Here is the most HILARIOUS conversation between Damian Lewis and Nick Grimshaw, the host of BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show that Damian joined last week. You can hear the radio bit (short version) here and (long version, starts at 01:33:48) here. BIG thanks go to JaniaJania for transcribing part of the conversation for me!
Nick Grimshaw: We saw this picture the other day, Fifi sent them, of you on the tube. (I said) That’s cool, it’s Damian Lewis, he’s getting on the tube!
DL: Yeah.
Nick Grimshaw: Because it must happen when you’re out and about, people are like…ohh, can I have a …
DL: Who has pictures of me on the tube?
Nick Grimshaw: I don’t know, it was in the paper. But em…
DL: (To Steph) Do you know who has pictures of me on the tube?
Nick Grimshaw: (To Fifi) Do you know this? There are pictures of him on the tube. What was it Fifi?
DL: Who took a picture of me on the tube?
Nick Grimshaw: Who did that? (Fifi: Somebody on the…) Somebody on the tube did it.
DL: I’m always picking my nose on the tube. You’ve got to be careful. You’ve got to be overly careful about that.
Gotta LOVE this guy!
Well, way before Damian found out about his pictures on the Tube, we found and shared them here. And following this radio conversation, it’s absolutely TIME for a re-post! ENJOY!
We talked earlier about Nicholas Brody starring in the “London Underground” photo exhibition by the brilliant Singaporean photographer Yangchen Lin in 2013.
Now… you will find out about why it’s so proper for Damian Lewis to be part of a photo exhibition celebrating London Tube’s 150th Birthday!
Well… There was news, this past winter, about Helen Mirren taking the subway in NYC.
This was followed by an article in TIME magazine talking about other celebrities braving the crowds and taking public transportation — including Tom Hanks, Naomi Watts, and some others.
This made NEWS just because we are not used to having celebrities with us, mortals, on NYC subway. You know what makes news, right? Things that happen rarely make news! A routine never makes news — typical “Dog Bites Man” vs “Man Bites Dog” right?
And, that’s EXACTLY why I want to turn a routine, Damian Lewis’ routine into NEWS today 🙂 Because his routine deserves to be NEWS. He’s the one that takes the tube… like EVERY DAY! If you search for “Damian Lewis” and “Tube” together on Twitter, you get a lot of Hits! A LOT!
Damian Lewis loves London and he enjoys city life! In particular, when asked about what he missed most when he filmed Homeland in an interview with Hunger Magazine, this is Damian’s answer:
“When filming Homeland, I spent most of my time in Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s a very large and spread-out place where you rely heavily on cars. I missed the clamour of London; it’s a much more condensed city where you can exercise your senses. I love getting out of cars and getting on the tube. I also missed riding my bicycle, and of course, going to the pub.”
Damian adds:
“I feel very proprietorial about London. It’s my town and always has been. I’m resolved to using public transport. I simply refuse not to use the Tube because I might get bothered by people. It’s slightly mad to walk through the West End during peak tourist season – the Italians and Spanish can be quite persistent! I’m not going to lie, some days I don’t deal with it very well because I’m in a hurry.”
I know some think fans taking pictures on the Tube is a violation of personal privacy — which could actually be true. If I would talk for myself, I would die to do it but eventually not do it 😀 But… At the same time, and at least in Damian’s case, I know those fans tweeting about Damian being on their train always do it with lovely sentences of appreciation…
I LOVE that Damian Lewis is not a diva. He actually gets on a train! I've worked with people who would never do that. He's A-list! #ilovehim
— Kassi (@KathrynSarah15) July 11, 2014
Fans LOVE “Damian on the Tube” because he IS one of them — just another Londoner braving the bad weather and the big crowds trying his best not to give a shit… reading his newspaper on his iPad or just sharing a laughter with his wife 🙂
Now, a loved up couple “cackling with laughter” is such a beautiful sight that makes anyone feel warm and fuzzy. But I LOVE the response to that tweet even more: “He’s more Just Like Us than we are.” I could not have put it in better words myself! “Just Like Us than we are!” So well said and that’s one BIG reason why we admire Damian so much! And, you know, I really love it that he’s always reading something — I have a soft spot for readers 😀
Now that our Englishman shot Billions in NYC last year, you could ask if he was taking NYC subway like he does take London Tube.
Here’s a tweet from July 2015:
I’m sure, Alejandra, you really saw incredibly talented Damian Lewis on NYC subway, and doesn’t it feel good to see he’s one of us? And, believe me, fans, in case you are not familiar with NYC subway, it may take some courage and patience to take it in summer, in particular the subway cars in which the AC is not working… well, they suck and there are more than a few of them 🙂
To close with a quick note to other celebrities: Come take the subway, or the Tube, with us, we promise we don’t bite — but yeah, we can take pictures 🙂
So much sneaky picture taking! Love it! He may be playing Angry Birds in at least one of those pics though. One usually reads in portrait mode not landscape. Hehe. Great fun post!
Thank you, so glad you like it. I wanted to write this for a long time and yesterday’s tweet was the trigger hehe. And, I know too much sneaky pic taking going on (I did my share mostly in museums where they don’t allow you to take a pic of the painting, etc) — poor DL is probably hating the fact that people take pics, but also he knows that it is inevitable! I love you my “forensic fan” partner, I did not even notice the iPad being in landscape mode, he’s probably playing Angry Birds with such concentration — look at the expression, he’s really concentrated, and I LOVE him for it!
Lovely DL and interesting blog, thank you !
Hi Floria, thanks so much for your kind words! Hope you are enjoying our blog, please keep your feedback coming! Thanks!
Great write-up! I love how approachable and grounded Damian and Helen seem to be. In some moments, they seem larger than life, and then in others, they feel so very human. They both seem to have achieved that perfect balance of fame, with all its perks, and still retain a little but of normalcy where they can head to a coffee shop or ride public transport without it causing too big of a scene.
Thank you! That is one of the things that make me admire even more – they try to keep their life normal as much as possible, I think that is how they want to live, as part of their neighborhood community and as Londoners. They are not like the “glorious” Hollywood people that we see all the time in magazines. Last year Damian was taking the tube to the theater when he was performing in American Buffalo. Can you imagine a Hollywood star doing it? 😀 Still I can see it’s not possible all the time to keep a normal life especially NOW that both Damian and Helen are household names everywhere and someone is trying to take a pic around every corner 😀
Damian, love you and your hair is gorgeous long, but don’t manspread (knees wide apart) on the subway!!! (tube??) Aggghhhhh!!!!! Of course many women would not mind being crowded by you in their seat. You are already manly enough. Don’t need to manspread to show your manliness. Just sayin’. (I’m sure you are so polite you would scrunch in if someone sat there). We are sensitive to manspreading in NYC lately. Some subway cars even have politeness signs including not to manspread. Okay, sorry. Hope people mostly leave you alone as you travel. (Look – even Helen Mirren is being man-spreaded by a man’s knee. HE-len MIR-ren!!! The Queen is not amused!) I’m joking. Sort of. No one can stay mad at you. Even when you play a bad guy. Or alpha guy. Or manspread.
I just LOVE this comment, Ann — and welcome back, where have you been? We missed you!!!
We are sensitive to manspreading in NY (not just in NY, we have a similar campaign in my native Turkey right now!!!!)
To be honest, manspreading was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw some of those photos HAHAHA!
I thought, hey, Damian, we can use this for NYC subway ads with a tagline: Don’t do this even when you are Damian Lewis 😀
But you are absolutely right that I am sure he would be well behaved if someone sat next to him! And yeah we cannot really stay mad at him if he did 🙂