Hi everyone! Damianista here. Our “Dream Role for Damian Lewis” series continues today with Heather who chooses to bring Damian from US Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody in Homeland in year 2011, to
Midshipman Horatio Hornblower in the Royal Navy, going back in time to 1794! Huge thanks go to Heather for sharing her dream role story with us.
I am intrigued by the idea of Horatio Hornblower, a fictional character
created by Author Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (pen name, Cecil Scott
C.S. Forester), who wrote ten books about Hornblower.
Horatio first appeared as a Royal Navy Midshipman and progressed to one of the Naval officers during the Napoleonic war, at the time of the French Revolution. The character has already been brought to the screen from 1998 to 2003, and the Welsh actor who played him, ‘Ioan Gruffudd’ went on to star in lots of different projects and is very talented.
Damianista’s note: And I really have to jump in here and mention that two of the projects Ioan Gruffudd did was BBC’s Warriors and ITV’s The Forsyte Saga with Damian Lewis!
But there is a connection here that I am particularly interested in, in that Damian’s paternal grandparents were Welsh.
The stories are about seamanship and leadership which I think Damian would be perfect to portray in an up to date version.
I believe it would be wonderful to see him in a role that is so different to other characters that he has played in the past. I know he has played a military part before as Richard (Dick) Winters, set in the Second World War, in Band of Brothers, but for me, this is the role I would like to see Damian play the fictional character Horatio Hornblower, in the smart well trimmed naval tailcoat, breeches and knee length boots, along with epaulettes on the shoulder, as he moves up to the appropriate rank, on an impressive naval ship wearing that iconic bicorn naval hat.
