Author: Damianista

Academic, Traveler, Blogger, Runner, Theatre Lover, Wine Snob, Part-time New Yorker, and Walking Damian Lewis Encyclopedia :D Procrastinated about a fan's diary on Damian Lewis for a while and the rest is history!

An Exclusive Fan Fun Interview with Howard Davies (aka “Damian Lewis in Dream Horse”)

Damian Lewis brought to life a number of real-life characters on big as well as small screen. And I admit it has been my dream to interview a real-life character Damian played but it was obviously impossible to talk to Steve McQueen or Henry VIII about the impression Damian made on them as an actor and as a person. Yet, my dreams have recently come true and I am thrilled to have Howard Davies who Damian plays in Dream Horse today on Fan Fun.

While we find out about his enthusiasm in horse racing in the movie, Howard is a man of many talents. And he was so kind to answer my questions about the film, the special premiere for the syndicate, the memoir he recently published about Dream Alliance as well as the inevitable questions about the guy who names this blog. ENJOY!

Continue reading “An Exclusive Fan Fun Interview with Howard Davies (aka “Damian Lewis in Dream Horse”)”

From Central Park to Lincoln Center: A ‘Billions’ Tour of the Upper West Side

Damianista’s note: Here is a piece I recently wrote for my favorite neighborhood blog I Love The Upper West Side. Hope you enjoy this Billions tour of the Upper West Side and return for more neighborhood tours of our favorite show.

I am an immigrant. I moved to the US for graduate study in late 1990s. My husband and I, having finished our PhDs, moved to New York in 2001, only weeks before September 11, for jobs. The city has since given me so much and defined me as an individual: a foodie, a film buff, a theatre lover, a feminist, a wine snob, a runner and much more. Even though we moved to the South five years later for new jobs, we could not give up on New York. We still have an apartment on the Upper West Side and enjoy the city as part-time New Yorkers.

Continue reading “From Central Park to Lincoln Center: A ‘Billions’ Tour of the Upper West Side”

Dream Horse Review: Courage,
Community, and Second Chances

“It’s a heart-warming movie. Bringing people together. Bringing community together.” – Damian Lewis

Well, my Covid-19 quarantine seems to have been book ended by two Damian Lewis movies. Run This Town was the last movie I saw at a movie theatre as Covid-19 arrived in the US last year. And, now, Dream Horse has become the first movie I saw at a movie theatre as we finally see the light at the end of the long Covid-19 tunnel.

Angelika Film Center, the movie theater I saw Dream Horse at sent an email earlier last week to let the viewers know that “the feel-good movie of the year” was opening on Friday. I sympathize with the statement that Dream Horse is a “feel good movie.” As we struggle to re-adjust to “normal” life these days, we need hope, strength, and inspiration; and Dream Horse definitely offers us all three and more. Yes, we are off to the races but the story is not about winning or losing. It is about a bunch of villagers solving a collective action problem when all the cards are stacked against them. Dream Horse is about courage, community and second chances. Continue reading “Dream Horse Review: Courage, Community, and Second Chances”

Dream Horse is Coming to a Theatre Near You on May 21 in the US and on June 4 in the UK

Dream’ took us to places you couldn’t even imagine. There we were going to Aintree for probably the greatest race on the planet. – Howard Davies

Howard Davies

The man you see in the picture above is Howard Davies. He is a tax adviser in Cefn Fforest, a small Welsh town where the community has gone through hard times since the mining industry collapsed in the area. Howard worked for the biggest tax firm on the planet for 15 years, got sick of it, resigned and did his own thing for a while but it did not work very well. He is a middle-aged man who wants to get a bit more out of life.

Okay but why are we suddenly interested in a tax adviser living in South Wales? Well, Howard Davies is the man Damian Lewis is bringing to life on screen in Dream Horse which is finally coming to a movie theater near you on May 21 in the US and Canada, on June 4 in the UK and Ireland and on June 10 in Australia.

Continue reading “Dream Horse is Coming to a Theatre Near You on May 21 in the US and on June 4 in the UK”

Damian Lewis on his wife Helen
McCrory: ‘I’ve never known anyone able to enjoy life as much’

The star, who has died of cancer at 52, was a brilliant actress and an even better person, writes her husband

Damian Lewis | April 18, 2021 | The Sunday Times

Helen McCrory at the British Academy Film Awards in 2013 DAVE M BENETT/GETTY IMAGES

As I sit down to write this, I can hear Helen shouting from the bed, “Keep it short, Damian, it’s not about you.”

I’ll try, but on a weekend when the papers, rightly, will be paying their respects to the Duke of Edinburgh, thousands of others around the world have been remembering m’Duchess, my Little One, royalty in her own right. And I’d like to throw in my tuppence worth…

When I say “royalty”, I am of course referring to the esteem in which Helen is held in our business. Her nickname to many was Dame Helen (apologies, Dame Helen), and although we’ll never know now whether that would have become a reality, I think secretly, we do know.