The Lewis Saga

There's another smart Brit playing a gritty American cop on US television -- Damian Lewis is the lead in Life, and it's coming over here. Lina Das talks to the Band Of Brothers star about moving his young family to L.A., the Hollywood work ethic, and his fan club, the 'Damian Bunnies'.

by Lina Das, Evening Standard Magazine, October 10, 2008

It's probably fair to say that while The Polo Lounge of the swanky Beverly Hills Hotel is used to playing host to actors and their various entourages, even it was slightly unprepared for the one accompanying Damian Lewis. Well-accustomed to ladies who lunch, stars (Al Pacino and Cat Deeley are both dining in the restaurant, though sadly not together) and Hollywood players who talk very loudly, they seem, however, momentarily at a loss when Damian enters with his wife, the actress Helen McCrory, their two children, Manon, two, and 11-month-old Gulliver, and an impossibly large bag presumably containing lots of baby paraphernalia. Helen, looking incredibly petite yet understandably frazzled, plonks herself down, and after we retire to a separate table to do the interview, Damian earns top husband marks by asking the waitress to deliver a glass of calming champagne to his wife, only to promptly lose them again for forgetting what she is wearing.

"This is for the lady in ... oh, I can't remember what top she's in, but pink bottoms, I think. Anyway, she's sitting right round the corner. Tell her it's from a man who saw her across the restaurant."

One suspects that it is one of the few occasions that the couple have had any time to sit down, albeit at separate tables. A second series of Life -- the American TV show in which Damian plays the lead role, and which is coming to British screens this month -- has been commissioned and therefore he, Helen and their two children have moved from London to L.A. while the series is being filmed. A gruelling filming schedule at the best of times, it must be doubly so with two children under the age of two and as Damian, the star of TV series such as Band Of Brothers and The Forsyte Saga, attests: "I work a 70- or 75-hour week every week and we were both a little bit ambushed by that." One senses, though that Ms. McCrory is made of sturdy stuff and that Damian, equally, is not slow to appreciate it. He asks the waitress if his wife liked receiving the champagne. "She looked like she was expecting it," comes the reply.

His character in Life, Charlie Crews -- and by extension Damian himself -- is rather fit. Tall and muscular, his famously ginger locks bristling in the sunshine, not for nothing was the 37-yaer-old named "sexiest redhead on the planet" by one overwrought critic. His large female fan base in Britain appears to have its counterpart in the States, too. "I have a group of fans who call themselves the Damian Bunnies," he says, not a little chuffed. "They'll go online and chat about various things I've done and show up at film festivals and things. I'll ask them where they're from and they'll go: 'Colorado,' and I'll go, 'Thank you, but that's insane to come out all this way.' I did have a problem with one person recently, though, a bad experience, but it was dealt with by security, luckily."

One wonders what the Damian Bunnies would make of the object of their affections now, as today he is dressed down in jeans, flip-flops and a holey T-shirt (the holes are intentional, symmetrical and look terribly expensive at that). And yet despite having mastered the L.A. casual look, he says, "I still feel overdressed whenever I go on set. I keep going to work wearing jeans and a T-shirt and my co-star Sarah [Shahi] will go" 'Wow! You dressed up today,' to which I can only reply: 'No, it just seems that way because you're wearing pyjamas, so stop being so weird and L.A. about it.'"

The whole L.A. experience can be a disconcerting one for British actors trying their luck abroad. Hugh Laurie, now said to be earning over £225,000 for each episode of House, has been vocal in the past about the difficulties of trying to balance his working life in the States with a family life back in Britain. But Damian, with a young family, faced a different situation. "I'd always resisted moving out here but then my personal circumstances changed," he says. "I got married, had a baby girl [Manon] and bought a lovely, rambling family house in North London. I felt that some fantasy of mine was being realised with my beautiful wife, my children, my lifestyle and my friends, and I suppose I was becoming quite fearful of complacency or smugness. So when I got offered this job, I looked at Helen and said: 'Is it crazy to up sticks and go live somewhere else for three or four years?' and it seemed like the perfect time to do it. I definitely don't want to educate my children here, so before settling in a city where we're likely to be for the most part of our lives, we decided it would be fun to live by the beach and have an adventure as a family before the kids go to school."

They rent a house by the beach in Santa Monica. "Although I know it's a cliché for Brits in California to live in Santa Monica, we just figured if we're going to travel 11 hours by plane and there's a possibility of living by the Pacific Ocean at the other end, then why not take it?" he asks, not unreasonably. "We live in a buckled, warped, sun-kissed old beach house and we love it. The kids run around with no clothes on, go swimming in the sea and we go walking along the beach. It's very different to walking down the street in Tufnell Park. There's no slogging about on the Tube in the rain and in terms of lifestyle, it's definitely easier. But when it comes to the hours I have to work per week, well, neither of us really expected it and even though I'm kept from my family a bit more than I would like to be, the moments we are together, we're together on a beach in the sunshine. If the show carries on being successful, then I'm out here for eight months of the year, but our mindset is very definitely one where we live in London but rent out here," he says.

"I don't consider myself an Angeleno at all and it's not my favourite place in the world by any stretch of the imagination," he adds, "but I'm here for business and that's pretty much what it is, and even though I only do projects where I feel the material is good, it's no secret that they pay much more here than in London. But the value system is so different. Their work ethic is incredible and I have so much respect for the people out here, but being here has made both Helen and myself feel much more European. The emphasis here is very much on work and on generating money, to the detriment of people's personal lives I think, and we'll move back to London in the end."

Despite possessing something of a reputation as a ladies' man in years gone by (he dated news reporter Katie Razzall and has been linked variously with Tamara Beckwith, actress Sophia Myles and Sex And The City star Kristin Davis), he appears both in awe of and besotted with Helen, whom he met during the 2004 Almeida production of Five Gold Rings. He admits that juggling the demands of two high-flying careers "has been a test", though the McCrory-Lewis union certainly appears to be one of very conscious mutual support. Helen, best known perhaps for her role as Cherie Blair in the Stephen Frears film The Queen and considered to be one of the finest theatrical actresses of her generation, is, says Damian, "very committed to the theatre and you just can't do that out here. We're kind of working things out as we go along, but I've read interviews with other couples who basically alternate the jobs they do and accommodate each other and, generally speaking, we try to do that. Helen did a film in South Africa last year [Flashbacks Of A Fool with Daniel Craig] and I went along as nanny to Manon for two weeks. Helen's an acclaimed actress and it would be inconceivable that she doesn't work, but there are always going to be times when the jobs cross over and we just want to minimise the times our two children are being looked after by a nanny."

It looks as though Helen's career will be taking a back seat to Damian's for a little while to come: the TV show Life has been a hit with both critics and audiences. Following the fortunes of Charlie Crews (played by Damian), an LAPD police officer who has been wrongly imprisoned for 12 years, the series picks up the story when Charlie is eventually released and compensated with a substantial payout and a return to his job on the police force. As well as solving crimes, Charlie tries to discover who framed him and also attempts to put into practice the teachings of Zen Buddhism that kept him relatively sane while in prison. It is a somewhat pick 'n' mix version of Buddhism, however, for while Charlie can announce that "I investigate things to complete my knowledge," it doesn't particularly stop him from driving fast cars, living in a palatial villa (albeit serenely) or bedding women in a not altogether spiritual fashion. He also eats fruit; lots and lots of fruit -- "which represents sunshine and sunbursts and the outside world that was denied to him for so long," says Damian.

It's quirky, fun and hugely entertaining, and Damian, complete with a convincing American accent, is clearly having a ball as the slightly odd Crews. "Well, I'd always been a bit wary of long-running TV shows," he says, "because you sign a long option on one and should it become a rip-roaring success, you find yourself doing it for the next ten years of your life if you're not careful. But it's so well-written and more than just a cop show in that it's pretty genre-bending. And as a character, Charlie's great to play. He's very much a larger-than-life character and in that sense, the series is much more reminiscent of the character-driven cop shows like Kojak, The Rockford Files and Columbo."

This wasn't, of course, Damian's first offer of a move to Hollywood. Six years ago when he landed a Golden Globe nomination for his lead role in the American series Band Of Brothers (executive-produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks), all sorts of doors were flung open for him, "and because the series was such a hit, I kind of ended up on the top of all these TV casting lists," he says. "I resisted it then because I wanted to keep my career quite eclectic and also because I just wasn't brave enough to come out here and do it on my own and risk the potential loneliness of that experience. I'll admit I was quite scared and now doing this with my family is a completely different experience altogether." Has he met up with Messers Hanks or Spielberg since he arrived? "Not recently, no, but about five years ago, I invited Tom to a birthday party I was having in L.A. and he said he couldn't make it. I had about 30 friends at this thing and I kept a tab running behind the bar and when I went to settle the bill, the guy said: 'It's been taken care of. Happy Birthday from Mr. Hanks.'" The chaps earwigging at the next table are suitably awed. "That was pretty stylish, I thought," he adds.

If Damian wanted his career to remain eclectic, then he has certainly achieved his aim. From his moving performance as a newlywed whose marriage is falling apart at the seams in the BBC drama Hearts And Bones, to his brutal, sympathetic (and, yes, terribly sexy) portrayal of Soames in the 2002 adaptation of The Forsyte Saga, to the raves he received for his performance in Ibsen's Pillars Of The Community at the National Theatre, he has been fiendishly hard to categorise -- a situation, one feels, that he encourages. "After Band Of Brothers, I was offered a slew of interesting jobs -- great TV, smaller films and big studio films and it was wonderful to mix it all up." The big studio film, an adaptation of the Stephen King novel Dreamcatcher "about aliens exploding out of people's bottoms," he paraphrases, was, he cheerfully admits, "a juggernaut of a flop, but it was still an interesting and fun experience making it."

In many ways performing was an obvious career path for Damian to pursue. His mother Charlotte, who died in 2000 in a car accident in India, was on the development boards of the Almeida and Royal Court theatres, and his father Watcyn "loved the theatre and was a very enthusiastic dancer, too," says Damian. "He lived in Chicago when he was younger and was in a nightclub, twirling some lady around on the dancefloor, when a man came up to him and said: 'Why don't you come to L.A. to audition?' He always talked about it slightly ruefully in an 'if only' kind of way, but by then, he was too set up in the insurance business to pursue it any further."

Instead, he imbued Damian and his siblings -- William, Gareth and Amanda -- with a love of the theatre, and growing up in St. John's Wood, the youngsters were often taken to productions in the West End. "There's a very particular strand of English middle-class family that likes going to the theatre together," says Damian, "and we were definitely part of that."

Damian went to Eton and kept that piece of information close to his chest when he did eventually become an actor -- "because I didn't want to be cast only in Noël Coward" -- and after graduating from the Guildhall School Of Music & Drama in 1993, joined the RSC for two years. But it was his performance as Laertes to Ralph Fiennes' Hamlet in the Broadway production of the play that caught the attention of Spielberg, and Band Of Brothers et al ensued.

The Lewis family, always close, were devastated by the death of their mother, but Damian, who once described the tragedy as "the single most important thing that's happened to me in my life", is wary of putting his feelings about his loss on display. His mother would certainly be proud of him, though? "Yeah," he says, "I think she would be."

He saunters off to scoop up Gulliver, a distinctly bouncing baby. "Oh, he's a chubber," Damian laughs. "Two stone and not even a year old. I was a big fatty like him when I was a baby -- I looked like a giant baked bean! You know, I found myself the other day pushing the double buggy along the cycle path in Santa Monica with my kids inside, jogging along behind them in the sunshine, and I thought to myself: 'Damian, you big tit!'" he says, not looking at all displeased. And on that note, he takes his leave. Maybe that transition to L.A. hasn't been such a difficult one after all.

Life starts on ITV 3 on 30 October.

Caption: Damian Lewis in L.A., September 2008.

Caption: The 37-year-old was named "sexiest redhead on the planet" by one overwrought critic.

Caption: Helen did a film in South Africa with Daniel Craig last year and I went along as nanny."

Caption: With his wife Helen McCrory at the BAFTAs, 2007.

Caption: From the top: with Helen McCrory in Five Gold Rings at the Almeida, 2004; with David Schwimmer in Band Of Brothers, 2001; with Gina McKee in The Forsyte Saga, 2002; as Charlie Crews in Life.

Caption: "Band Of Brothers was such a hit, I kind of ended up on top of all these TV casting lists."