"I'm Having A Ball"

Sexy Brit actor Damian Lewis returns to our screens this week as Soames in The Forsyte Saga. Here he tells New! about his incredible career ...

New!, May 26, 2003

Damian Lewis, star of ITV1's drama series The Forsyte Saga, says he gets a mixture of reactions from the public thanks to his portrayal of the generally cold and pompous Soames. But even he was stunned when a drunken woman began screaming at him in the street.

"I tried to help this lady in Trafalgar Square one Saturday night because she looked far too well-presented to be in the state she was in," he laughingly recalls.

"It was about three in the morning, and she was basically lying on the pavement. I was with some friends and we felt we couldn't just leave her there.

"We wanted to put her in a cab and send her home. We tried to get an address out of her as we were staggering with her towards the taxi rank, when suddenly she turned on me and started screaming at the top of her voice: "You're horrible, you're that man!"

"I couldn't believe it. I wanted to just leave her there and run, but we managed to help her and quickly left the scene!"

Natural Born Actor

The 32-year-old red hot actor, who's successfully helping to make ginger-haired men sexy, recounts this tale with glee and clearly relishes the recognition he gets everywhere he goes, even if it's not always entirely flattering.

What's refreshing about Lewis is that he doesn't mind admitting he adores being a star -- and says he always knew he'd find fame.

Educated at Eton and trained at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he unashamedly admits to standing in front of a mirror when he was a kid being "inteviewed" by the likes of Terry Wogan. It paid off: These days he gives real interviews with grace and charm.

When I remind him we met in the days before Hollywood scripts regularly landed on his door mat, he's genuinely anxious to know that he hasn't changed too much. "I'm still the same person, aren't I?" he asks. "I really hope no one thinks I've gone off big headed. I mean, it's just a job isn't it?"

I can tell him with honesty that no, he hasn't changed. He might be wearing a more expensive suit and he's certainly got more people wandering in and out asking if he needs anything, but Lewis is the same friendly and affable guy I met on the set of the BBC drama Hearts and Bones. He'd just heard that he'd won the lead role in Steven Spielberg's wartime epic Band of Brothers and he was completely euphoric. Today he's just as enthusiastic about his career.

After winning critical acclaim as hero Richard Winters, thanks to an impeccable American accent, he's been inundated with offers and is in the enviable position of being able to turn down work.

A Wanted Man

"I was offered a part in Black Hawk Down and that certainly sounded good on the face of it," explains Damian, "but I'd just played a soldier for eight months and besides, they wouldn't let anyone see a script. If I'm cocky it's because if I'm going to work for anyone, I've got to be able to see a script, so I said no.

"Then The Forsyte Saga rocked up a couple of months later. I wasn't sure I wanted to do another big TV series, but the scripts were so good I had to say yes. Fortunately the whole thing was a happy experience." Considering Black Hawk Down was a box-office floo, Lewis says he feels vindicated in his decision not to accept the role.

This week, The Forsyte Saga returns to ITV1 for a second series and Lewis says he thinks it's even better than the first. "The first series was quite a harsh insight into Victorian values as well as being a glammed-up soap. Now it's an out-and-out love story between Soames' daughter Fleur and Irene's son Jon. It becomes a Romeo and Juliet story in that we do all we can to prevent them from carrying out the course of love. It's been shot beautifully and is unashamedly romantic. I think it's very affecting and touching."

Luckily for Damian, he's the kind of actor who can seemingly turn his hand to anything, from last year's hilarious BBC spoof biopic Jeffrey Archer: The Truth, to the horror/fantasy film Dreamcatcher which hit the big screen here last month. The movie, based on a Stephen King novel and co-starring Morgan Freeman, is a project he says he loved working on. "It was great," he enthuses.

Next up is the film An Unfinished Life, in which he gets to play the boyfriend of megastar Jennifer Lopez -- although J.Lo's character leaves him for older man Robert Redford.

Love Must Wait

The trouble with being in such demand, however, is that it can play havoc with a star's love life -- and Lewis hasn't been spared. Two long-term relationships -- one with actress Ellie Garnett and another with TV producer Katie Razzall -- have already bitten the dust and he admits he finds it hard to commit. On the day we meet he reveals, "I'm currently single and enjoying myself -- for the time being anyway. It's not ideal, but I go away a lot so it's about life management basically."

Just days later he was publicly linked with TV producer Georgina Hurford-Jones, an ex-girlfriend of Neil Morrissey's, although reports have claimed it's a casual fling as Lewis isn't looking for a serious romance, which fits the picture.

After all, he spends his time flirting between his home in Camden, north London, and LA where he can count the likes of Steven Spielberg among his closest pals. It's a dream come true for any young actor.

"It's funny because when I was at drama school I never imagined failing and I always believed it'd work out because I didn't stop to think otherwise," he smiles.

"Now I'm lucky enough to be in the position I'm in, I want to enjoy it. I don't want to keep thinking about the next step because I want to make themost of what I'm doing here and now. I'm having a ball."

The Forsyte Saga returns to ITV1 on Sunday, May 25 at 9 pm.

Caption: Clockwise from left: Damian with his ex-girlfriend Katie Razzall; starring alongside Friends actor David Schwimmer in Band of Brothers; as Soames Forsyte with Gina McKee who plays Irene Forsyte; taking aim as Gary Jones in the Stephen King horror flick Dreamcatcher.