there's that in Charlie Crews and in Rand's writing too."
On choosing to come to the American market in a television series: " Wow, the American market. You just came right out and said it. I believe this is a creative and an artistic endeavor. Would I have come out? No. I touched on it briefly earlier. It's a big commitment to say yes to a potentially long-running TV series. It's a big commitment, seven months of the year, possibly nine, possibly even five or six years. You don't know. Ever since I did Band of Brothers, I guess I've been on certain lists. I've never said yes to one of these things before because timing wasn't right; but also, I never read a script that grabbed me enough. This script is really, really good, and the role is really, really good. I intuited as much as I could for over a few conversations with Rand and Far, his partner, what kind of guys they were. I'm sure they would tell you the same thing; and as best you can, you make an instinctive decision based on a few conversations, a few meetings. I just thought Rand and Far were my kind of people and that they were truly artistic and truly creative, and we're going to continue to be as creative and artistic as they're allowed to be in, as you call it, the American market. I've been dipping in and out of the American market in films and TV for the last five or six years. It's just nothing has landed in quite the same way that Band of Brothers landed. Let's hope this does the same thing."

HOLLYWOOD.COM, 09/26/07:

"I love playing a cop because I go to the shooting range and I get to drive around in that fast car. It's wish fulfillment. It's the same way that James Bond is the guy that all the guys want to be and all the girls want to go to bed with. There should be an element of that with Charlie Crews. I say that hesitantly because I'm now playing him, but there should be an element of that."
"[American police are] very different [from British police]. They had some bad experiences having placements going around in patrol cars. They're very reluctant now, but I was able to speak to LAPD officers directly. I've read a lot of Joseph Wambaugh and I'd read and looked at video footage. The History Channel has a thing called The History of the LAPD, and that kind of stuff. It's secondhand stuff, but you get a good sense of it and then it's your imagination that kicks in."
"It's great fun peeling an orange."
"I did 10 years of boarding school. That was my incarceration!"
"[Charlie Crews] doesn't look for significance and meaning in everything the way that we live our lives, which in turn makes us anxious and neurotic. I think that is a fantasy state for a lot of us that we would love to be in, just to be free of the bullshit. I think what's crucially important is that everything I do in the character and the way that he's written continue to be firmly rooted in reality, in his reality."
"I've thought [my character out] far ahead. I was reading another article with Glenn Close, who's doing her show for FX, and it was about how she likes to be in control of her material. She's a classically trained actress and she likes to know her character arc -- and she's got no idea where her character is going. [She] said that she's had to just give herself over to the writers and it's been quite liberating. The writers don't know where they're going either. So actually, if you wanted me to tell you how the first season is going to end, no one could tell you, but do we know what's going on in the next six or seven episodes? Do we know where that could then possibly take us? The answer is yes."

ASSOCIATED PRESS, 10/04/07:

Although he's known to many viewers for his acclaimed performance as an American war hero in the HBO miniseries Band Of Brothers, well, "that's not TV, it's HBO," Lewis says with a laugh.
On his and Helen's decision to relocate to California with their growing family for the series: "We thought, we can have a lot of fun getting out of London and living in California for a few years," says Lewis. "I'd never imagined committing to a project where they could option my services for a five-year period, but then circumstances changed, and it became a lifestyle decision as well as a career decision." Even so, the uncertainties of a new series aren't lost on him. "I could be at home at Christmas," he says with a laugh.
"I feel very lucky to be doing [Life]," says Lewis. "Although I do believe in art for art's sake, there's also something really satisfying about being in the mainstream. And there's nothing more mainstream than American network TV. It's been an interesting experience. ... I enjoy understanding how systems work, and this is one of the most well-oiled and rigid machines you can be part of. I get a kick out of, and am frustrated by, it. But the antidote to this is to go and make an independent film for six or seven weeks, where you have a growing, artistic experience that nobody sees."
But what kind of long-term satisfaction can he hope for, playing Crews for a five- or six-year hitch? "In terms of creatively being engaged with a project for that long, I have no idea, and it fills me with great tension. It might be difficult." Then, breaking into a mellow smile, he adds, "We shall see. We shall see."

TV GUIDE, 10/22/07:

Did you really grow up on London's fabled Abbey Road? "I did. It was a five-minute walk to the Beatles' recording studio. But there were no sightings."
You went to Eton, arguably England's most famous boarding school. Did it prep you to play an ex-prisoner? "All those places have to be run with a certain military rigor, but for the most part, I enjoyed myself. Weirdly."
Did you start acting at school? "Yes. By the time I was 12, I'd done five Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. It was a very English introduction to theater."
You went on to a couple of years at the Royal Shakespeare Company. What's a favorite role from those days? "Wittipol in "The Devil Is An Ass," a Ben Johnson play. I spent most of it in drag."
What was your audition like with Steven Spielberg for his HBO WWII miniseries Band Of Brothers? "They asked me to fly in to L.A., where I met with Tom Hanks. I was so excited that I went partying with friends, got really drunk and stayed out all night. I got a call at 8am and was told that Steven Spielberg wanted to see me in a couple of hours! After drinking coffee after coffee and having three showers to sober up, I went into a slightly anxious and sweaty audition. But it all went well."
Clearly, since you became the star. Was it a breakthrough role? "It was. I was the star of a hit show that has played all around the world. And I feel very proud to be a part of that. But it didn't have that auspicious a start because the second episode came out the week of 9/11 and people didn't have much of an appetite for that sort of drama."
Band Of Brothers, Shakespeare, The Forsyte Saga on BBC. How does playing a cop in Life compare to all that? "It's a huge kick. When I was growing up in England, we had Kojak; Hill Street Blues; Magnum, P.I.; Columbo -- so being a detective solving the crime each week for me is about as cool as it gets. Apart from being Clint Eastwood."
Your wife, the actress Helen McCrory, played Cherie Blair in "The Queen," and you've played Tony Blair in a TV series. Have you met England's former first couple? "I've been to 10 Downing Street a couple of times and sat and chatted with both Tony and Cherie. Helen did a fantastic job playing Cherie's skeptical nature in the movie."
You have a daughter. Is it tough raising a family with two actors working in different locations around the world? "Not right now because Helen is pregnant, so she won't be doing much work for a bit. We've all come out to California, live at the beach, and we're having a gorgeous time."
Lewis' great-grandfather Lord Dawson of Penn was King George V's physician. "There was a bit of scandal surrounding him because he delivered the king's final dose of morphine (before he died)," Lewis says. That's not the only title in Lewis' family -- his grandfather was Sir Ian Bowater, a Lord Mayor of London, 1969-70.

BOSTON NOW, 11/14/07:

Why he stays in Charlie's voice when on the set of Life: "I find it easier for my small brain to just stay as an American all day. Just when I'm on set, not when I'm at home. That would be weird (laughing)."
What he was doing when he got the script for Life: "What was I doing? I was at home, chilling out because we'd just had our first baby, talking to my wife about what it would be like to move out of London for a few years. 'Wouldn't that be fun, go and live abroad?' We were just kind of fantasizing about it and then I got a phone call from NBC saying, 'We'd love you to be in this show, here's the script.' I read it and thought it was fantastic. ... It was never my intention to go and do network TV in particular but I thought it was a great show. ... They just offered me the role. ... That is nice. Obviously that should be enough, just to have your ego tickled like that, in such a satisfying way. It's always pleasing to be offered things outright because it shows passion and commitment. It's always a good sign.
On how what he's told about the story in advance: "They've been very good at telling me general ideas about where it's roughly going. Sometimes I think they don't want to reveal anything but sometimes I think they don't know anymore. They're discovering it as they go along, too. There's already been an example of a storyline that's been developed and they thought, 'how do we tie that in with where we are going?', so there's a certain amount of thinking on your feet from writers, producers, and actors. For my part, as long as I am absolutely on the same page and have the same research and references that the creators have, I am happy. What happens going forward is happening in real time, so I am happy to get the scripts and be enthralled and excited by the development of the stories the same way everybody else is. It's important I get them a few days ahead of everybody else so I can be prepared (laughing)."

MEDIA BLVD MAGAZINE, 12/05/07:

On the production status of Life: "We're not filming anymore. We were affected by the strike. We were able to complete 11 episodes, but the order was for 13. When the strike's over, now that we've been picked up, we'll go back and complete those. And then, we will continue to film the back nine. The hours are intense in network TV. I was warned about it, and it's true, so it's been a lovely little break. But, I'm equally glad that the issues are being resolved and then we can all get back to work."
On staying in California for the winter: "Have you seen the weather in England this time of year? I'm putting sun cream on and walking about in my shorts."
On family life between Los Angeles and London: "We've moved over for the duration of the job, for as long as that works. We're all here, backwards and forwards. We'll follow the work like gypsies."
On getting the role of Charlie Crews: "I just got a phone call and I read the script. I liked it very much, so I said yes. And, I was in L.A. a couple of months later, filming the pilot. It was as simple as that. In terms of Americans playing Brits, and Brits playing Americans, the industry is a global industry now. I just think you want the people that are best for each particular role. And, I was flattered by their request for me, and that they wanted me for the role. It seems to be working out, so it's great. And, it frees up us actors hugely to be able to play in different compliments the way we can now. I'm enjoying it hugely."
On accents: "I always work with a voice coach, before every new job I do. And, I actually just stay in an American accent once I'm over here, surrounded by Americans. I find that it makes it a lot easier for me to work in an American accent. I don't have to make those transitions from British to American, in and out, during the day. I research each role I play and I had a lot of videotape to look at for this, but there was no one accent that I based it on. I knew there were some sounds I wanted to avoid that might make one sound East Coast, and there were sounds that I wanted to put in there that had just a hint of West Coast. He shouldn't sound like a surfer dude. So, in the end, I ended up with this generic, Midwestern-sounding American accent that should be easy on everyone's ears. It shouldn't jar. It should be believable."
How does he manage work with two very young children? And how will he and Helen juggle their two very successful careers that sometimes will have them working long distances from one another? "We've been asking ourselves that exact same question, and we have no answers yet. But, it's blissful. The kids are fantastic. You don't sleep and you clear up a lot of vomit. Who could want anything more?"
On fruit: "I'm a fruit pusher. You can find me in downtown L.A. just dealing fruit on a corner. I eat a lot of fruit in the summer. I just do. So, it's a happy coincidence that Rand wrote this quirky character, eating a lot of fruit. In fact, I was coming back from catering one day with a big bowl of fruit and some guy stopped me and went, "Are you insane? Don't you eat enough fruit as it is?" I just like to eat fruit when it's hot, and it's always hot in L.A., even through January, February and March, so I guess I'll be okay."
On how he relaxes at home between the long hours of filming Life: " I do a lot of tip-toeing around, when my two young children are asleep. I'm getting through watching the first season of The Wire, which I never saw and I love. I'm also watching Mad Men. And then, I TiVo pretty much anything on Turner Classic Movies."

METRO, 12/10/07:

On living in California while filming Life: "I like it because I know I'm going to leave it. Part of our decision to come out here was the desire to get out of our slightly smug and complacent, middle-class, liberal North London existence. I miss it but I just thought it would be brilliant to do something else for a few years. We really enjoy it out here -- we have a great house down on the seaside in Venice, it's a beautiful sunny day and it's not quite the cultural desert that people say it is. It can't not be interesting -- your first year or two somewhere -- because there is so much to discover. It's an adventure for us."
On being recognized when he's out and about: "Everyone recognises me from Band Of Brothers -- ever since I have been here, people come and congratulate me for winning the war. I have to tell them that it wasn't actually me!"

THIS IS NOTTINGHAM, 12/12/07:

"I'm panic-stricken. You desperately want what you are in to be successful, and then at the same time, I am part of a machine that is much bigger than I am."
"The hours [filming Life] are brutalising -- they work 15 to 16 hours a day here and it is part of the culture here, so no one moans about it. People wish we had shorter days, but no one moans about it because that is what we do. I keep pointing out that we shoot six or seven pages a day in British TV and it takes 12 hours, but that normally falls on deaf ears. I draw blank looks and then I shut up. We'll be shooting here through until May."
"It's fascinating to be at the heart of the system, how it works, and the daily struggle is to retain and keep some sort of artistic fire whilst being gently bludgeoned with a telephone directory by corporate Hollywood," he laughs. "I guess that's part of the skill you acquire out here."

METRO, 12/14/07:

On working 16 hours a day while having a newborn and one-year-old at home: "The sleepless nights are murderous. I would moan and moan and moan if it wasn't for the fact generations of people have done it before me. I'm just full of respect and admiration for people who have done it."
Is it worth it? "It's unbelievable -- having those two together. I feel like the luckiest man."
He and Helen decided on the name Gulliver after they just "kept coming back to it. If he gets beaten up for the rest of his life -- we'll only have ourselves to blame. But we think he can handle it."

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