Playing catch-up this Sunday! Excerpts from a few interviews published this week:
“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 … 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. [Chicago Tribune]
Your Homeland character, Nicholas Brody, has been through a lot: kidnapping, eight years held hostage by al-Qaeda, post-traumatic stress disorder. What research did you do? An Evil Cradling, by Brian Keenan, about his four years in captivity in Beirut in the 1980s is still the best book on the subject, so I read that again. And I watched Restrepo, the documentary which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance a couple of years ago. I found it to be a very moving and accurate depiction of boys just stuck in war. When they are asked to articulate their feelings, they can’t, they are constipated – it has all been drummed out of them. And that is what, of course, creates all the trauma. There is also a unit out in Gloucester, where soldiers are able to go for therapy and I talked to a couple of people there, which was hugely helpful. [ Metro.co.uk]
HE’S at the top of his game these days, so you would expect Damian Lewis to be the epitome of cool.
But he stumbles and nearly trips as he strides into the Savoy Hotel, laughs at his clumsiness and looks a little flustered as he settles into a chair. Could it be the Homeland star is feeling the pressure now that Season Two is out for public consumption?
“Definitely,†he says, as open as his character Sergeant Brody is difficult to read. “There were no expectations with the first season but now we’re in a bit of a goldfish bowl.†[Express.co.uk]Two or three years ago, Lewis toyed with sidelining acting in favour of pursuing writing or directing. ‘I’d been acting for a certain amount of time and started to feel like I understood it. So I started reading all these books on writing and directing, and realised they were preoccupied by the same things as actors. I thought that was interesting, so I decided to re-explore acting again and, well, try to be better.’ He laughs, adding sheepishly, ‘I carry a notepad around with me to jot down script ideas, but instead it just gets filled with “wallpaper for kitchen†or “do taxesâ€.’ [Time Out]