Happy World Theater Day: Damian Lewis on Stage

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Happy World Theater Day! Let’s celebrate this beautiful day dedicated to the wonderful art form that is theater with a little walk down the memory lane to live and re-live bits and pieces of Damian Lewis’ brilliant stage career!

Damian discovers theater at a young age at Ashdown House, the boarding school he went at age eight: “Each summer we staged a Gilbert and Sullivan Operetta. It was all so English. I used to sing the solos. I had a sweet treble voice.” His first ever role was a policeman The Pirates of Penzance, a Gilbert and Sullivan. And, by age 12, he had already played in 12 Gilbert and Sullivan Operettas.

Well, we don’t have pictures from these operettas but the school pic below can help us imagine our little guy on stage! Continue reading “Happy World Theater Day: Damian Lewis on Stage”

The Pizza is on the table

**Disclaimer: Billions and its characters belong to Showtime. Not us. There is no profit or copy right infringement intended and absolutely no intention of saying that anyone from Billions stole our ideas in the unlikely event we accidently write something that comes to fruition.

A/N: This one is inspired by a still from the season finale. It is highly unlikely that we have the circumstances right. However, because of what this still suggests on its own, we are giving a possible spoiler warning. Read at your own hedged risk.

Being an arrogant asshole can be a great reliever of stress regardless of the effort that may be required, which is why Bobby is currently wearing his most irritating smirk and sitting back very relaxed, but taking up as much space as is possible just to remind the man sitting across from him that he owns this place and there is absolutely nothing he can or will do about it.

Connerty is sitting as far back in his chair as he can be and looks like someone dumped a wad of dog’s dirt under his nose.

“If you need to vomit, there’s a toilet pan through the door 20 yards behind you.” Bobby says, biting into his pizza.

“That is a lot of Pizza.” Connerty says changing subject and sounding mildly disgusted, surveying the tray with several squares of Pizza on it. Bobby has heard chatter about Connerty being weird about food.

“I’m a greedy asshole…or so they say.” Bobby says with an edge to his voice and letting that just dangle there, adding some tension to proceedings. The only reason he is opening himself up and Connerty is sitting across from him right now is a favour to Orrin. Otherwise, Connerty would have been kicked straight back out the door.

“Orrin said you had something for me.”

Continue reading “The Pizza is on the table”

Throwback Thursday: Damian Lewis in Touch of Frost

Before he hit the big time in cable TV, Damian did some smaller, lesser known roles in British television. The role of Adam Weston in a feature-length episode of mystery drama Touch of Frost may not be a role that Damian is particularly proud of, given how disdainfully he spoke of it at the NY Times Talk in May 2014.

Nonetheless, I’d say the role begs remembering, if, for nothing else, to give us a picture of Damian at 25. According to Damian, roles such as this one were the few available to British actors in television in 1996. It was either Merchant-Ivory-esque period drama or stories of the struggles of the underclass left in the wake of Thatcherism, both “classes” of roles Damian would have been uniquely qualified to play, but only later. First, he had to build up a resume with things like Touch of Frost. So here’s Damian at 25, a Shakespearean trained thespian and, they ask him to get down to his skivvies. Okay, he’s still doing parts that get him into his skivvies some 20 years later, but, hey, who’s counting. As Bobby Axelrod would say:

Those who can, do.

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Continue reading “Throwback Thursday: Damian Lewis in Touch of Frost”

9/11 Lingering in Bobby Axelrod’s Mind on Billions

source: Showtime
source: Showtime

Damianista’s note: I wrote this post after watching The Pilot. And I have now updated it with all the new information we have got in the last two weeks. Are things as black and white as they seem… or are they gray? You decide. I just want to applaud the show creators for making us think about such a sensitive topic, and think about it hard.

Billions is first and foremost a New York show. And there is nothing more natural than the darkest day of the city, September 11, still shadowing the lives and relationships of our characters even after 15 years. Obviously the darkest day in the history of the nation, September 11 is also a very dark day for financial services firms many of which had offices in the World Trade Center. I remember Cantor Fitzgerald losing two thirds of its workforce on 9/11.

source: spoilertv.com
source: spoilertv.com

One of the first things we learn about Axe in Billions is he is a 9/11 survivor. He is, in fact, the only partner that survived the terrorist attacks because he was out of office on meetings while most of his colleagues and friends died. And seeing that Axe Capital is now located in Westport, Connecticut, we also learn Axe Capital is among the financial houses that chose to move from Wall Street to neighboring Connecticut or New Jersey after the destruction of downtown NYC on 9/11.

We then find Axe in a conference room at Axe Capital with the widows and kids of those friends that died on 9/11. Axe has been giving college scholarships to these kids for years. He has been keeping it private that there has never been a press release or an interview with him about it. It is, in fact, a reason for him to leave an interview.

Continue reading “9/11 Lingering in Bobby Axelrod’s Mind on Billions”

Billions on Showtime, Episode 9: Where the **** is Donnie?

source: Showtime
source: Showtime

I know why Episode 9, directed by Susanna White, who also directs Damian Lewis in the coming soon Our Kind of Traitor, does not open but just closes with Townes Van Zandt’s Waiting Around to Die.

“Sometimes I don’t know where
This dirty road is taking me
Sometimes I can’t even see the reason why
I guess I keep a-gamblin’
Lots of booze and lots of ramblin’
It’s easier than just waitin’ around to die.”

Because you feel it.

It was certainly an aha moment to see Donnie frantically hiding his pills during the FBI raid in his house in Episode 8. I have been uneasy since Axe rewarded him for his loyalty: tripling his stack and giving him 200K shares of Rubinex despite the fact that the guy was not able to deliver! But the pills last week and Wendy noticing his weight loss this week and… I knew… Donnie is seriously sick. And this makes a few other things make sense for me. Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Episode 9: Where the **** is Donnie?”