Damian Lewis and His Welsh Roots

happystdavidsday

Happy St. David’s Day, everyone!

Today is the Feast Day of St. David, the patron saint of Wales. Thus, in honor of the day, why not talk about Damian and his Welsh roots?

Here is Damian talking about himself as a “Londoner” and “British” at Times Talks London.

So far so good… Damian is proud of his Welsh roots, and we’re talking about Wales today! But… what do I talk about when I talk about Wales? What do I really know about Wales except the fact that Damian is half-Welsh? Well… I can drop a few Welsh celebrity names like a pro…Sir Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Burton, Gareth Bale… and, of course, the wonderful Denise Salway aka the “Knitting Witch” that creates the wonderful “Wolf Hall in Wool” collection and who made, for Damian, a special personalized gift!

Continue reading “Damian Lewis and His Welsh Roots”

Gotta Love Nicholas Brody in Popular Culture!

source: Showtime
source: Showtime

Damian Lewis was already an internationally known actor before Homeland. Yet, Homeland brought him big stardom, made him a household name, and it turns out some manhandling in the streets, too! Damian talks a bit about his post-Homeland fame in an interview with Buzzfeed: “It can be aggressive, that kind of adulation… People can go a little bit crazy, so there’s quite a lot of manhandling in the streets. Now I know what it must have been like to be Brad Pitt for an entire lifetime, ever since he did that scene in Thelma and Louise where he took his top off — I’m straight and that scene did it for me as well.”

Hmmm… So… you sort of know you have made it when someone tries to… I don’t know… pinch you on the street? 😀 But, seriously, when do you really know your show or your character has really arrived?

Well… One obvious indicator is the ratings that a show gets along with the awards it receives… And, Homeland proved multiple times, in particular in its first two seasons, that it has been one of the best things that has ever happened to TV. Continue reading “Gotta Love Nicholas Brody in Popular Culture!”

Billions on Showtime, Episode 6: The Deal

The King is back. He loves what he does. He, in fact, lives and breathes what he does. Real or not, he tries his hand a bit in having the good life  — collecting fresh eggs in the morning, quality time with wife and kids, prospect of getting on his new boat and sailing to Galapagos… And maybe, just maybe, there is really a moment where he thinks there could be another life he could be living.

But the fact is Axe Capital is where the good life is for Axe.

Source: Showtime
Source: Showtime

Maybe not the perfect life as the smug on his face is gone the moment he comes eye to eye with the Windbreakers raiding Axe Capital to get to “Dollar” Bill…  But it must be something about the game that he just cannot give up… Axe advises Danzig after his “deer shooting” spree: “What drives you does not understand enough.” It’s obvious what drives Axe does not understand enough, either. Is it the adrenaline? Is it the sweet feeling of winning? What drives Axe? Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Episode 6: The Deal”

Billions on Showtime, Episode 5: The Good Life

Well, I give it to the Billions writers that Episode 5: The Good Life has an opening like no other: A No Trespassing sign exactly like in the opening scene of Citizen Kane!  

notrespassingcollage

Welcome to Citizen Axe’s Good Life!

We leave Axe at the end of Episode 4: Short Squeeze telling Wags to sell everything: Sell 5% of all positions across the board first and then sell sector by sector starting with Telecom.

And now we’re finding him on his Passoni bike, a hand crafted Italian beauty, cycling to Axe Hills, no less, to collect fresh eggs from the chickens. He suggests Tito to “franchise that fucking hen” with the double yolkers and trades his Passoni with Tito’s well-worn bike… But we already know Bobby “Axe” Axelrod is the man of the people, don’t we? 🙂 Axe brings the eggs, cooks “Grandma’s recipe” – his mom was a waitress – signature dish at Empire Diner, an iconic New York City institution, for family breakfast and makes an announcement: The new boat is coming Friday afternoon. What about a trip to Galapagos? Lara does not fall for the idea right away since mid-summer is a crazy time for her restaurant, but it seems some afternoon sex in the pool followed by lying on the lawn with her better half is quite persuasive. She is in! They will be free and say “fuck you” to gravity together. Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Episode 5: The Good Life”

Damian Lewis, 45 in numbers

Yesterday, we said happy 45th Birthday to Damian. Today we’re having some fun.

As of today Damian has been 45 for one day or, if you prefer, 46 T– 365 days and yes that is correct because this is a leap year. Take that 46!

source: Showtime
source: Showtime

On 11 February 1971:

Damian’s mother and father would have been counting Pounds, Shilling and Pence…well maybe not specifically on this day as clearly they had more important matters, but you get what I mean. There were 240 pence in a pound, twenty shillings in a pound and 12 pence in a shilling. Interestingly the shilling was first minted during the reign of Henry Vii – you think I’m going to miss a chance to get sort of screen Dad in here too? Ha! Four days later on 15 February 1971 the UK went decimal. Continue reading “Damian Lewis, 45 in numbers”