This is a Damian Lewis Appreciation post. But it is also a scientific post. As a social scientist, I make a claim that Damian Lewis is the kindest human being anyone could meet and then prove it with solid evidence. Would you like to join me?
They film the popular morning TV talk show “Live with Kelly and Ryan” at the ABC studios, a 10-minute walk from our apartment in the Upper West Side. And Lewisto and I were extremely lucky in 2016 to score tickets to the show, which was “Live with Kelly and Michael” at the time, to see Damian Lewis promote his new TV series Billions. We sat pretty close to the hosts and their guests, and I was not only able to high-five Damian when he entered the studio…
…but also reported LIVE from the studio on social media. While I cannot find my tweets from three and a half years ago, I vividly remember seeing the “F*** You Money” promo video as well as Damian asking an audience member during a commercial break whether she was the one who ate his grilled cheese at the hotel bar last night 😀
So, after this fun experience, it was a no brainer for me to look for tickets when they announced Damian would be the guest on LIVE with Kelly and Ryan to promote Billions Season 4 Finale! I planned everything: I would be in line by 6:30am in the morning, have a great seat like before, high-five Damian, report live from the show and return home for breakfast!
Well, things do not always go as we plan them, right?
Firstly, the talk show website said the tickets were all gone and I could add my name to the wait list. Bummer… with a happy ending the following day: I scored tickets for the program. Yay!
And I was there in the line early enough thinking I would again have a great seat. But then I did not! 😀 They took us upstairs which is totally okay to see the show but I would probably have a better view if I were at home in front of my TV 🙂
The thing is most people are in the studio not for the guests but for the show itself. A lot of them are visitors from out of town making their dreams come true as they get into the studio and watch the morning show live. They genuinely adore Kelly and Ryan.
Sadly, I am not that person. I do not have the time to watch any of the morning talk shows unless Damian is a guest, and so being in the studio per se does not mean anything to me. And now that I do not particularly enjoy the seating I have, I am feeling like I may leave the studio and find the exit door Damian will use to leave and say hi to him. I kindly ask one of the ABC studio guys if he could help me to leave and he was very kind to accommodate this unusual request. Thank you!
When I am finally outside the studio, the show is about to start. I send a Whatsapp message to Lewisto saying the whole thing has been a fiasco and he did the right thing sleeping rather than coming with me 😀 And I tell him that I will try to find the door the guests leave the studio. He wishes me good luck and another kind ABC guy helps me with locating the door the guests use to leave the studio.
Who knew?
But while the ABC guy helps me to locate the guest exit, he forgets to mention a pretty significant detail. What do you think these exits look like? A garage door?
Yes. These are, in fact, garage doors where the cars driving the guests use to enter, park and exit… Which basically means you would not stand much chance to meet a celebrity guest even if you waited outside. The celebrity guest arrives and leaves in a car and why on earth would they look around to see whether someone is waiting for an autograph or a hi? Honestly, I would not 😀
And I realize this is a garage door when I see a car leaving maybe half an hour after the show starts. It turns out the doors open only when a car enters or leaves the building. Then a second car enters the garage and leaves. And then a third one. Ok then this is not my lucky day. I type a Whatsapp message to Lewisto:
“Complete Fiasco. I’m comi…”
And that is exactly the words I was able to type when I hear someone calling my name from afar.
Whaaaaa?!?!
And I run and yell at the same time on the top of my lungs:
“Damian! You’ll never walk alone! High-five!”
Insert a high-five and two big grins here! 😀
Now, you are probably thinking that I am somehow obsessed with high-fiving Damian but, believe me, this is for a very special occasion! Liverpool, the football club both Damian and I have supported since we were little kids, won the UEFA European Champions League Cup only a few days ago. And while Damian was so lucky to be at the stadium in Madrid and attend the after-party with the manager Jurgen Klopp and the players, I was glued to a TV in a NYC bar rooting for The Reds. So this is some historic high-five for two middle-aged people who are feeling seven all over again 😀
It turns out Damian thought he saw me as he was leaving in the car and told the driver to stop wherever he could and walked back to say hi.
Whaaaaa?!?!
So, ladies and gentlemen, this is what we call QED or “Quod Erat Demonstrandum” in Latin we typically place at the end of a mathematical proof to indicate that the proof is complete!
Tell me if this is not the kindest guy in the world, who is? <3
So we talk about the championship match! We agree (and I think we are being very polite to the reds) that it was not Liverpool’s greatest game (it was boring and terrible — my words!) but the outcome was fantastic!
I tell Damian that I watched Showtime’s Billions Emmy For Your Consideration discussion panel on Instagram the previous night and that he was definitely at the top of his game. He says it was fun and that he always loves to do these things with Paul.
“We should do a road show together.”
Can you imagine? 😀 😀 😀
My true fantasy would be to see them together on stage. Every time Damian and Paul are on the screen together, they STORM it. Can you imagine what they would be capable of doing on stage? Well, a girl can dream!
As I have shared with you earlier, Damian is a genuinely curious person. He wants to know you. He asks questions. So, again he asks about how life is going for us, what we plan to do in summer, and when I tell him my mom is visiting and I am taking her to sightseeing and theater, he sends his regards to her. Haha the woman, who has always said Homeland is a good show because while there is nobody to look at in the show, you want to watch it, now thinks this Damian should be a very down-to-earth guy. Yes he is. And he is the selfie king, too!
As Damian leaves for his next appointment — an interview with my favorite NPR program “Fresh Air” — I go home and watch him on LIVE with Kelly and Ryan as soon as they post a few clips on YouTube. And I thank Damian, not only for nannying me, but also for making yet another little dream of mine come true. When he tweeted about Klopp whispering “Finally!” in his ear at the after-party, I responded that I wanted to hear him imitate Klopp’s German Accent.
https://twitter.com/FanFunDamian/status/1135562988998537216
And it cannot get better than this!
He loves you! Thank you for transmitting his kindness and wit to us. Your enthusiasm is infectious and adorable!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, LOVE you! It was such a happy morning after all 🙂
I think we already knew he was the Kindest Human, but yes, this confirms it! It is fate that you are always meant to get to say hi to him! What a fabulous experience, and as always, thank you for sharing it with us mortals! And, you kept this a secret, which I doubt I would have been able to do!
It was a thriller with a happy ending 😀 Haha yeah I’m good at keeping secrets! <3
I don’t think I’ve seen that high-five video before! How awesome that he STOPPED THE CAR FOR YOU! GGGaaaahhhhhhh <3
Thank you!!! I’ve never shared the high-five video before — probably because I didn’t make a post about Damian at Live with Kelly and Michael back then.
I mean, this whole thing, it can’t go like that even when it’s planned. Totally surreal. Have you seen The Bodyguard – the movie with my ex? 😀 The last scene… this one is of course very different from that but still… it felt like a movie scene!
ENJOY Once Upon A Time In Hollywood today, sister, and please report back!!!!!
I, I will always love you Hoping to fit in a matinée soon!
Surreal indeed! Okay, reporting for duty…OUATIH review is complete 🙂 Hope you enjoy.
THANK YOU for this lovely story! And hell yeah, your enthusiasm is really adorable and infectious! ♥ ️
Vivat science! Here it is another little piece for the statistics that proves his kindness.
So … As Damianista knows, by some strange coincidences one year after Damian did the Goat play on stage, I started work at the same theatre. (It’s not a big deal, I’m a cleaner and an usher during the matinees, but it’s still kind of fascinating and surreal at moments.) I never asked or talked to anyone there about Damian, except on my last birthday when I asked for The Goat giant posters, which were in our cupboard and then disappeared, but that is another story. Maybe a year ago the theatre was closed for renovation. We usually work alone. Everyone has an aria. I’m the auditorium-girl, and Nina, one of my colleagues is the dressing room-girl, but during the ‘dark period,’ me and Nina worked together having fun and chatting while checking all the areas. There are lots of Pictures of great actors on the walls in the corridors – from Peter O’Toole to Judith Dench, Maggie Smith, even Peppa Pig but none of Damian. (Heretical! :D) One day while we were at the offices’ aria I asked Nina if she had ever met Ralph Ains, there were two or three posters with him at the corridor and she said ‘No.’ When we entered the ‘big boss office’ I immediately noticed Damian’s face on the wall among maybe 15 pictures. (Face, sweet face!) It was a picture of him with the big boss signed by Damian. I didn’t say anything, but Nina made a nod towards the wall, she pointed the magic picture with her finger and uttered the magic words: ‘Look. This guy is soooo nice. Veeery nice, veeery nice. She repeated this several times shaking her head with an approving face and lowering the intonation of her voice. She always does this when she wants to emphasize that something or someone is extraordinary good, especially a man. And I can tell, she has very high expectations when it comes to men and their attitude. Then she went into the next room and I quickly took a few paparazzi-pictures with my phone. It turned out Damian is a VERY (low voice here) tidy and clean person too 😀 And he always has said ‘Good morning, Maria’, ‘How are you, Maria? ‘. This is her real name, but no-one in the theatre calls her Maria. We all call her Nina and she always introduces her self with Nina which probably means that Damian has informed his self about the cleaner’s name. Not many people would do that. Those are very small things that actually speak volumes cause being kind and nice really matters.
I can’t post the picture I took here, so I’ll send them via PM.
Hugs! <3 <3 <3
Tsvetanka, that is a lovely,lovely story! Thank you so much for sharing it!
Thank you, Notlinda!♥️
THANK YOU for this wonderful story! Yet another concrete example that Damian is a kind person. I do not want to idolize him in any way, I am sure he is not perfect, but he is a truly kind person. He has a good heart and I love it so much that he is a good human being. Many people can be great actors, and Damian is a better actor than most but great actors are rarely down-to-earth people. Here we have a guy that does have zero star attitude, stopping a car for a fan (I mean, yes I am not any fan, doing a lot of voluntary work for him, but I would just assume he had not seen me from inside the car, he could have been checking his phone, etc… but he did stop that car and walked back to say hi… well I admit it still feels surreal!) or learning the names of the employees in the theatre he does a play and asks them how they are doing. He CARES.
Question: how does Nina know Damian is also a very tidy and clean man — not that I doubt it — just curious!
Hey girl, I know we will sit next to each other and see Damian on stage one day – hopefully sooner than later. And it will be a wonderful day. I am so happy to know you and I am so looking forward to meeting you in person one day. Sending lots of love your way!!!