Damian Lewis loves Don Draper

“Mad Men. I watch endless episodes when I should be working.”

-Damian Lewis

source: Damianista
Don Draper immortalized in front of the Time-Life Building on March 23, 2015, NYC source: Damianista

Oh, yes!

Damian, I cannot thank you enough for loving Mad Men; because, first, you give me the chance to write about something that I LOVE very deeply, and second, it is so much fun to share this love for Mad Men with you!

Get back to the quote: “Watching endless episodes when I should be working.” I know it well. Very well indeed. I cannot tell you enough about the sleepless nights my husband and I had while we were binge-watching Mad Men. We watch one episode. “One more?” “Oh, yeah. It’s only 10pm”. Second episode gone. “One more?” “Why not? Do we really have to get up early tomorrow?” Done. It’s already past midnight and my husband and I look at each other and simultaneously say “One more?”

So, we watched, exactly like Damian, endless episodes of Mad Men when we should have been sleeping so that we could get up reasonably early for work. And, I don’t know about Damian, but we watched some seasons multiple times, too! Continue reading “Damian Lewis loves Don Draper”

Throwback Thursday with Hamlet on Broadway

As Damian Lewis is preparing for a wonderful comeback to stage this spring in David Mamet’s modern classic American Buffalo… I thought it would be cool to travel back in time and visit some earlier stage work Damian did. We may start with Hamlet which Damian calls a “growing up, coming of age experience ” in his career.

source: tumblr.com
source: tumblr.com

Damian Lewis did his Broadway debut in Hamlet, and played Laertes to Ralph Fiennes’ Hamlet in 1995. The Almeida Theatre production was staged first at Hackney Empire in March 1995, and after its successful run in London, it came to Broadway in the summer of 1995 — OMG, yes, exactly twenty years ago! Continue reading “Throwback Thursday with Hamlet on Broadway”

Nicholas Brody was No Hero, Part Two

Back to Brody

More than anything, and more than any other work about terrorism, Homeland is about exploring the gray areas, between good and evil, between “warfare and terrorism”. The show is about forcing us to think about the real costs and rethink our understanding of the real victims of both war and terrorism. We meet Brody and we see what he is planning to do. And we’re encouraged to think: Okay, if this conservative white man from middle America can become someone who would blow himself and a bunch of people up, then….maybe, just maybe, those men strapping on vests all over the Middle East, or even those men flying planes into buildings, are also men who were led on a path of evil the same way Brody was, by pervasive systematic abuse? And maybe, part of the abuse on those men and children strapping on vests was perpetrated by someone you and I and our neighbors voted for? I don’t think Homeland ever sought to be an apologist for terrorism, they’re not trying to justify any of the evil. They just want to shine a thoughtful, intelligent light on it; a light radically different than any other treatment of the subject.

Continue reading “Nicholas Brody was No Hero, Part Two”

It’s SHOWTIME for Damian Lewis! He will be making Billions in NY :)

source: standard.co.uk
source: standard.co.uk

Drumroll! Showtime has just picked up Billions as a series. The series will be in filmed in NY later this year for a 2016 premiere on the network!

This is what David Nevins, the President of Showtime, says about Billions:

davidnevins

Congratulations to the entire cast and crew!

We’re waiting for you with open arms in New York!

So… What do we know so far about Billions? And, more importantly, what do we WANT to know? Continue reading “It’s SHOWTIME for Damian Lewis! He will be making Billions in NY :)”

Nicholas Brody was No Hero, Part One

I loved playing Brody. I’m extremely proud of who we all created together. I think he’s a tragic hero for our time. He himself embodies a cautionary tale, going right back to the beginning, about sending young men to war and the damage it can do. – Damian Lewis

Brody is not a hero. – Damian Lewis

I’m no hero – Nicholas Brody

Someone commented on my Before Dick Winters There Was Nicholas Brody post something to the effect that the two men cannot be cast in the same light, Brody was not a hero, at least not in the same way Winters was. In a frenzy of purging the copious junk mail wordpress seems to attract, I accidentally deleted that comment before responding. Given there are such differing opinions on Brody, the response to the “Hero or No” question deserves a full post (or two). So here it be! Continue reading “Nicholas Brody was No Hero, Part One”