It Is Even More Heartbreaking Than You Think
by Jacob Sarkisian and David Opie | Digital Spy | December 11, 2022
A Spy Among Friends‘ first episode ends with a heartbreaking scene, but the makers of the show have explained the personal connection that makes it sadder than you think.
In the scene, Damian Lewis’ character watches Guy Pearce’s character on stage. As he watches, he starts to cry. However, Pearce’s character isn’t actually there and it’s all in the mind of Lewis’ character. Watch video here.
In an exclusive interview with Digital Spy, Damian Lewis and writer Alex Cary broke down the scene and explained where the idea for the touching moment came from.
“It’s a scene of vulnerability from people who perhaps aren’t fully familiar with showing it or even expressing it honestly. And it comes from a personal experience of mine, which was when I was in the Army, I was sent to go to the Middle East,” Cary explained.
“My father was furious about the fact that we were even involved in it and all the rest of it. Anyway, he had to be supportive about it.”
Cary explained that the night before he flew out to the Middle East, his father took him to the theatre to see Ken Dodd. But while the night was a comedy show, Cary said he and his father became emotional.
“At some point, we were both crying. It was in that moment that I understood that we weren’t crying because we were crying— it was funny, but we were crying about something else. And it was in the theatre,” Cary said.
“It doesn’t match and line up neatly, but that’s emotionally where that came from. I’ve never forgotten that. And it was about my love for my father, and my father’s love for me, expressed in a moment of turmoil. That’s what I was going for here.”
Lewis, meanwhile, explained that the moment has so much weight because we’ve just seen the two characters’ friendship across 30 years.
“We’ve seen the longevity of this friendship, and he’s there, now, in the present day, with his wife, remembering his friend, and the betrayal – the sheer heartbreak of being betrayed by a friend,” Lewis said.
“I think that moment is all those things. It’s the heartbreak of a friendship that is broken, and just how on Earth could I have been duped for 30 years by my best friend?”
Read the rest of the original article at Digital Spy